LM Academy- Quality Experiential Online Learning

ok… so after a long hard fought battle with technology I think I have things ready for you all here! 

I have added my version of the elevator pitch below.  I thought this version might be a little more exciting than listening to me talk like in my full pitch.  I created my full pitch using Zentation and after spending alot of time trying to figure out why I was having problems uploading my video I just purchased the business version (and they still couldn’t support my full video as you will notice it has been split into 2 parts, You tube couldn’t host the whole video either) so I am still trying to get it uploaded to the public version of zentation because I would like to remove it from their private area before the end of the trial period so I am not charged the $160 (yep thats right, for each part to boot). 

You will also find a link to  a google site where I will have the you tube versions of video and slideshare versions of power point available to look at in case I need to shut down zentation.  Hopefully everything works out as I created the presentation specifically for zenatation. 

I suggest trying to increase the video screen size when viewing the zentation site as the resolution is less than impressive (check out the you tube postings if you prefer a clearer view).

My fictional creation is LM Academy, a private institution that offers online secondary courses in an experiential leaning taking place in summers at relevant learning locations.  The LCMS I chose to use is Odijoo.  I hope you all find it interesting enough to get through the 12 minutes!

YouTube Preview Image

Part 1 of the full pitch:

http://www.zentation.com/viewer/index.php?passcode=j5ptMvcNpT

Part 2 of the full pitch:

http://www.zentation.com/viewer/index.php?passcode=qm2Tk7Xgfd

If you find it necessary (the presentation was meant to be viewed with the zentation links provided above) you can find links to the videos and slideshare presentation at the google site here:

http://sites.google.com/site/lmacademysite/

Enjoy!

23 comments


1 Ed Stuerle { 11.30.09 at 1:03 pm }

Very detailed. I liked the use of video and slides but I would suggest that it might be more effective to combine the two formats. In other words if you used the audio from your video submission as the voice over for the slide presentation.


2 Tony D { 11.30.09 at 3:01 pm }

yeah I was originally thinking that, however I really wanted to use the zentation product as I felt it gave more of a live feel of a real pitch.
Thanks for the comment Ed


3 jennie wong { 11.30.09 at 6:31 pm }

Tony,

I liked the elevator pitch and got me interested in looking further. I agree with Ed; I would have preferred to see your pitch with your voice over on the slide presentation. However, I do respect your wishes for using the zentation product.

Nice work.
Jen


4 Cari Wilson { 11.30.09 at 9:13 pm }

Hi Anthony,

I really found your elevator pitch got me intrigued, so I didn’t mind delving in further! In terms of the long pitch, the zentation worked okay for me. My one piece of advice woud be to talk about the whole trip thing earlier because all the way through the first half I kept wondering what they experiential learning would be!

So…I thought your pitch was thorough. You’ve obviously thought the whole venture out quite clearly. I think there is a market for what you are selling, although I would say that one of your first goals should be to get accreditation from other provinces and the states. Otherwsie, the market could be somewhat limited. Not every family can afford to pay for their child to go away like this!

I would say that you might also want to look at offering the courses to ESL learners from Asia especially. Based on the number of fee paying international students in my district, there is a market for bringing students to Canada to learn English and experience our culture.

I think you have clearly explained where you see the company heading in the future, as well as how you plan to pay back your investors. I’m not sure you start-up estimates are high enough (ask for more money!) but I would imagine that if you are able to show success in the first year you would attract more investors.

I think the idea is intriguing and has great potential! Summer camp and school credits all rolled into one! I’m in!

Cari


5 Tony D { 11.30.09 at 9:59 pm }

Thanks Carri, you have actually mentioned many of the things I have already thought of so it is good to hear that someone else is thinking what I am!


6 dockat { 12.01.09 at 9:27 am }

Hi Tony, that is a very active intro pitch, and it gives a sense of movement overall. That ties in well with the travel theme.


7 James Richardson { 12.01.09 at 8:57 pm }

I enjoyed the action (and the Quebec scenes) and sound in your elevator pitch and it has a good hook at the end. I get the impression or a virtual summer camp with cultural immersion. The production of elveator clip is quite good. There are few details but your written commentary helps elaborate and it is effective in engaging the viewer.

Jim


8 Tony D { 12.01.09 at 9:34 pm }

thanks James, I had trouble getting everything I wanted to say into the 12 minutes, I cut out quite a bit, even from the written presentation.


