> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://experience-digital-transform.gitbook.io/experience-digital-transformation/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://experience-digital-transform.gitbook.io/experience-digital-transformation/regulations/component-5/edtech-platform-governance.md).

# EdTech Platform Governance

Commercial EdTech and government-operated learning platforms as two faces of one regulatory area, the minimum procurement clause set, and the DIKSHA India case study.

EdTech platforms and digital learning platforms are analytically distinct but closely related regulatory subjects. **EdTech platforms** are typically commercial services that deliver digital learning content and tools to schools or directly to learners — apps, adaptive learning systems, online tutoring services, assessment tools. **Digital learning platform governance** addresses the broader question of how government-operated or government-mandated digital learning infrastructure is governed — national e-learning portals, learning management systems, distance education platforms. Both require regulatory attention, but the regulatory instruments differ.

The risks this area addresses are vendor lock-in, opaque data practices at scale, and the gradual displacement of pedagogical judgement by commercial design choices. In procurement terms, the minimum clause set follows directly from those risks: data protection and restrictions on secondary use, accessibility, interoperability, cybersecurity, service continuity, and exit rights with data portability — the conditions that keep a school able to leave a platform it has come to depend on.

## Commercial EdTech Platforms

For commercial EdTech platforms, the primary regulatory instruments are [student data protection](/experience-digital-transformation/regulations/component-5/student-data-protection.md), [platform regulation — Category 4 in Component 1](/experience-digital-transformation/regulations/component-1-the-landscape-of-digital-transformation-regulations/track-a-cross-cutting-guardrails.md#digital-platforms-and-services-regulation), and procurement regulation. Platform regulation determines whether EdTech providers that operate at scale have obligations beyond those of ordinary software vendors — for example, transparency requirements about algorithmic recommendation systems, obligations to provide data in portable formats that enable switching, or restrictions on lock-in practices that disadvantage schools. [Procurement regulation](/experience-digital-transformation/regulations/component-3-comparative-analysis-of-regulations/digital-procurement-regulations.md) determines the conditions under which public schools can use EdTech services, including minimum data protection standards, requirements for curriculum alignment, and conditions for interoperability with national education systems.

## Government-Operated Digital Learning Platforms

For government-operated digital learning platforms, the governance questions are more institutional than regulatory: which body operates the platform, under what mandate, with what oversight, and with what obligations to users. The regulatory framework for government digital platforms is primarily the [digital government enabling legislation — Category 6](/experience-digital-transformation/regulations/component-1-the-landscape-of-digital-transformation-regulations/track-b-digital-government-enabling.md#digital-government-enabling-legislation) and the data protection framework, supplemented by specific provisions in the Education Act governing the platform's mandate and the conditions under which learner data can be used for platform improvement.

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**EXAMPLES IN PRACTICE — Platform governance instruments**

The Netherlands' collective data protection impact assessments on major productivity and education platforms — negotiated centrally on behalf of schools and universities — show how pooled procurement leverage can extract contractual data-use commitments that no single school could obtain. France's restriction of free cloud office suites in schools illustrates the sovereignty-driven variant of the same instrument. Both are procurement and DPIA practice rather than new legislation — a reminder that platform governance can begin with instruments already in hand.
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="info" %}
**CASE STUDY — DIKSHA, India, 2017–present** *Governing a government-operated platform at continental scale*

DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing), launched in 2017, is India's national platform for school education content, operated under the ministry's National Council of Educational Research and Training and adopted by states and union territories across the country. It is built on open-source components, carries content in dozens of Indian languages, and reached extraordinary scale during the pandemic, with learning sessions counted in the billions.

As a governance case, DIKSHA illustrates the questions this page raises for government-operated platforms. Its "platform of platforms" architecture lets states run their own instances and contribute content under a common framework — a federal answer to the central–local question that domain legislation poses everywhere. Energised textbooks, with QR codes linking print to digital content, made the platform useful at minimal connectivity — the [Layer asymmetry](/experience-digital-transformation/regulations/component-5/infrastructure-dependencies-in-digital-education.md) of the six-layer model applied in practice. And its open licensing and open-source foundations are a working example of the [Charter's Open principle](/experience-digital-transformation/regulations/component-5/the-charter-for-public-digital-learning-platforms-and-country-scenarios.md) operationalised through platform design rather than aspiration.
{% endhint %}

Platform governance addresses risks that arise at scale, once a system is in operation. [AI in Education Governance](/experience-digital-transformation/regulations/component-5/ai-in-education-governance.md) turns to a distinct and increasingly urgent set of risks — those created when systems, rather than merely delivering content, begin to make or influence decisions about individual learners.


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