Universities - Interviews
After many weeks waiting for Católica, we decided to contact other Universities - we had nothing to loose, just gain! As we did not have the elaborated script we thought we would after collecting some information from Católica, we carefully chose four questions from our Script:
1. From a scale from 1 to 10 how satisfied are you with the current platform solution (Cátolica – Sca + Moodle + Católica Website)?
2. What do you like and dislike about it?
3. How much would you pay for such kind of platform per year – scale.
4. Who is in charge of the platform’s maintenance?
In just a week we received two answers from the other side of the world: Colombia and Quebec! Although they are not enough to validate Hypothesis, here are some of the incredible insights!
1. From a scale from 1 to 10 how satisfied are you with the current platform solution (Cátolica – Sca + Moodle + Católica Website)?
2. What do you like and dislike about it?
3. How much would you pay for such kind of platform per year – scale.
4. Who is in charge of the platform’s maintenance?
In just a week we received two answers from the other side of the world: Colombia and Quebec! Although they are not enough to validate Hypothesis, here are some of the incredible insights!
Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana
We contacted the engineer Ramiro Romero, who is the chief of the new technologies department of the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Colombia, and we asked him some questions in order to get some insight about the value our solution could provide, from the point of view of the people who actually handle the technology behind the systems we use.
He said that in this department of the university they are very satisfied with the solution Moodle provides, because it is dynamic, with good support, continuous development and mostly, easy to use. He highlights that Moodle has a pedagogical model in accordance with the current standards but as a negative aspect he points out that it updates slowly.
Ramiro mentioned that they do not make any direct payment to Moodle but they have internal cost associated to running the platform, such as two engineers devoted to taking care of the learning platform.
He said that in this department of the university they are very satisfied with the solution Moodle provides, because it is dynamic, with good support, continuous development and mostly, easy to use. He highlights that Moodle has a pedagogical model in accordance with the current standards but as a negative aspect he points out that it updates slowly.
Ramiro mentioned that they do not make any direct payment to Moodle but they have internal cost associated to running the platform, such as two engineers devoted to taking care of the learning platform.
Université Laval
We talked with Simon from Université Laval IT department, who was incredible helpfull!
He started by stating he thought our project was extremelly interesting and that much of our findings corresponded to theirs"...nous arrivons aux mêmes conclusions que vous sur plusieurs points, notamment les irritants engendrées par les travaux d’équipe et l’utilisation de Facebook."
Regarging the first and second questions, Université Laval has, in 2007, made the decision to build their own "plate-forme d’apprentissage (LMS)". Since it is fully customized and a special attention to user-friendliness was taken into account, the users are very satisfied with it - " le niveau de satisfaction de nos utilisateurs est élevé. Je dirais probablement un 8, bien humblement".
Positive points from current solution were mainly:
- User friendly
- Integration with different systems: "système de gestion des études, coopérative universitaire, bibliothèque, Exchange (courriel)"
- Standardization of plans de cours and sites de cours
- On-demand development of platform, depending on users' needs
Points that can be improved:
- Mobile platform
- Teamwork ("Collaboration en équipe")
- Unique authentication pass in the different systems
-Sms notifications ("...publication de résultats par l’enseignant, message dans les forums, date de remise de travaux imminentes, etc.")
In which concerns the third question, it posed yet, even more questions. These would require a higher knowledge regarding IT, which we pretend to attain (1) Hacker co-founder know-how and (2) Iteration process in Católica through the first 6 month:
- Est-ce que cet outil s’intègrerait bien avec notre plate-forme d’apprentissage? Si des modifications sont à faire dans LeadTeam pour atteindre cette intégration, qui assumerait les frais?
- La plate-forme peut-elle supporter 45 000 utilisateurs?
- S’agit-il d’un service que nous hébergerions sur nos serveurs ou d’un service dans le cloud hébergé chez vous?
- Dans le cas d’un service dans le cloud, dans quel pays vos serveurs sont-ils situés? Le Patriot Act des États-Unis nous est problématique.
- Comment fonctionne l’achat? Un prix unique ou une licence annuelle? Que comprend la licence? Support? Évolution de la plateforme? Quelle rythme d’évolution prévoyez-vous? Quelles fonctionnalités sont à venir?
- Quelle est la qualité de l’expérience utilisateur sur appareil mobile? Prévoyez-vous la création d’une application LeadTeam ou pensez-vous plutôt offrir un site web « responsive » s’adaptant au contexte d’utilisation ? Dans le cas d’une application mobile « native », serait-elle disponible pour iOS et Androïd?
