ETEC 522 – Sept. 2011

ccheung 12:23 am on November 28, 2011

2 votes

Log in to leave a Comment  

• 

  Julie S 10:54 am on November 28, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

  Hi Carmen,

  I viewed your elevator pitch but I don’t see any reference to your venture pitch. There’s an email address at the end of your pitch. Do I need to email you for access to the full venture pitch?

• 

  Kristopher 11:36 am on November 28, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

  Hi Carmen,

  Great energy in your pitch! I quite enjoyed the music and the humour (especially “Cool. I passed.”). I found that it took quite a while to get to what the venture is, and that once the explanation started it was almost complete. Perhaps you could spend a little more time describing the solution?

  Cheers,

  Kristopher

  • 

    carmen 11:08 am on December 2, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

    Thanks for you comments, Kristopher. I was focusing more on the problem partly because I wanted to get people’s attention on a problem that I think would get me really excited if there is a solution for it. On hind sight, you are right on that I probably should explain my solution more clearly in the pitch!

• 

  Everton Walker 7:58 pm on November 28, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

  Carmen,

  I must commend you for your effort. The energy is really palpable and I love the funny side. I actually wanted some more out of the explanation too as I am always interested in LMS. I definitely think one day I will invest in an LMS as there is no doubt that this is where the future of teaching and learning is headed. I hope you will make such an investment in the future too.

  Everton

  • 

    carmen 11:08 am on December 2, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

    Thanks for your comments, Everton. With the development of social networking, cloud computing and analytic tools, I think the functionalities of LMS will be developing quickly in the near future. Fueled by the enthusiasm in DIY and the unstable economy, lots of people want to do something “on the side”, and teaching what one is interested in online seems to a good option. I definitely an increasing need for online LMS as it offers flexibility. 🙂

• 

  Doug Smith 7:07 pm on November 29, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

  Carmen,

  I think your pitch is catchy and the topic is intriguing. As well, you bring out enthusiasm and make me interested in finding out more about the venture. I would have liked to hear more about the market that you are entering – it felt like the pitch was more geared to a buyer than an investor. I think this is a really hard balance to achieve though, especially in one minute.

  cheers
  Doug

  • 

    carmen 11:09 am on December 2, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

    Thanks for your comments, Doug. This activity really made me realize one minute is very little time! I thought of the venture idea and kept exploring on how good it could be and the possibilities of creating such a tool… afterwards I read the assignment criteria and quickly realized that I have to pitch it to an investor. If I get the time to redo this venture pitch, I would definitely expand on that.

• 

  Angela Novoa 9:37 am on November 30, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

  Hi Carmen, I loved your elevator pitch. The combination of text and music allows possible consumers to focus on the problem and the solution that this product offer. In your elevator pitch you provided detailed information about the market gap, the solution, the reason why someone would purchase the product, and the competency of the venture’s leaders. As Doug mentioned, it seemed that the pitch was more directed to a buyer than an investor. I would suggest you to provide more information about how much money is required to run the venture, and how much and how soon will an investor gain returns.

  Cheers,

  Angela.

  • 

    carmen 11:09 am on December 2, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

    Thanks for your comments, Angela. This is a great question and I have to admit that I need to do more research on the amount of money and time needed to invest on the product before it can become reality. To lower the cost, I might explore the option of creating “third party” solutions for an open source LMS like Moodle.

• 

  Julie S 10:47 am on November 30, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

  Hi Carmen,

  I agree with the others here that your elevator was really engaging and I thought it was really important that you focussed on the number 58% because it illustrated the problem simply and effectively than if you would have used say 78%. What I was looking for more clarity on in the venture pitch was what your product differentiator was. I think I understood it to be that you were going to develop a semantic anlaysis tool and combine it to get the comprehensive view of the student but I wasn’t really sure. The concept seems to make a lot of sense though.

  • 

    carmen 11:13 am on December 2, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

    Yes, Julie. The goal of my venture is use analytic tools as a solution to analyze students’ performance in different areas over time. Looking at the numbers at a report card tells us very little about the students. People working with the student would have an idea of his/her progress. However, in a school, it’s not possible to know student(unless in a private elementary/high school); 58% (or 78%) could mean improvement for a failing student, but could be disappointing for others.
    This venture is providing a solution to help administrators and teachers learn about each student’s progress in more details, as it provides a record of how the student has been progressing (in the positive or negative direction) in the past. More importantly, these records are for students to reflect on their overall performance in different aspects, and set personal goals.
    I thought having such a tool could provide more data for reflection, versus relying on memory and how stakeholders “felt” the student performed.

    Thanks for your comments!

