What parents and learners ask AI assistants before choosing an education product

The questions are practical and slightly sceptical: does this actually work, what is the total cost, who is teaching, who recognises the certificate, and can I get out of it. Almost nobody asks which platform has the best interface, which is what most edtech marketing is about.

The companion page on how an edtech company gets recommended by AI covers what to change. This page is the question list.

The questions, in the words buyers use

Will it work for this learner

• "Online tuition for class nine CBSE maths, is it better than a local tutor"
• "Is this course enough to get a job, or do I need a degree"
• "Is the teaching in Hindi or English"
• "How many hours a week does this course need"
• "Recorded or live classes, which works better for a school student"

Is it recognised

• "Is this online degree valid for a government job"
• "Is the university approved by UGC for online programmes"
• "Will employers accept this certificate"
• "Is this certification the same as the official one from the awarding body"

Money

• "Total cost of this course including exam fees"
• "Is no cost EMI on a course actually a loan"
• "What is the refund policy if I stop after two months"
• "Is there a cheaper or free way to learn this"

Trust and exit

• "What do students who dropped out say about this platform"
• "Do I get the same teacher who appears in the advertisement"
• "Can I pause the course and resume next year"
• "How do I cancel and who do I contact"

What a good answer looks like

For the fit questions, a good answer is written for one learner type. A page for a class nine student following one board, in one language, is usable. A page covering all classes and all boards answers none of them well enough to be summarised, because a summary needs a passage about one thing.

For recognition, a good answer names the body, the type of recognition and the programme it applies to, and links to the list where the reader can see it. If there is no external recognition, the good answer says so and then explains what the course is actually for. Buyers accept an unrecognised course honestly described. They do not forgive an implied recognition.

For money, a good answer gives the total, not the monthly figure. Say what the instalment plan adds up to, name the lender if there is one, and state what happens to the instalments if the learner stops. Publish the refund cut offs as dates or weeks rather than as a policy paragraph.

For exit, a good answer names the process and the person: where the request goes, how long it takes, what is deducted, and how the learner knows it is done. This is the question that generates the complaints your category is known for.

Where you are probably missing

• No total cost anywhere, only a monthly figure and a call button.
• Recognition implied through a logo rather than stated with a scope and a year.
• The refund policy inside the terms and conditions, written for a lawyer instead of a parent.
• No syllabus, so a buyer cannot judge whether the course matches what they need.
• One page for every class, board and language, which matches no question anyone types.
• Nothing about the lender behind the instalment plan, although it is the most discussed thing in your category.
• No page for the free alternative, so the most sceptical question is answered by somebody else.

A worked example: the honest comparison against the free option

This is the page most companies will not write, and it is the one most likely to be cited.

Take one subject you teach. List what a determined learner can genuinely get for free: the official syllabus document, past papers from the examining body, the standard textbook, the good open video series on the topic, and any free practice bank. Name them. Then state plainly what the free route does not give: a fixed schedule, somebody who notices when the learner stops, doubt resolution within hours rather than never, structured assessment with a difficulty curve, and a record of progress a parent can see.

Then say who should take each route. A self driven adult with time probably should use the free route for the basics and pay only for assessment. A school student who has already stopped twice needs the schedule and the accountability more than the content. Write that sentence even though it sends some readers away.

The page works for three reasons. It is the answer to a question being asked constantly. It is true, so it holds up when a reader checks it. And it puts you in the position of the person explaining the category rather than one of the options inside it, which is the position an assistant quotes from.

What these questions do not include

They do not include your application's features, your streak mechanics or your interface. A buyer cannot judge those from an answer and does not ask.

They also do not include your funding, your investors or your user count. A user count without a date and a definition is a number an assistant will not repeat, and a large one invites the question of how many of those users are active.

And they do not include claims about learning gains unless you can state the method, the group and the period. This is the single most tempting invention in edtech and the single most damaging one, because a parent who checks it once stops believing the rest of your page.

What to publish first

• One page per learner type you genuinely serve: class and board, or job role and starting level.
• The real syllabus for each programme, dated.
• The total cost page, including instalments, extras and the refund cut offs.
• The recognition page, stating exactly what the certificate is and is not.
• The honest comparison against the free route.
• One page on how to cancel, pause or transfer, written for a parent to follow.

Then work down the question list. Every question you cannot answer in one sentence on your own site is a page worth writing this month.

Common questions

Which question should we answer first?

The total cost question. It is asked more than any other, it is answered almost nowhere, and your silence on it sends the buyer to a forum thread where somebody else's bad experience becomes your price page.

Will publishing the refund policy plainly increase refund requests?

It changes when they happen. Requests move earlier, from the angry stage to the reasonable stage, and they cost you less in support time and in public complaints. Buyers who read a clear exit route are also more willing to start.

We serve several boards and classes. How many pages is that?

One per combination you actually teach well, starting with the two that earn the most. Do not generate every combination as a shell page. Assistants and readers both treat a set of near identical thin pages as a signal of low quality, which damages the good pages on the same site.

Should we write for the parent or the student?

For school products, the parent decides and the student uses, so write both and keep them separate. The parent's page is about cost, schedule, safety and progress visibility. The student's page is about what a class is like, how doubts get answered and how much homework there is.

How do we find our own list?

Take the questions your counselling team hears in the first five minutes of a call, in the words parents use, including the blunt ones about price and results. Add the questions in your refund requests, which are the most honest source you own. Then ask those questions of two assistants without naming your company and see who is named and which sources are cited.

What to do first

Publish the total cost page for your best selling programme this week, with the refund cut offs in plain words. Then the syllabus. Those two pages do more for this category than a quarter of blog posts.