9 Iris Chan { 12.02.09 at 12:24 am }

A very engaging elevator pitch. The opening and closing slides were very helpful in guiding your audience what they were looking at. Without that it would have been a very hard pitch to follow. Looks interesting!


10 Erik Van Dusen { 12.02.09 at 3:40 pm }

Great pitch here, Anthony! Thoughtful and engaging. Oh, to be young again and ‘heading out” to the various summer learning locations!


11 Noah Burdett { 12.02.09 at 7:18 pm }

Hi Anthony,

One point in particular stood out for me. Namely that you offer a service that would help students and scaffold them to take online course for university. I think preparing students would be a great way to sell parents eager for their students to succeed.

Noah


12 Erica T { 12.02.09 at 9:37 pm }

This is my formal review of your pitch presentation.

Your 30 s elevator pitch is a highly engaging video that lures in the traveler or want-to-be traveler. There is no text or narration, so it is a little hard to grasp what you are truly offering until you view the entire presentation.

I really like the Zentation presentation. I think the video alongside the slides is a great way to present the information, and I would not suggest that you use your video as the audio narrative to your slides.

The quality of your presentation is very good.

As you speak, it does not come across as scripted, rather it seems that you are very informed and can comfortably speak about your course offering.
It isn’t until Part 2 that I truly understood what the “product” fully entailed.

Questions that I feel are unanswered are:
1) Who will accredit these courses (not sure that school boards would jump right on board here)?
2) Who supervises the online learning between April and June? Full or part time teachers who are doing extra teaching on the side? (Not sure union allows that, but I am not totally informed here).
3) Who chaperones the students once they do their experiential learning abroad? (Who is there, watching them, in Spain, at 4 am? ☺) This would be a valid parental question.

Overall I think that this is a viable offering, especially in the forward-looking offerings such as the Biology…I can see this applying to International Baccalaureate (IB) courses especially.

As an EVA I would be tempted to consider investing in your company, as long as I could be convinced that it would be sanctioned by the Ministry of Education and that fully qualified staff would be available for both the online and travel portions. I don’t believe parents or students would want the April to June online course content portion of the product if the course “didn’t count” (i.e. did not meet all the prescribed learning outcomes to qualify as a completion course). If this component could be affirmed, I would invest without hesitation.

I would put this in my top 3 list of potential investments, for sure.


13 Tony D { 12.03.09 at 2:45 am }

Thanks for your comments Noah and Erica.

To answer some of your questions Erica,

1) I would not being looking for any SB involvement as LM Academy I would prefer to be an independent credit granting institution. When I mention gades would be forwarded to individual home schools it was only as a courtesy to allow student transcripts to contain all information on one page. This may not be necessary but am sure students can take courses from continuing education education offerings of neighbouring SBs so expect no problem adding them from a private institution. Either way if it were to be a problem we would issue our own transcript from the private school, obviously you makea good point and it would have t be verified.
2) The online learning between April and June would be facilitated by the course instructor who may o my not be employed by a SB however they be a certified professional teacher in the proper qualifications for the course content they teach. As a private institution we would not work with unions and teachers would be hired as consultants or freelance workers/part time employees. They will not be part of any other union and therefore if they are a member of another union at their “day job” it should not interfere with their union policies. Again something to double check.
3) The students are supervised and accounted for by a specifically by a program manager (who is a certified teacher although not actually teaching a course, rather an excursion and on location coordinator) and travelling tutors at a ratio that would be reasonable to ensure student safety. Course instructors if they desire may also accompany their class, we would cosider it on a individual basis. With a max of 21 students in one particular class 2 supervisors (tutor and PM), a potential teacher as well as help from local contacts gives lots of eyes to oversee student conduct. Ultimately the PM will be responsible for ensuring student safety while on location. Of course students would have a curfew so at 4am it is lights out! Consequences will be handed out for breaking on site rules. They are simply sent home but can complete their course online and still recieve credit, assuming they are successful in the eyes of their instuctor.


14 Erica T { 12.03.09 at 9:24 am }

Tony your entire business model is very well thought out. And as evidenced by your follow up answer here, you have definitely given thought to every issue. As I viewed / listened to your entire pitch I became convinced by the end that this would be a really viable option. (I made the 😉 about the Spain chaperoning…I have never been…but I know adults and teens alike tell me that Spain never sleeps). I really think IB programs would love the real world application of the learning and can see how parents looking for alternate forms of education for their children would be really interested in what you are offering. Well thought out and well presented!


