Up2date Learning is a high school e-Textbook company that produces customizable resources designed to align with individual course curriculum that receives annual updates every year, and sends email alerts to teachers giving them options for updating their course throughout the year when events and breakthroughs occur. Here is my elevator pitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiVXcnQAfn8 Here is my […]
Continue reading Up2date Learning is a high school e-Text… Posted in: Venture ForumToggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Mike Rae
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Mike Rae
Darrell Ward is one of the co-founders and CEO of ALL in Learning. He is described as an educational technology pioneer, executive and entrepreneur. ALL in Learning is a company that seeks to make assessment data of students more efficiently. Further, it appears that the original company of this team, eInstruction Corporation, started “the clicker […]
Continue reading Darrell Ward is one of the co-founders a… Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp-
avninder
I have used clickers in corporate training and found them to be effective in increasing class participation and gaining feedback as an instructor. As with any learning technology the clicker can be extremely useful but also a hindrance in learning, if its use is not executed correctly.
I do not foresee the assessment data provided by ALL in Learning being used at my organization in the immediate future. However, it is good to know that this service is available. Thanks for the info.
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Mike Rae
I found ZDnet report very concise and therefore useful to me. I would recommend it, it gave me opportunity to look things up that I didn’t know about, and explore them on my own (some hyper links are provided).On the contrary, someone looking for a research report that is more in depth might find the […]
Continue reading I found ZDnet report very concise and th… Posted in: Week 02: The Edtech Marketplace -
Mike Rae
looking for advice
I am just starting the program and was wondering if you guys could recommend how many courses I should take this term. I work as an academic advisor in China, and do a lot of that work after school hours and at lunch. I forsee having a some time during the working day to do […]
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Mike Rae
Hello from China!
Hey everyone! Very interesting reading about all of you…quite a diverse group. My story is that I am from Richmond (noticed that a couple people teach there) and went to UBC where I studied Geography and International Relations. After about 4 years of work and travel I decided to get into education and have thoroughly […]
Continue reading Hello from China! Posted in: Week 01: Introductions
jkotler 7:53 am on November 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Mike,
After watching your presentation, I think venture concept addresses a real need in education and offers a good and viable solution. In particular, I really liked the updates feature and especially the up to the minute updates as I believe it would be a valuable resource to many educators.
One thing I was curious about (and don’t recall being specified in the presentation) is what subjects the e-textbooks would be designed for?
As well, in terms of the presentation itself I felt that it was somewhat difficult to hear you at times in addition to clearly seeing the power point. Thus, I think had the quality and design been given a little more attention it would have made the overall presentation and sell of the venture that much stronger.
Julie
Mike Rae 7:19 pm on November 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks for the feedback Julie, I agree with you that it didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped, and I definitely could have done a little more with the presentation. My idea was trying to mimic doing a pitch in front of people, and then tape that. But when it gets taped and is viewed electronically, it definitely loses some of the effect. After watching some of the other venture pitches, i found myself saying “damn, I wish I had done that” a bunch of times…you live you learn though right?
I may have had to cut the subjects from the presentation, but my main focus was on Social Studies, Business, and Science. Subjects where breakthroughs and events tend to happen that updates would improve the course.
Kent Jamieson 1:06 pm on November 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hello Mike,
Great elevator pitch. It made me want to watch your venture presentation. You have a natural ability to sell.
Your information was good, and had many of the aspects that the assignment was looking for. I like that you demonstrated how your etext would work, and the updates idea is great. I also agree with textbooks being outdated and that this idea can satisfy a need and has validity.
In saying that, however, I found that your venture pitch seemed a little stagnant. The motionless camera fixed on a slideshow made me feel like I was back in highschool trying to stay awake during a lesson. I also found myself wondering about the way we teach – or at least the way we ‘should’ be teaching – these days, and worried that your lecturing style of presenting your textbook based venture didn’t seem very ‘up to date’…even though your final message to us all was that you’re behind the times if youre not ‘being up2date’. Just a thought.
Finally, I’m a bit worried about competition you mentioned. They are huge companies. It seems as though many of these competitors would offer ‘updates’ that link to curricular needs?
Overall, i like the pitch, but it didn’t quite allow me to open up my cheque book.
Kent
Mike Rae 7:22 pm on November 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks Kent,
Yeah the stand and deliver in hindsight may not have been the best approach. If I could go back, I would have broken that up with graphics, slides from the powerpoint, etc. instead of doing it all at once.
Those big companies are the scary part of the venture idea, might be a better option to patten the update feature and then sell that idea to the big guys.
thanks for your thoughts
MIKE
Ranvir 1:15 pm on November 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Mike, I liked the way you prepared the venture pitch – posing in front of the camera and explaining your venture concept, I wish I could have done that too…
I like your venture concept and agree that e-textbooks have lot of potential in terms of making education more affordable and up-to date as you mentioned. This is the reason Amazon, McGraw Hill and other publishers are offering online versions of their books that can easily be accessed on smartphones and tablets. I myself have stopped buying paper copies since I bought my iPad earlier this year.
I however have some questions for you –
1. As an investor, one would like to know who your competition is in this market? Are you planning to compete with Amazon and the likes?
2. How to you plan to market your product?
3. How and when can an investor expect to get a break even and start making profits on the investment? Typically schools have shallow pockets and have faculty have limited PD budget. Is that a correct assumption?
Ranvir
Ranvir 1:26 pm on November 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
On second thoughts, please disregard question 1 and 2 as you have sufficiently answered them in the venture pitch.
