unclereg
Hello, Great comments so far, lots of suggestions that I agreed with. Not much to add, just that it was difficult to find certain submissions. Though I liked the hyperlinked searchable words at the right-hand margin of the screen for quick reference. As for the assignment descriptions, I would suggest putting at least one sentence […]
Continue reading Suggestions for future… Posted in: Uncategorized Hey all, Lets try this again. I accidentally posted the original to the ‘uncategorized’ section. I also just added a googledoc feature for my paper instead of embedding the whole thing in this message. Anyways, the youtube link to my elevator pitch is as follows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXBKx-t77n4 And the googledoc link to my written […]
Continue reading Hey all, Lets try this again. I a… Posted in: Venture Forum
Hi. I tried to watch your video but it was listed as private 🙁
Hi Regen,
I enjoyed your video and thought you communicated the benefits of the venture very clearly.
This is an interesting concept, but I have some reservations about how successful it might be. As you identified, there is no doubt that more tutors would be required in your venture as tutoring will now be individual. Before making an investment, I would like more specific information on the current amount charged per student, and how you envision this would change when the new model is implemented. I presume the cost would have to increase. I also wonder how receptive the tutors would be to taking on additional responsibilities such as scheduling, and how they would react to being idle for periods of time without being paid. I think you might lose many of your current tutors.
In terms of marketing, you did a good job of identifying how you would spread the word within your current client base, but I would have liked some information as to how you plan to advertise to attract new clients.
Deborah
Hey Jody and company,
I just changed the video to be public. Sorry about this.
It’s viewable now. Thanks for your patience.
-Regen
Regen,
Thanks for sharing your pitches. Your Elevator Pitch was clear and concise. I liked your concept. Obviously it makes a lot of sense in terms of the benefits to the kids. I have my doubts about the viability though. I imagine Sylvan would have crunched the numbers. If they are going from groups of 3/tutor down to 1:1 they are going to loose significant revenue. I know that your argument suggested that would be short-term, but I wonder also about how many good tutors might find themselves out of work because they are too challenging, or don’t fit the image that the student was looking for. As a teacher, I know it is easy to become well liked, but that doesn’t make you a good educator. In a perfect world, where money is no object it would be great to see one on one, were the tutors are well liked and respected, but I am too skeptical.
I’m going to reserve my investment at this point to see the numbers on perhaps another tutoring service that does one to one.
David
Hi Regen,
I think you have some excellent ideas on how to better serve the needs of students requiring additional support outside of the classroom. This is a great market to tap into because there are always going to be students who need this kind of support.
Before I would invest in a such a venture, I would like a few more details about the platform being used and how Sylvan differentiates itself from the competition. I think it is also important for investors to know more about who in behind the success of a company. Confidence in a company’s management credentials and experience will improve chances of investment. I would also require a little more information on the return on investment. It might be an idea to offer the choice of tutors for premium account users in order to determine the viability of such a fundamental change in how Sylvan offers its services. This may also help prevent losses upfront.
Overall, this is a great pitch and a very worthwhile venture. But I would require more information before making an investment.
Danielle
Hi Regen,
I enjoyed your pitch – thought is was very smooth, concise, and your concept is certainly one which many students (and parents) would be very drawn to.
There would be a number of areas which I, as an investor, would require more information. I would like to know a little more about the foundation/management of the company, as well as what the pricing structure would be should this be implemented. Would this be more of a premium service, for which student/parents would pay? or would there still be a 3:1 students to tutor package available?
Overall, I think your idea is great, as there will always be students who require extra support, and the idea of 1:1 certainly falls within the whole concept of differentiated instruction.
Well done!
Smiles, Kim
Regen;
As one who knows very little about the tutoring world I think you have a good idea here. My main concern, however, is the cost and if it will make the company more money. I am sure it would benefit students but will it make money? I don’t know the Sylvan Learning system but I assume these small groups are ideal in that students can learn from each other and a tutor is not just watching one student complete their assignments. For some reason in my mind a one-on-one situation would usually be best, especially if is with a tutor you get along with and can learn from.
I am interested to hear what management from Sylvan Learning would say about the venture and if they are open to it being an option for their students.
Dennis
Hey all,
Thanks for the responses thus far.
David – It is true that a well-liked teacher does not make that teacher good. Well said. I wasn’t thinking at the time about this, and now agree that this notion could become problematic.
Danielle – For the future I was thinking that if Sylvan could recruits teachers from local schools to become tutors then that aspect could differentiate themselves from other tutoring services. But looked at in general, there is really nothing differentiating it from other services besides the change to make the tutoring more personal by allowing students more choice as to how their experience will unfold.
Kim – You bring up some good questions for thought. Yes, there would still be 1:3 tutoring available, 1:1 just gives students more options on the way to making their learning experience more enjoyable/educational.
Dennis – Yes Sylvan would probably initially be hesitant with this idea, though it could stand to help them differentiate themselves from the competition and create a more lucrative business plan for the future. Differentiating, and personalizing the experience is the only justification for eventually charging more for tutoring rates and therefore making more money over time.
