The rapid evolution of technology offers significant opportunities for the education sector, but also comes with challenges. Leveraging these advancements effectively is key to creating enriched learning experiences and achieving positive educational outcomes.
Hawkes Learning, founded in 1979, began as a mathematics learning software company. Over the years, the company has evolved into a leading edtech provider, committed to transforming the educational landscape. With a strong foundation in content, pedagogy, and technical innovation, Hawkes is well-positioned to drive change into the edtech market.
In 2023, Dr. James Hawkes, the visionary founder, passed the baton to seasoned edtech executive, Scott Virkler (CEO). This leadership transition, combined with recent financial investments, has positioned Hawkes for significant growth and innovation.
Hawkes’ mission remains steadfast: to empower instructors, boost student confidence, and support the mastery of knowledge. By leveraging the latest technologies and prioritizing quality education alongside exceptional customer support, Hawkes is poised to shape the future of learning.
Empowering Students
Hawkes Learning’s core mission is driving student success through service and innovation. The company utilizes its value statements to ensure that instructors using Hawkes find that Hawkes’ pedagogy-driven technology and solutions improve student learning outcomes. It is the responsibility of the Hawkes team to continue to deliver these solutions in a cost-effective manner.
Hawkes Learning’s Values:
- Collaborative: Hawkes Learning emphasizes teamwork, collaboration, and community, ensuring that the entire company works together to advance its mission.
- Service-Oriented: The company is committed to providing a superior service experience, from product development to interactions with both customers and colleagues.
- Adaptable: Hawkes Learning fosters an environment that is agile, flexible, and open-minded toward change, seizing new opportunities to expand its impact.
- Innovative: The company actively seeks and implements creative solutions to challenges, continually improving processes and products to drive the organization forward. Curiosity is encouraged. The introduction of their market leading AI Tutor is the most recent example of this.
Building Stronger Partnerships
Hawkes Learning prioritizes its users, both instructors and students, as the cornerstone of its success. The company believes that by genuinely serving the needs of its users, it can achieve long-term growth and market leadership.
To demonstrate this commitment, Hawkes Learning has consistently invested in customer success and support, even during challenging economic times. This strategic focus has resulted in a consistently high Net Promoter Score (NPS), significantly outperforming industry standards. Again in the fall of 2024, Hawkes Learning achieved a market leading NPS score over 50, a testament to its user-centric approach.
Technology with a Human Touch
Hawkes Learning blends cutting-edge technology with proven pedagogical principles to deliver a mastery-based learning experience. This approach empowers students to achieve mastery, gaining a deep understanding of the subject matter.
Hawkes’ innovative 3-Mode Learning Path provides students with distinct modes for learning and practice, fostering a stress-free environment conducive to learning and skill development. With a penalty-free practice area designed to challenge students appropriately while also minimizing test anxiety, learners can build confidence without fear of failure. The intelligent evaluation engine, designed by subject matter experts, can recognize alternative answers, diagnose common errors, and provide targeted feedback.
Unlike other edtech companies that prioritize technology over pedagogy, Hawkes understands the complexities of the classroom. The company’s courseware is thoughtfully designed to support instructors’ teaching styles, rather than dictating them. By focusing on the unique needs of both instructors and students, Hawkes offers a flexible and adaptable learning solution.
Tailored Learning for Success
Hawkes Learning sets itself apart from other educational platforms through a series of distinctive features designed to meet the diverse needs and learning styles of students. These features combine to create a comprehensive, adaptive learning experience that ensures students achieve mastery and retain knowledge effectively.
1. Mastery-Based Learning Approach
Hawkes Learning employs a three-pronged mastery approach—Learn, Practice, and Certify—to ensure that students achieve a deep understanding of the material. This structured framework is adaptable, providing multiple avenues for engagement and reinforcement to meet a variety of learning needs.
- Learn: Students engage with instructional content through eBooks and videos, enabling them to absorb information at their own pace.
- Practice: Unlimited practice opportunities, along with access to learning aids, allow students to apply their knowledge and receive immediate feedback.
- Certify: The Certify mode assesses students’ mastery of the content, removing learning aids and ensuring they achieve the required proficiency before moving on.
This approach accommodates different learning styles, ensuring that students can engage with the material in a way that works best for them, while supporting genuine learning and long-term retention.
2. AI Tutor for Personalized Support
Launched in October 2024, Hawkes Learning’s AI Tutor provides immediate, personalized support that enhances mastery and builds confidence. AI Tutor leverages context and content; it combines vetted content, expert human insight, and advanced technology to offer a tailored learning experience, meeting students exactly where they are in their educational journey.
Key features of the AI Tutor include:
- Conversational Language: Designed to motivate students, the AI Tutor uses clear, approachable language to deliver concise, digestible content.
- Unbiased Assistance: The AI Tutor adapts to each student’s specific needs, providing contextualized responses to tackle complex material in a way that is easier to understand.
- Ethical Standards: Privacy and security are fundamental to the AI Tutor, creating a safe and supportive environment for individualized learning.
These features expand the impact of instructors by offering continuous guidance and support, ensuring that students have the resources they need to succeed, regardless of their starting point. While it is too early to definitively say AI Tutor is driving better student learning outcomes, students using the tool are dedicating more time to the Practice area of the system—an activity that has consistently shown a strong correlation with higher grades on homework and final averages.
3. Targeted Instruction
Hawkes Learning integrates adaptive learning tools that allow for personalized content mastery. These features ensure that each student receives the support necessary to progress and achieve their educational goals.