15 Lorne Upton { 12.03.09 at 9:04 pm }

Hello Anthony,

I really enjoyed your pitch and the basic concept of your business seems quite sound. What is very interesting is your blend of authentic experience and online education experiences–very clever.

Lorne


16 Barrie Carter { 12.04.09 at 1:29 pm }

EVA — Venture Presentation Review

Let me begin by saying that I would invest in this venture. After all, I am a fan of elearning; hence, the MET program.

Your presentation offers a viable business venture in that more learning is occurring on line than ever before. For example, many universities like, but not limited to, UBC, SFU, University of Calgary, University of Phoenix, and CityU are offering more and more degree courses on line, not to mention the many academic and educational institutions in Australia.

However, your business venture brings elearning to the secondary school market, which complements the already existing home schooling programs and the online courses in many school districts in the public sector. Of course, the difference is that your proposal is for the private sector, which can be lucrative, if the courses are dynamic, robust, and enriching as well as efficient, credible, and cost effective.

As well, for Assignment 1 for ETEC 522, I did a thorough review of Odijoo, which, to me, is a great LMS platform for creating and designing online courses. And, Odijoo does not have to be connected to a Web site.

In addition, one of our course mates presents a venture on mobile Web connectivity while commuting, which would only add to the efficiency, effectiveness, and viability of your business venture. This is truly ‘learning on the go!’

Although I would risk investment in your business, I would want ongoing input from users/students so that your business would remain ahead of the competition, for once this type of elearning market takes off, business will be fierce and highly competitive. Strategic marketing and advertising campaigns would have to be aggressive and pervasive.

Overall, your presentation offers 21st century technology that we need in the academic/educational world. I believe that secondary school students would enjoy, embrace, and appreciate the autonomy, the convenience, and the flexibility that we are, for example, currently experiencing in the MET graduate program. Indeed, this all ties in with Web 2.0 and digital learning.


17 Colin Cheng { 12.04.09 at 2:30 pm }

Tony,

This is a very dynamic presentation in which the viewer is treated to a diverse number of images and ideas. From my understanding of the assignment, I am now to decide solely from the 30 second pitch, whether this is a venture that I would like to delve further into. As I only have three out of ten proposals to select from, it is unfortunate that I will have to pass on this venture for the following reasons:

* while the images and captions portrayed a sense of adventure and possibilities, it didn’t really portray what I could get out of this (i.e. a degree, etc)
* the validity of the institution was not immediately clear (was it an accredited institution or one that was affiliated with a major university)
* overall there was certainly a lot of flair and it would certainly be attractive to a lot of university students seeking adventure. I would have liked to have been assured of the educational value as well


18 Ammar Al-Attiyat { 12.04.09 at 3:32 pm }

Hi Tony,

What a great idea and great presentation. Although the elevator pitch was engaging and more like teaser TV add, I wished it would give bit more about the venture idea and some snap shots of your Zentation presentation so it encourage other EVAs to dig in and watch the excellent Zentation presentation which I really salute you for using it.

OK, although this is not a full review, but here is my main recommendation for you is to expand your venture to go globally and address the off-shore Ontario based Canadian schools as first phase and then include programs from other provinces at a later stage. Check out the no of off-shore Canadian schools world wide
http://www.iqe.com.hk/iqe/interschools.htm

but even if you decided to keep it locally for now, still I suggest you good for more than 25K as seed money to kick off the venture.

Good luck with your venture.
http://www.iqe.com.hk/iqe/interschools.htm


19 Ana Cecilia Tagliapietra { 12.04.09 at 5:44 pm }

Tony,
I enjoyed your elevator pitch and I agree with previous comments that mentioned the need of a bit more information about your venture or proposal.
I also wondered about the validity of the program/ Institution, as well as what the learning product for this would be.
Great job and very interesting pitch!


20 Eveline Yu { 12.04.09 at 6:00 pm }

Tony,

I really enjoyed your elevator pitch. And with your comments above, it seems that you really have this all thought out. I think this is a great venture, and something that I would be interested in participating in if it actually happens!