Thanks again all for the responses.
-Regen
Hello Regan:
You present a venture as an addition to an existing company and this makes it difficult to define the various aspects of the venture as they are mainly tied to this existing company. This also makes it difficult to convince new investors to believe you need funding for your proposal. You do a great job explaining and justifying the value and usefulness of this venture. You speak clearly and provide personal presence in your elevator pitch. I would like to know a little more about the number of clients you expect to add to Sylvan through this proposal as well as some revenue projections of existing and predicted new business.
Tim
Hi Regen,
Thank you for sharing your pitches and after reviewing your elevator pitch I have the follow comments.
I do not know much about Sylvan Tutoring but I assume that it is a face-to-face tutoring system since that is what the pictures indicate. You make a solid case for enabling students to hand select their tutors but it is not clear from the elevator pitch as to why this would require extra monetary investment. I wonder why they do not have a 1:1 system at the present and could it be that they want to promote small group learning? I think that it would be interesting for Sylvan to offer an on online tutoring service, which can work with the busy and varied schedules of youths today.
Technically speaking there are a couple of items in the presentation which I find distracting. First, the Ken Burns effect of zooming and panning often cut off parts of the pictures, Secondly, while wearing the shirt/tie was a great professional looking idea, I would have liked to have seen the buttons fastened etc. I work in a school where the students wear ties and button-down shirts so I might be more attuned to this.
Bridget
Hi Regen,
Your Elevator Pitch was more of a sales pitch for why someone should be interested in this service from Sylvan rather than a pitch directed to investors. It was also quite difficult to hear as the volume on your video was quite low.
Also, I don’t see the educational technology edge to your venture? As an investor I wouldn’t have been compelled to read onto your Venture Pitch, and even though I did I did not find answers to such questions as the ask, market share, ROI, or information on your CEO and Team. I understand that this venture would be an offshoot of the Sylvan chain but some consideration should have been given to these points to successfully complete the requirements of your Venture Pitch.
Regan,
This is a very interesting venture, and one that you did a very good job in introducing and developing. Interestingly enough, I am actually a past Sylvan tutor, so your ideas have highlighted many of the issues that I had with the program (even while I was sitting there working with students). Also, my brother-in-law is a sylvan kid (from many years ago), so I also know how much money is crammed into that system. My hesitancy is that, if the ratio was to drop to 1:1, or even 2:1, then the bottom line for financial income will decrease. Also, I worked with some good tutors who the kids didn’t necessarily like, and others who were horrible and the kids loved. Another fear is the favourite card!
You have a great idea, but I think that it could be much stronger is hashed out a little more.
Cheers,
Todd
Hello all, The link for my Elevator Pitch is below and posted on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXBKx-t77n4 As for my venture pitch, I’ve embedded it as a word file within this post. Please let me know if there is any difficulty accessing the youtube video and I’ll try and assist. Thanks so much. Enjoy. -Regen Schmidt […]
Continue reading Welcome to the NEW Personalized Sylvan Tutoring Service…. Posted in: Uncategorized
Hi Regen,
Your Elevator Pitch was more of a sales pitch for why someone should be interested in this service from Sylvan rather than a pitch directed to investors. It was also quite difficult to hear as the volume on your video was quite low.
Also, I don’t see the educational technology edge to your venture? As an investor I wouldn’t have been compelled to read onto your Venture Pitch, and even though I did I did not find answers to such questions as the ask, market share, ROI, or information on your CEO and Team. I understand that this venture would be an offshoot of the Sylvan chain but some consideration should have been given to these points to successfully complete the requirements of your Venture Pitch.
Hello all, First off all, great presentation week 9 group. I enjoyed the ‘who are we’ section a lot. Added that human connection to the presentation. I’m not sure if I’m too earl to post but anyways, just thought I’d share some ideas…. Where do you see it (mind mapping) going in the future? As […]
Continue reading the benefits of mind mapping…. Posted in: Week 09: Visual-Intensive Learning
Hi Regen,
It’s never too early to post! Sometimes it’s just better to put your thoughts on paper (or on screen) before you forget about them.
In regards to your venture idea, I find the concept of segregating users by interests, beliefs and opinions interesting. When you mentioned that, I immediately thought of the timeline layout in Facebook…. a much more delinearized version of it though, where people would be posting their thoughts, experiences, comments etc on a single, centralized topic. I wonder how that would be regulated though. Do you have any thoughts on that? Or is it necessary to be regulated even?
Sherman
Hi regen,
One of the things I like about Prezi is that you can explore the mapping on your own, or you can follow a structured pathway and then explore. I feel this allows for the complexity and busyness of some visualisation formats to be moderated, and for individual preference.