- Explain Error: Provides immediate feedback on incorrect answers, helping students understand and correct mistakes before they become ingrained.
- Step-By-Step Guidance: The platform offers detailed walkthroughs, breaking down problems into manageable steps to aid understanding.
- Data-Driven Study Plans: Students can design practice tests that focus on areas of improvement, with targeted feedback that enhances the efficiency of their study sessions.
These adaptive features are tailored to students’ individual learning paces, giving them the skills and confidence to hold themselves accountable for their own success. By providing these tools, Hawkes Learning empowers students to take ownership of their learning journey and reach their full potential.
Collaborative Approach Toward Education
Hawkes Learning prioritizes user feedback to enhance its products and services. By actively seeking input from both students and educators, the company can identify and address specific pain points, such as difficulty understanding concepts, engagement barriers, and accessibility issues. This feedback-driven approach ensures that Hawkes Learning’s tools are aligned with the evolving needs of the education community.
“I’m amazed how many times we go to a new campus and hear from instructors ‘we had no idea something like this (Learn, Practice, Certify) existed in the market.’ When we show them how it works and helps the students when they are struggling, their jaws literally open up in amazement.” –Scott Virkler, CEO
To gather valuable insights, Hawkes Learning employs a multifaceted approach, including targeted surveys, focus groups, and user analytics. Additionally, the company collaborates with Faculty Consultants and Student Ambassadors to gain a deeper understanding of classroom challenges and technological barriers. This real-time feedback loop enables Hawkes Learning to continually refine its offerings and deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of the education landscape.
Leveraging Community to Drive Success
Hawkes Learning has faced the challenge of gaining market visibility, particularly when competing with larger companies with extensive sales teams. To overcome this, the company has relied on creative marketing strategies and strong customer relationships.
One key advantage of being a smaller, family-style company is the ability to cultivate genuine relationships with educators. Positive word-of-mouth recommendations from satisfied customers have been instrumental in building brand awareness and attracting new clients.
To further enhance its market position, Hawkes Learning has focused on addressing a critical need in higher education: fostering a sense of community among instructors. The company’s Innovative Educators Summit is the largest gathering in the marketplace for instructors to share best practices and ideas, discuss challenges, and network with peers. More than just a leader in the edtech industry, Hawkes Learning is a committed partner in education, dedicated to supporting instructors in their careers and empowering them with opportunities for growth and collaboration.
Founded by passionate educators, the company’s course materials and solutions are designed to support effective teaching and learning. By combining technology with pedagogical expertise, Hawkes Learning offers innovative solutions that address the specific needs of higher education institutions.
“I wish I would have had Hawkes in high school – it would have made learning math so much better and easier for me!”- Student, Navarro College
Adapting to the Evolving Educational Landscape
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift toward digital learning, creating a surge in demand for personalized and equitable educational solutions. Hawkes Learning was well-positioned to meet this growing need, offering seamless transitions to digital learning without disrupting existing operations.
By prioritizing personalized support and consistent learning experiences, Hawkes Learning aimed to provide high-quality education opportunities for all students, regardless of their location or circumstances.
Offering Personalized Support
Hawkes Learning has a long history of leveraging technology to provide immediate, targeted feedback to students. Building upon this foundation, the company has developed a proprietary AI Tutor that offers personalized support without disrupting the natural learning flow. This innovative tool distinguishes Hawkes Learning from competitors who may offer standalone AI solutions or lack a strong pedagogical foundation. As the edtech landscape continues to evolve, Hawkes Learning remains committed to staying ahead of the curve. By continuously refining its solutions and prioritizing user experience, the company aims to deliver effective and engaging learning experiences.
Transparency as a Catalyst for Growth
Hawkes Learning fosters a collaborative and transparent work environment. By sharing financial information and investment strategies with employees, the company aims to create a sense of ownership and empower individuals to contribute meaningfully to the organization’s growth.
The company prioritizes a positive and team-oriented culture, focusing on hiring individuals who are collaborative and supportive. This approach helps attract and retain top talent, as it provides an environment conducive to both professional growth and personal fulfillment.
By emphasizing transparency, collaboration, and a positive work culture, Hawkes Learning creates a thriving workplace where employees can excel and contribute to the company’s continued success.
Giving Back and Building Community
Hawkes Learning prioritizes employee development and invests in ongoing learning opportunities. By empowering employees to grow professionally, the company fosters a culture of innovation and creativity. This, in turn, leads to the development of innovative and impactful solutions for users.
Partnering with Faculty
Hawkes Learning fosters a collaborative approach to product development by engaging with a select group of experienced educators known as Hawkes Faculty Consultants (HFCs). These HFCs provide valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities faced by instructors, helping to shape and refine Hawkes Learning’s courseware. By facilitating peer-to-peer interaction and knowledge sharing, Hawkes Learning empowers educators to optimize their teaching practices and achieve better student outcomes.
Hawkes Learning is renowned for its exceptional customer service and high retention rates. By providing outstanding support and building strong relationships with users, the company has earned a reputation for excellence in the edtech industry. The company’s commitment to delivering value and addressing user needs has contributed to the success of both students and educators.
Building Brighter Futures
Hawkes Learning is excited about the future and the opportunity to empower even more instructors and students. With a clear focus on improving learning outcomes, the company remains committed to delivering innovative tools that drive student success. By equipping learners with the resources they need to excel, Hawkes Learning is not only shaping academic achievement – it’s transforming lives and building brighter futures.
The Hawkes team is focused on exposing more instructors and students to the wonderful learning platform they have built.