• 

  David William Price 10:56 am on November 30, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

  Elevator pitch assessment

  Carmen – PROspectiveLMS

  First Impression: no face, no voice, music over slides, way too fast to read, focuses on a very low percentage number but that number has nothing to do with the product or service, market, etc. too much text in a tiny strip at the bottom, hard to follow along quickly, don’t hit proposed solution until 55s out of 60 and goes over time limit

  CEO Credibility: The CEO does not appear at all – no voice, no image or appearance. I have nothing to judge CEO credibility on. I might take a negative inference based on the fact the CEO is unwilling to appear and be heard.

  Management Team: No team is mentioned, so I have no way to judge. I might take a negative inference based on the fact the CEO is unwilling to talk about the team.

  Venture Concept: Apparently something to do with adding analytics to an LMS good idea about analytics but doesn’t really explain who uses it (are teachers and students supposed to change behavior based on the graphs? How do they know what to do). No discussion of how social analytics work or track record.

  Opportunity Space: No discussion of the intended market or pricing or revenue.

  Market Readiness: No discussion of what systems may currently be used by intended market or what the switching or implementing costs would be of this system.

  Competitive Edge: No indication of how analytics make this solution different. Khan Academy has a video about integrating an analytics backend with graphing based on a question by question basis. Their video shows how it works and it may be offered for free, so this idea is out there.

  Exit Strategy: No indication of their target market, its size, or how they will capture it.

  Overall Investment Status: I don’t see the CEO or the team, I don’t know who the targeted market is. I don’t know the intended pricing. I don’t know how this will be marketed. I consider this high risk and would not pursue.

  • 

    carmen 11:14 am on December 2, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

    Thanks for your comments, David. You have laid out very clearly what is missing in my pitch, and made me reflect on my approach to this project. I was too absorbed in finding a solution to the problem that I want to solve and the possibilities of making it happen, rather than on selling the venture idea to potential investors. A lot of time was spent on convincing myself that this will actually work.

    If I have the time to redo this pitch, I will elaborate on what it can do for teacher and administrators and how they can use the tool. I will definitely review these comments and our class notes to make it a better pitch.

• 

  Jay 2:02 pm on November 30, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

  Hi Carmen,

  As Julie pointed out I found that you focusing on the number 58 throughout pitch was an effective method of emphasizing your point. I think the pitch could have been stronger had you moved into your idea for fixing the problem a little bit quicker. More focus on your solution rather than the problem.

  The problem-solution was clearly identified in the venture pitch. While it may not have been evident in the elevator pitch, after reading your venture pitch I was able to understand that PROspective would be a tool used in helping educators and students understand areas that could be improved upon. The three cases also provided examples of the tool in use.

  Before I would consider investing in this venture I would like to know a bit more about the market and the competitors. In particular I would need to know what sets you apart from the competitors. Do you offer something they do not?

  One more concern I would have is how much time is required for teachers to submit data to be analyzed. I wasn’t clear in this (but perhaps I missed something). Evaluations are time consuming for teachers and the pitch argues that this will allow teachers to plan more effectively. I would want to know how data is input since this could become very time consuming for teachers to ensure continuous feedback.

  Upon satisfying responses to the inquiries above I would likely consider investment into this venture.

  Thanks for the interesting project.

  • 

    carmen 11:18 am on December 2, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

    Thanks for your feedback, Jay. This venture aims to analyze students’ academic, collaboration, critical thinking skill and work habit, using three analyic tools. It’s competitors only offers a single tool (ex. SNAPP provides information on student interactions, Signals identifies at risk students mainly by their grades). Combining these tools can provide a more complete picture of how each student is doing.

    How much time is needed for the tool to provide data is a great question. So far as I have not experience SNAPP myself, I am assuming that something similar will be able to provide data at the end of every day/ week when the system take in the data collected and do a calculation? The ability of this type of program to provide timely data can greatly affect it’s potential use… I’ll need to look into this in more detail.

    Thanks for the great questions. 🙂

• 

  ashleyross 2:40 pm on December 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

  Hi Carmen,

  I too really enjoyed the combination of humour and percentages in your EP which led me to explore your VP. I think it’s important to provide students with more feedback throughout the year so that they have a better chance of knowing what and how to improve. I also think it’s a great idea to break up the student’s performance on soft skills and agree that it’s a great way for students to see their strengths and weaknesses. PROspective also seems to provide students with opportunities to set attainable goals for themselves and see immediate feedback, which I think would motivate them to improve in all areas.

  Overall, I think you’ve done a great job. You seem to have a very strong team for the development of this product. The only constructive criticism I have for you, is that I would have liked to have read a little more about the marketing side of PROspective, in particular the market readiness. For instance, is it something that you are in the process of developing and how long do you think it will take for you to have it ready for users?

  Again, great job!

  • 

    carmen 11:18 am on December 2, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

    Hi Ashley,

    Thanks a lot for your comments. You are right on about the what PROspective has to offer, and have asked some very good questions.

    Right now similar technologies (like SNAPP and Signal presented during the week of learning analytics presentation) is already in use, so it’s not impossible to develop such an LMS and to combine what they allow us to do. I truly believe that learning analytics will be more widely used in the future.