Redesigning my business model for EdTech

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can redesign my business model so that it becomes more of an online EdTech approach. Here are my preliminary thoughts.

Any new EdTech business model for me needs to take the following into account:

• Accept online subscription payments from learners for access to the premium level of the online learning platform
• Accept online payment events from learners for assessment of evidence for credentials and qualifications

The online learning platform needs to:

• Support synchronous (live) and asynchronous (anytime) training and learning
• Provide video support for tutors and learners as events that can be scheduled
• Hold all of my courses including NCALNE (Voc), NCALNE (ed), DipALNE
• Provide free access for learners to some or all of the training (Freemium level)
• Allow for subscription payments if learners want to have their portfolio evidence stored online (Premium)

Content-wise I need to:

• Build out the online versions of all of my courses and possibly split the DipALNE into 4 separate courses.
• Join the dots for people… This is not happening currently online or anywhere.
• Provide more visual content including a visual framework for all related professional development.

Nice to have features on my learning website or elsewhere would include:

• A web app for doing online mapping of the learning progressions with export to PDF and email. If this could be informed further by the data that falls out of the national assessment tool that would be even better. I can do this manually, but great to automate if possible. This links with the Knowing the Demands section in the current NCALNE courses.
• A web app for writing embedded learning outcomes. We have very specific format for this. Again, it’s easy for me to do this manually with people, but it would greatly help course users and others. It would also increase the level of “self access” available in the training online. This web app could be developed into a social media website as users could write and share the contextualised learning outcomes as well as modify outcomes created by others. Uploading and sharing resources would be great to go with this as well.
• A suite of online resources aligned with the professional development courses, tagged by literacy and numeracy skill development, and by trades or vocational training skill areas. These need to be editable so people can create versions for themselves, and possibly re-share with others.

• A tool for identifying professional development needs across an organization. Training organisations could use this tool to customize their staff professional development and tie into quality assurance requirements including provider self evaluation and assessment.

Having the full suite of professional development courses online would help:

• Deal with tutor churn rate in some organisations as they could sign up new tutors for the professional development online.
• Align everything with unit standard 21204 which provides a baseline for tutor knowledge around embedding literacy and numeracy into vocational, trades, and other training.
• Transmit the national infrastructure for literacy and numeracy. The NCALNE courses and related professional development are the perfect vehicle for the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) to transmit the infrastructure they have been building since 2007.
• Online approaches would allow us to cater for a tutor focused NCALNE (for people who need the training and qualification) versus a professional practice NCLANE (for people who have the knowledge and skills but just need the qualification).
• An online approach will allow some people to fast track the credentialing process more effectively.