I have an idea - what are your thoughts?

[hobokook]

Okay so I have an idea for a software product. I want to hear your thoughts on whether it's a good idea or not.

What is it?

- It's essentially a type of collaboration software built exclusively for students (mostly high school and college students).
- It allows students to create their own groups specific to the class they're taking at their respective school and in their groups they can collaborate with one another and help each other with homework and to study for midterms and final exams.
- Each group will contain different modules such as :

• A Google docs type environment where student can simultaneously edit documents together
• A drawing environment where students can draw diagrams, pictures, equations, or whatever else is relevant to the class.
• A 24/7 instant messaging type service where all the students in the class can keep in constant communication
• A notes section where students can post helpful notes

Why is this helpful?
- I'm in college now and most students wait until the week before the test to start studying.
- Students want to collaborate with other students but often don't have study groups or are too shy to ask other students to study with them.
- Students will go to EXTREME lengths to do well on tests. Hopefully something like this will help them out.

So what are you thoughts? I don't currently know of any type of software that does this right now. The closest thing that comes to mind is Google Docs where students can collaboratively edit a document and share their thoughts (a lot of people I know do this right now, but it can get really messy and complicated).

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

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[Rickson9]

Have you tried selling it? It seems simple enough to ask a fellow student how much they would pay for it.

 

[ambition21]

There are already a number of websites (Oncourse, blackboard, etc.) that offer exactly what you described and more. Almost all large universities already currently collaborate with these sites and consequently, to create a software would be inconvenient and unnecessary in my view.

 

[hobokook]

There are already a number of websites (Oncourse, blackboard, etc.) that offer exactly what you described and more. Almost all large universities already currently collaborate with these sites and consequently, to create a software would be inconvenient and unnecessary in my view.

Universities use sites like Blackboard but they are used by Teachers and teaching assistants, not the students themselves. Plus, it's the teachers who control what happens on Blackboard not the students. Two completely different sites.

 

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[AgonI]

Also facebook has groups for all the universities ... Against such a big competition your odds of success are very small, I'd say your best bet would be to be more specific by solving only ONE or TWO big pains for the students, but the solution must be MUCH better than what Blackboard and Facebook have. Stuff like, share the notes instantly with your classmates, or maybe do something only about (insert major here) students, example make it easier for Computer science students to work together on a homework assignment, etc. NICHE is the name of the game imo

 

[AgonI]

A Google docs type environment where student can simultaneously edit documents together
A drawing environment where students can draw diagrams, pictures, equations, or whatever else is relevant to the class.
A 24/7 instant messaging type service where all the students in the class can keep in constant communication
A notes section where students can post helpful notes

My university has all the above already, and it's not even a huge famous uni ... Plus it's Blackboard who has made those tools, good luck competing with them if you plan to take action.

 

[MikeBFS1]

A good name maybe....maybe....collaborcratic

 

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[yahdmon]

I would say go back to the drawing board... or better yet. Go back to the blackboard (pun intended).

You are getting the tools. Keep at it. You are getting the tools that enables one to see unique ideas or wealth creating vehicles.

Soon you will get an idea that is much bigger than you and you will go after it, following where ever it leads you, hoping that it will one day lead you onto an on-ramp where you get to merge onto the fastlane and many times up to that eventual point, if you do not quit in the proces, you will say more than one time -- why didn't I take the blue pill?

Or worse, why couldn't I have been satisfied with a job and a paycheck?

Later on, if you do not quit, you will hit the mother load and you will be glad you never gave up.

Now go get you a note pad and start writing down all the ideas that come to you, or that you percieve throughout your day, from now till the end of the year. When 2013 comes around it will be DO-TIME. Then you start qualify/quantify your ideas, then pick one and ride the heck out of it till you get to where you want to go.

I dare you to believe what I have said!:smx2:

 

[johnp]

Universities use sites like Blackboard but they are used by Teachers and teaching assistants, not the students themselves.

This part of the statement is not correct. BB is much bigger than you think and they are expanding their product lines. The thing about BB is that there are different functionalities. It all depends on what the school is paying for. Your school may not be paying for all of the features. I know for a fact that there very organized and feature rich are discussion forums on BB. You can actually go in and participate in discussions, just like you can on this forum. It would cost you a lot of money and time to even get up to speed with what they have produced right there alone. They have e-class features. BB allows you to even take tests online. And they now have a iPhone App!

The bigger issue with Blackboard is that they are very expensive. But you can't undercut them for 3 reasons.

1) Because they lock schools into long-term contracts, which schools can't and won't break.

2) Because they are so competitive and powerful that they will crush you.

3) Because there are now open source alternatives, which have already formed and gained market share.

A Google docs type environment where student can simultaneously edit documents together

This is Google Docs. A lot of schools are setting up with Google docs.

A drawing environment where students can draw diagrams, pictures, equations, or whatever else is relevant to the class.

Google docs again

A 24/7 instant messaging type service where all the students in the class can keep in constant communication

Google docs + Facebook

S

students want to collaborate with other students but often don't have study groups or are too shy to ask other students to study with them.

Yes they do. They have Facebook and a bunch of other tools. The bigger issue is that student's have trouble figuring out who to collaborate with and finding the time to do so.

It's going to cost you tons of money and time to get up to speed with the competition. You are looking at competing with each of the following:

Google, Facebook, Moodle, Edmodo.com, and so many others.

Now three questions:

1) How will you build this? Do you have the skills? Outsourcers will never get the job done. Trust me.

2) How will you monazite this? Afterall, You can't offer this service without making any money.

3) how will you promote this? The majority of students probably won't care about you because they already have this stuff. And who do you target? Schools or students or both? And how do you target both? Now your talking sales teams, on campus events, etc..It's a lot harder than it sounds.


To be honest, it is likely that your idea will fail. Is it a bad idea? No. In fact, it's great. The problem is that you have been beat to the market and you are looking to compete with aggressive monsters.

you are also missing something. Times are changing. Students are always on the go. You really think that they are going to be sitting at computers in 10 years for hours upon hours? They don't even do that now. You need something that works well on the phone. How will you consolidate this for the growing mobile trends? Blackboard is already moving in that direction with their apps. I can log-in from my phone and post messages.


And just so you know. I have a ton of experience with this stuff. My start-up is in the education space. So don't take this post lightly. I may have just saved you a ton of time + money.

 

[johnp]

Also, if you had a clear differentiator (did I spell that right?)- something that really makes your idea stand out. Then you might have something. But you don't. You simply rehashed everything that exists and said that you will put it all together and organize it more. And it kind of pisses me off because it makes the process of building this stuff seem easy. It's not easy. It can kill you if you are not careful. You can't just go from 0mph to 1000mph. You can't go from a seed to being a monster like BlackBoard. You gotta start somewhere.

So if you really want to enter the education space. Do your research. Know what you are getting into. And look for alternative ways to add value. Start with something small and grow it out from there. You never know, one of these big companies could come and buy your product for millions if you are doing something that they are not doing.

 

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