Denise
Hey all, I chose the Wowzers company for my Entrepreneur Bootcamp Bio. founder-leader name, title & photograph Reed Howard, Chief Executive Office, Owner, Founder of Wowzers (and Brain Hurricane). From left to right: TJ, Reed, Paige, Andrew a single paragraph description of the venture, its primary products or services, and its original value proposition. […]
Continue reading ‘Wowzers’ and the Howard Family…. Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp Hey all, I think I went a little overboard here but anyways, had a good time doing it. Sorry about all the formatting inconsistencies. Critiquing ‘Empowered Learning: A Better Way to Teach Highschool Math’ Overview From the ETEC 522 ‘pitch pool’ I chose the pitch titled ‘Empowered Learning: A Better Way to […]
Continue reading EVA for Empowered Learning…. Posted in: Week 03: Analyst Bootcamp Hello, I visited the learning coach website where Connie Malamed introduced new trendy technology ideas for 2012, in an article titled ‘Learning Technology Trends to Watch in 2012. Connie covered backchannel, content curation, developing in the cloud, the instructional designers role, flipped learning, gamification, HTML 5, and blended learning. In each section Connie provided a […]
Continue reading Connie, the e-learning coach, looks to the future…. Posted in: Uncategorized
Hi Regen,
I like that you pointed out the language of these documents. I wonder if the authors of these reports use more technical jargon on purpose – to attract more IT-like folks and confuse education-trained folks. Do you think this is intentional?
Cheers,
Lisa
Hey Lisa,
Great point. Not sure. It is assumed that an article like this wants to attract as many readers as possible. The author also wants to appear as knowledgeable as possible too. The author should have their audience in mind and not want to lose anyone, but at the same time, ‘yes’ keep those who are very informed ‘hooked’ into what is being discussed. I think there must always exist a balance between the level of vocabulary difficulty being used by any author. Great question Lisa. It’s got me thinking.
-Regen
Hey all, Nice to see some familiar names on the blog so far. My name is Regen Schmidt, and am taking my 5th, 6th, & 7th MET courses this semseter. (511, 522, 532). I have a wife, two kids, and a dog. I currently work as a highschool librarian at Earl Marriott Secondary in Surrey. I […]
Continue reading Sorry, here it is again, but posted in the proper ‘Introductions’ section…. Posted in: Uncategorized
Wow! You’re very brave to take three courses! Best of luck.
3 courses a family and a job … I bow down to you! How do you find the time? Best of luck.
gillian
I don’t know how I find the time.
I don’t watch tv and I don’t really have any hobbies at the moment. lol….
…sounds exciting doesn’t it?
-Regen
Hi Regen,
It sounds like it will be a busy summer for you, goodluck with your studies. I look forward in having a great semester with you and the rest!
Karon
Hello Regen,
We meet again. I’m also taking the same 3 courses as you are this term! However, with work I’m already have that overwhelming feeling that maybe I have bit off more than I can chew.
I hope that all is well.
Cheers,
Donna
Hello again Donna,
Nice to see you here. Yes, its always overwhelming, I just try and get comfortable with that feeling. I just try and do the best I can and the worst that can happen is I have to re-do a course. I procrastinate way too much and need the pressure. If I just took one course I wouldn’t be motivated to do anything. We should email each other anytime we need encouragement. …lol.
Looking forward to the semester with you.
-Regen
3 courses eh? You sadist you! 🙂
Good luck, surely we will be reading each other as the course goes on!
cheers.
lol.
Yes, we will be discussing a bunch I’m sure.
-Regen
Regen! How’s it going?
Are you working full time while you take these courses? I predict a strong caffeine dependence in your future! I hope you can manage it, but like I said to Donna, you might want to gauge the workload and consider dropping a course after the first two weeks. Just be sure to see what the refund policy is! I just realised though that this is the end of the school year, so the work load is less, right?
Anyways, best of luck to you!
Hey Danielle,
Nice to hear from you. Yes, this semester will be busy, hopefully enjoyable too though.
Looking forward to the semester. Good idea about the drop deadline, I’ll keep it in mind.
-Regen
Doh! I just found out that the drop deadline is today.
Oh. Well I guess I’m in then.
I took 500, 520, & 530 last semester and got through so I’m optimistic.
Thanks.
-Regen
Hey all, Nice to see some familiar names on the blog so far. My name is Regen Schmidt, and am taking my 5th, 6th, & 7th MET courses this semseter. (511, 522, 532). I have a wife, two kids, and a dog. I currently work as a highschool librarian at Earl Marriott Secondary in Surrey. I […]
Continue reading Hello from White Rock, BC….. Posted in: Uncategorized
Hi Regen
Nice to meet you. Wow! 3 course and 2 children. You are in for a very busy term. I am also taking 532 this term so I will probably see you there. I look forward to learning with you this term.
Valerie Wells
Hi Regen,
Great to see a fellow White Rock’er here!
Looking forward to working with you this term!
Lisa Allen
Hello fellow White Rock’er.
Have you lived in the Rock for long?
-Regen
Before you publish your posting, please make sure that you select a category (eg. Introductions) as well as assign some meaningful tags (keywords).
ping 1:39 pm on August 5, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Regen,
I missed the self-reflection like you 🙁 Agree with your that there should be a description of this in the assignment outline. I even think that reflection is not so necessary, as we are not sure whether we will base our A3 on the A1 analysis at that early stage.
Ping