Agreeing with Cari’s comment above, you have a huge market in Asia where international students would be able to afford and have the interest and motivation to take courses in Canada. And of course, the slides and videos of Quebec makes it ever so much more attractive.

Overall, great pitch!


21 Eveline Yu { 12.05.09 at 1:37 am }

Hi Tony,

I am back as an EVA and would like to invest in your venture.

Your elevator pitch was catchy and very exciting.
Your longer pitch was great as well, although when you demonstrate the Odijoo in the video – it was hard to see what was actually happening. I did like the video and the slides working together – but sometimes I would be listening and watching, and by the time I looked over to the slides, it would be gone before I finish reading. It was a great pitch, overall.

First of all, I think you have a great market. Rather than limiting to students in Ontario, or Canada, I think you should open this up to all international students (in addition to American students, as stated in your pitch). As a teacher teaching in an offshore school – I am a BC certified teacher, but currently not under an school boards. So – yes, I think your choice of teachers for your school (online), chaperone, etc., will work well. As well, hiring qualified teachers who are not part yet part of the school boards would also open up many needed teaching positions. You could also offer positions to teachers who are qualified and teach globally.

In addition, working with international students, I understand that there is a huge market – and lots of money to be made. I really like the fact that you included the profit chart in your presentation – and I think if you asked for more money for the start-up investment – the profit might even increase!

I think your ideas of corresponding courses are great: Biology => Peru; Japanese => Japan; French => Quebec; Spanish => Spain…

These are great ideas. What you should also include are Social Studies (like field school), English (home of Shakespeare?), and other fun places to go. There are so many options!

However – one problem I see is that students will have trouble completing a course starting in April to June. How will these courses run? If a student has a heavy course load, and facing provincial exams (I’m thinking BC students), it may be hard to add on another course, even if it’s part time. There is a lot of merit offering a credited course for the summer – but it is difficult to have students be successful in additional courses – especially so close to the end of the school year.

Courses need to go through accreditation if credits are to be offered – even in private school settings. I would love to see some of my current students (here in China) take one of these classes and receive credit that would transfer to their BC transcript.

I think the online program is a great idea – especially when some schools cannot offer all the courses available in the curriculum. Sometimes, the interest is just not high enough to open such courses. Therefore, students taking an online course of their choice would solve this problem.

Finally, I would invest in LM Academy if courses are accreditated, if there is potential for international students (especially at Canadian schools) to enrol and receive credits, and if there is some way to support students in studying throughout the last stretch of the school year.


22 dockat { 12.05.09 at 6:07 am }

Hi Tony, you got me onboard. I would invest.
Cubed LM Learning Academy
1. Market focus your market is well defined but make sure you extend it for international students and I think there will be a large enough market to support this exciting venture

2. Types of offerings: the online and situational learning on site make a powerful combination–love it.
3. Who is the buyer? What need is it filling? The academy will likely attract very wealthy families who want their children to have an IB type expansion and make it a safe educational travel experience
4. Global markets: would be global, but the marketing would be costly I think if you wish to include all potential markets
5. Development of Market: Sounds like the market dev plan is well thought out
6. Competition—works with others, substitutes for, competes with: it is a product that seems to be alone in its class but obviously will enrich regular education, much like an IB
THanks for a great concept, K


23 Annette Smith { 12.05.09 at 2:58 pm }

Hi Tony,

I’m not sure if I would invest in LM Academy. It seems to be filling a niche market (wealthy families) in Ontario, and I am not sure from your pitch that there is a large enough market in this area to make me as an investor a great deal of profit. If, as has been suggested by several other reviewers, you were to expand to include IB credit for Asian and European markets, then I think you would have more luck finding venture capitalists willing to invest.

I think the idea is fantastic, being able to connect students with real-world experience at a younger age could engage many more students in global issues. As has also been mentioned, it would also prepare them for the next step, university.

Your elevator pitch was very engaging. I found that the visuals matched well with the audience and content. I am not sure that zentation worked that well for your full pitch. I found myself trying to read your slides and losing track of the video. Also the demo of the LMS was hard to see in the small window for the video.

This is a good idea, with a well thought out pitch. The information was great and very well researched, but I think that you would need to expand the idea considerably before I would commit. Plus you would need a crack legal team to deal with all the permission forms the parents would have to fill out. When I was 16 I think Madrid at 4am would have sounded very enticing…

Cheers,
Annette

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