Finally, as expected from an in-house platform, they have a team of analysts and programmers which take care of the platform's maintenance.
Still, we had incredibly good feedback, with further suggestions!
"Ceci étant dit, votre idée est intéressante et répond à une réelle problématique à laquelle font face les étudiants. Problématique exacerbée par l’augmentation des cours à distance. Une des clefs de réussite est sûrement l’intégration avec les plates-formes d’apprentissage. Si votre produit pouvait s’intégrer de façon presque transparente dans un BlackBoard, Moodle, Desire2Learn ou des plates-formes maison comme la nôtre, le gain serait fortement amplifié. C’est probablement ce que vous avez déjà prévu de toute façon."
He started by stating he thought our project was extremelly interesting and that much of our findings corresponded to theirs"...nous arrivons aux mêmes conclusions que vous sur plusieurs points, notamment les irritants engendrées par les travaux d’équipe et l’utilisation de Facebook."
Regarging the first and second questions, Université Laval has, in 2007, made the decision to build their own "plate-forme d’apprentissage (LMS)". Since it is fully customized and a special attention to user-friendliness was taken into account, the users are very satisfied with it - " le niveau de satisfaction de nos utilisateurs est élevé. Je dirais probablement un 8, bien humblement".
Positive points from current solution were mainly:
- User friendly
- Integration with different systems: "système de gestion des études, coopérative universitaire, bibliothèque, Exchange (courriel)"
- Standardization of plans de cours and sites de cours
- On-demand development of platform, depending on users' needs
Points that can be improved:
- Mobile platform
- Teamwork ("Collaboration en équipe")
- Unique authentication pass in the different systems
-Sms notifications ("...publication de résultats par l’enseignant, message dans les forums, date de remise de travaux imminentes, etc.")
In which concerns the third question, it posed yet, even more questions. These would require a higher knowledge regarding IT, which we pretend to attain (1) Hacker co-founder know-how and (2) Iteration process in Católica through the first 6 month:
- Est-ce que cet outil s’intègrerait bien avec notre plate-forme d’apprentissage? Si des modifications sont à faire dans LeadTeam pour atteindre cette intégration, qui assumerait les frais?
- La plate-forme peut-elle supporter 45 000 utilisateurs?
- S’agit-il d’un service que nous hébergerions sur nos serveurs ou d’un service dans le cloud hébergé chez vous?
- Dans le cas d’un service dans le cloud, dans quel pays vos serveurs sont-ils situés? Le Patriot Act des États-Unis nous est problématique.
- Comment fonctionne l’achat? Un prix unique ou une licence annuelle? Que comprend la licence? Support? Évolution de la plateforme? Quelle rythme d’évolution prévoyez-vous? Quelles fonctionnalités sont à venir?
- Quelle est la qualité de l’expérience utilisateur sur appareil mobile? Prévoyez-vous la création d’une application LeadTeam ou pensez-vous plutôt offrir un site web « responsive » s’adaptant au contexte d’utilisation ? Dans le cas d’une application mobile « native », serait-elle disponible pour iOS et Androïd?
Finally, as expected from an in-house platform, they have a team of analysts and programmers which take care of the platform's maintenance.
Still, we had incredibly good feedback, with further suggestions!
"Ceci étant dit, votre idée est intéressante et répond à une réelle problématique à laquelle font face les étudiants. Problématique exacerbée par l’augmentation des cours à distance. Une des clefs de réussite est sûrement l’intégration avec les plates-formes d’apprentissage. Si votre produit pouvait s’intégrer de façon presque transparente dans un BlackBoard, Moodle, Desire2Learn ou des plates-formes maison comme la nôtre, le gain serait fortement amplifié. C’est probablement ce que vous avez déjà prévu de toute façon."
Teacher's Surveys Conclusions - validating and invalidating
Next Step - Universities
We will test our Universities Customers Segment through two channels: IT Departments and Teachers.
Interviewing Católica
Now we need to start testing our Business Model with Universities! We will start in our home with an interview with Católica's IT department! Still waiting for confirmation, but we already developed our personalized Script.
The objective is to gather information in order to create a more accurate script for further Universities!
The objective is to gather information in order to create a more accurate script for further Universities!
Script
Selecting Hypothesis and Defining Validation Metrics
Surveying University Students
Teachers are one of our potential users, therefore their input is extremely relevant.
Script
Please visit the following link for the Script https://ucplbusiness.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6RK2cokcj5JOjeB