I buy supplemental text for my kids from Amazon although I would appreciate if a company could offer variety of content focused on K-12. I think the market is there and I wish you luck with your venture.
Mike Rae 7:25 pm on November 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I agree Ranvir, the shallow pockets is a hurdle to overcome. It is hard to say when investors would start to see a return, because the e-textbook market in high schools is in such a early stage. So it might take a year or two to see some return. The idea is that a start up company like this one builds up and then eventually sells out to one of the bigger dogs in the ring, making profit for the investors.
Colin 10:04 pm on November 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Mike, I agree that having up to date textbooks is a good idea as I still have some textbooks that refer to 2004 as in the future. Though I am trying to understand if you will be writing all the textbooks yourself or whether you will be taking existing textbooks and then just updating the information as needed. I believe right now when you get an e-textbook subscription that you always do get the newest version but a new version could be coming out every few years. My only concern would be having to have textbooks continuously updated and republished could be costly. Also writing a textbook that teachers want to purchase would be an issue as it is a very competitive market. My last issue would have to do with the fact that right now most classrooms don’t have access to laptops or computers to read the e-textbooks. Otherwise good presentation and idea.
cunnian 12:07 pm on November 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Mike,
I quite liked both your elevator and venture pitch. This is a new angle on this emerging market and it addresses a clear need in the educational system. I appreciated the detail with which you explained the product, clearly differentiated it from what is currently out there, identified your market and specifically laid out what you need from your investors and what you plan to do with it.
While this is an innovative product and one that I think warrants further development, my concern as an investor is that you are going against the giants of the publishing industry. If this is an idea that truly revolutionizes this industry, I would be concerned that the ‘big dogs’ will quickly catch up and run you out of the market. While you might have a head start, they have large client bases and very deep pockets for development. As such, you would need to somehow patent this idea.
Another concern is how you will create your ‘base content’ for your e-textbooks. The idea of having up-to-date information that a teacher can customize is awesome, don’t get me wrong, but you still have to provide some sort of ‘base material’. As such, is your team going to write e-texts from scratch? Is that part of the development costs?
Again, I think that you did a great job. Well done!
manny 3:10 pm on November 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Mike,
You have a brilliant idea and I could easily see it being used in education. Your pitch reminds me of textbooks we have in our library, some of these books such as “challenge of the west” are the same books I used back in highschool. There are big competitors in this market (Mcgraw-Hill) and I think your ultimate goal would be a buy out from one of the giants mentioned rather than competing with them. Another competitor is the free RSS feed feature that teachers in courses such as social studies can use to stay up to date on current events by creating their own news feeds. Great wrap up and catchy final logo “If you’re not up2date, you’re behind the times!”
rebeccaharrison 7:12 pm on November 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Mike,
As said by others, I really like the idea, especiallly with respect to the up2date current content. I am also concerned, just by watching the elevator pitch, about the competition, as I have been using online textbooks for course content already. How is this different? That might be the most important point for me because I think the rest of the idea is an easy sell. Good pitch!
jhodi 9:36 pm on November 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Mike,
I think that you have a great idea here and one that does address a common concern in schools. However, my worry with such a technology is how it would compete with major publishing companies that could use already made textbooks, put them in e-text form, and continuously add to them. I also wonder about the practicality of keeping information ‘up-to-date’. I wonder how many people you would need to employ, how much legislation would need to be passed for each piece of information to be added, and how quickly all of this could be done to give the information to students. It seems like a very large task to keep say a Social Studies textbook up-to-date, whereas a Math textbook may be much easier. I also wonder which classes this would be intended for.
All said, I think that you did a great job. I really like how you presented this information and I liked that you made it personal by putting yourself in front of the camera. I did read your reflection as well and it is too bad that you had to cut part of your video out because maybe that would have answered my questions. I think that with a little more work, this would be a venture that I would be very interested in.
Jhodi
adi 12:11 am on December 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Mike,
Sorry for the late post. I have had sleepless nights completing other assignments. I do apologize and mean no disrespect.
I loved your pitch. You spoke well, with good stress and intonation, and touched upon just enough detail to create curiosity. I also enjoyed your longer pitch, though I would perhaps make the deck (slides) more graphic and with less text.
I think your idea is great and there is a market; however, as a textbook author myself, I know the competition is fierce because there is a lot at stake; the textbook market is huge and profitable. You would also need a large team of editors and writers making these updates, and there would be issues regarding who gets royalties for what. Nevertheless, you raise a valid point and there is a need, what I don’t know if going it alone without the backing of one of the textbook publishing monsters would be feasible.
Adriana
Peggy Lawson 7:59 am on December 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Mike –
Of all of the pitches I’ve viewed, yours is focused on one of the greatest needs I think, and you’re elevator pitch sold that very well. Loved your enthusiasm – you held my attention as you did a great job of covering the pain point. It was unclear to me, however, in the evevator pitch, if the updates were meant for eTextbooks produced by other publishers (and I had no idea how you would manage that) or if your company would create the textbooks. So I followed up with your venture pitch. While this question was answered, and if I needed to be sold any more on eTexts you continued to do a great job, what conerned me was the potential quality of writing for the eTexts – quality curriculum writers come with a cost, which must be passed along to the consumer. This will make it very difficult to compete with the Big Dogs; I’m concerned about your competitive edge. This will be a huge challenge I think. Other than that, I thought the pitch was well done – you’ve thought out the marketing plan. I had faith in your credibility (but may have omitted your mention of your failure in securities sales).