Bryan Thompson

Hi Brenda, I think you touch on a key point that really needs to be addressed in many school boards. You have a good elevator pitch and really hit addressing the problem. I would definitely suggest such training be created and the cost of the training are great if it prevents one major error. So from cost-benefit, it's worth it. What I'd like to know is what the video would look like and how it intends to change behavior. (Simulation, lecture, ppt slides, etc.) I also think your production costs are quite low. For a 10 minute, high-quality video it usually takes +7-10 hours to write, record and finish. So adding a little more into those costs will likely help. So I would invest... but I'd want a little more detail of the strategy. Overall though it's very thought out and clear in terms of the problem and the return.

This is definitely a big problem in online education. My company has used adobe connect and range of services and open-source products and none can really do this. I like the visual elements in the pitch but I'm still a little confused about it. There's also a few challenges I could foresee. (Unless I misunderstood.) 1. Bandwidth - We generally see bandwidth issues as a problem especially if you're working with foreign markets. (Most Ontario online schools are going after India and China.) So how would this work given the quality of the picture the teacher would need to see to make an assessment and the number of students in a class. 2. Privacy - With a service like this it might cause privacy issues for people involved. How much access would the teacher have? 3. Alternative options - Google Docs + Web conferencing services (This is what I do with Canadian students to promote collaboration, monitor work and provide personal comments.) 4. Competitors and Change- What does the market look like for web conferencing solutions? Many of them like Adobe, Blackboard, D2L and even Microsoft offer bundles of tools that integrate with each other. If a board picks up one of these systems, it's hard to get them to change over. (At our company I'm struggling to switch people between tools right now.) I think you have the right problem but maybe not the right solution given the current challenges. (Just a thought: Google doesn't work in China... google docs doesn't and the collaborative real-time tools are limited in the Chinese Market. So there might be something there that's similar.) So I'm not sure I can invest at this point.

I like it. As an online ESL course designer who works with students in China, I could see how this could greatly help. I would buy this for my own program. I think it would be good to supplement face-to-face instruction. I wouldn't just target international schools but rather the private language schools in China which is bigger market and would use it for a longer time with each student. I'll invest.

I think that this is an interesting idea. It certainly isn't being done and I could see how a search might become easier in certain cases. However, I'm unsure of the market for assessing Youtube Materials for these qualities. On surface it's good but when I'm looking for material for my courses I'm looking for 'fit,' as in how does it fit within my course, in addition to these qualities. To get the fit right, I need a large array of material and I can't see your product being about to assess the quantity of videos that I would need to find the one that fits. Moreover, as a teacher I generally like to make those judgments for myself about depth and accuracy. So I'm not sure really how it fits with the practice of teachers. So I wouldn't invest.

Love the powerpoints. Their really helpful. As a history teacher myself, I can certainly appreciate them. However, I find I want to create a narrative of history in my class that focuses on specific larger ideas and how they keep coming back in history. (Mostly anthropological observation like in-group / out-group behavior, reciprocal altruism and kinship loyalities and institutions that seek to co-opt or suppress those behaviors.) So, I don't think it would work for the larger narratives I would want to use and I think many other teachers feel the same way. Using someone else's lessons sometimes feels like wearing someone else's shoes. So I worry it doesn't have the kind of market that you really want to make it great unfortunately. So, I wouldn't invest. Otherwise, the product looks great and I wish I were a student in your class when I was in high school.

Great name and very interesting market to cater to. Clearly graduate students are not getting things made for them and are an underserved market. That said, it's a small market with very high turn-over. (A small stable market would be okay.) Moreover, planning to work with universities as institutions can be a slow process of negotiation and accommodation. It's quite costly to work with universities and get partnerships. (Top Hat tossed $15,000 contracts with universities because it cost them too much to make and totally reinvented their model.) The other side of this is joining a community of reviewers who, don't have obligations before evaluating two papers. There may be an issue of the free-rider problem where people take on a short term basis from the community. So I have too many concerns and would not invest.

SAI seems like a solid idea in principle. Personalization really helps push learning forward. However, I don't think I would invest because of the time commitment it would really take to setup and the unforseen costs in development. I think some adventurous teachers would go for it, but I don't think most would. In addition, most classroom teachers aren't employing articulate and captivate. It's more instructional designers. For this product you would also have to host it in an LMS, which means building the LMS. (D2L is actually doing this: https://www.d2l.com/resources/videos/personalize-learning-experience-release-conditions-intelligent-agents/). Building and running LMS services is a much bigger task and might not be your intention. So I fear it would quickly become far more expensive to achieve the goal.

I think this is quite an interesting app. I could see this work for education but I feel there's a disconnect between the marketing and why people are using it. Personally, I think I enjoy the physical gift shop when I'm on vacation. If I could buy it online, it lacks story and I think that's the purpose of souvenirs. It's something you bought there to symbolize the story. Getting it in the mail later kind of takes away from it. As an augmented reality app for educational purposes, I love it. It something that the world needs more of. But making money from it at to the rate your suggesting per active user might be steep. So I wouldn't invest.

This is a great idea and I think you have the knowledge about the subject. It's clear that you are solving a clear problem and are serving a real market that needs service. I like the testimonials, it sounds great. I think the investment isn't too expensive either. The one concern that I have is the long term viability of the business and profits going forward. Because you are focusing on a small population market, you'll eventually have to focus on intensification of sales to customers who find your app. At 250,000 per year minus overhead and pay for development, I'm not sure you'll be able to make a profit that will return on the investment at a rate high enough. I would invest, but I would want this to get ironed out a little more and possibly see about how to change the model up a little.

This is an interesting proposal but I would not invest. One major issue is that educational games do not sell. There have been very few educational games that have made profit and those that do are usually very low budget. None have been RPGs. The problem with this is that RPG gaming is cumulative. If I'm playing a game, I get an object to generally help me (in terms of stats) do better in the game. But with educational question based games, you really can't do that. So getting kids engaged will be very tough. The competition is also quite tricky. There's lots of LMS companies trying their hand at it. D2L / Brightspace in particular has something that they are working with (https://www.d2l.com/services/game-based-learning/). In terms of the development, finances and marketing with the staff projections, it seems problematic. Development of games is a lot more expensive and you'll need a much bigger development staff. I'm also unsure about the timeline to get to market as a result. That all said, I like how you laid out the magazine. It looks great and is quite interesting. It definitely gets my attention and hooks me in as a reader. You're also quite detailed in your explanation and have a very clearly laid out plan. You've done your homework. That I really respect but it just doesn't connect for me.