TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT 4

Summary

This is an online service offering advice about adult education in the South East via an online database of educational providers, their courses and an e-mail based advice system. In addition to offering advice on learning, there will be magazine-style 'featured courses and establishments' sections to promote local services.
The service will operate by offering the chance to search by subject, institution, geographical area or by cost, using a series of drop-down boxes which retrieve relevant information from the database. This will be available to print, or at a small charge via credit or debit card an information pack can be requested containing details and prospectuses about the educational providers. The contents of the information packs will be provided by the instututions themselves, hence will cost us the postage fee alone.

The website will be used by learners of all ages, from school children looking for extra ways to learn, such as sports or music coaching, through to school-leavers looking at local colleges and universities.  Adults will also be able to use the website to search for adult education and evening classes, or seek advice on career changes. There will also be information for pensioners looking for classes to keep them mentally and physically active.

There is a need for this sort of site in order to raise awareness of what's available in terms of adult education in the region and to boost the uptake of local educational opportunities.

This will be run as a non-profit-making service with the main costs being the upkeep and hosting of the website and its supporting database and staff wages for the educational advisers, writers and researchers. Other associated costs include overheads such as office rental and utility bills, postage charges for the information packs and costs associated with hiring staff (national insurance and pension contributions). The company also incurrs accountants bills, insurance premiums and travel expenses for research visits.

Income will be generated through the retail of information packs following up on specific email queries. Educational establishments can also pay to advertise their courses and to place 'advertorial' articles. It is likely that the website may also attract funding from the local Learning and Skills Council. Any such grant will be used to develop the depth of research and quality of interactive service offered to the end user.

The site fits into the Organization to Individual (O-2-I) section of the online transactions grid in that we will be using the site to help individuals make informed choices about their education and careers.

http://www.mommysplace.net/
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The product and the market

The product is a non-profit service linking internet users to educational establishments.

Using the ES Test the product can be shown to be suitable for online delivery.

Product Characteristics
As an online directory, the proposed site will offer a rich way of accessing information relating to local educational opportunities. Access to the information is instant.
Score: 9/10

Familiarity and Confidence
Most people are familiar with education. However, joining a class or signing up for a new qualification is not an everyday occurrence. The customer needs to spend time researching different providers, courses and costs - all of which will be available online.
Score: 6/10

Consumer Attributes
"Experimenters" and 'Convenience Shoppers' are most likely to use online directories to find the information they require. "Value Shoppers" are also likely to use the service because it will allow them to compare the cost of courses and classes. 'Social Shoppers' may prefer to attend open days, although they will be able to find information on these dates online through the site.
Score: 7/10

Total: 22/30 Researching and booking classes and courses online is likely to be successful, although it will not completely negate the need for visiting the institution to see facilities and meet tutors.

The intended market for the online education portal are female 'returners' seeking to upskill after taking time away from work to have children. 16 year olds will find the site useful to evaluate colleges, sixth forms and a range of vocational activities, 18 year olds can use the site to help choose a local university and pensioners will use the site to find local classes such as art and genealogy.

Competition

There are in existence other sites offering similar information, for example http://www.intouchsurrey.org.uk/ who offer a non-traditional website based advice service.  However, our site would differ by offering regional rather than countywide information and also would feature articles on different courses each week.  The 'In Touch' website specifically caters for marginalised groups of people, whereas the proposed site would not seek to pigeonhole people and offer course choices by subject and locale rather than by categories such as 'disabilities' and 'basic skills'.

Another competitor site is http://www.hese.ac.uk/, who feature and link to colleges and universities across the region, although our proposed site would differ from this in its promotion of non-traditional learning experiences, adult education and community-based learning courses. This is our primary competitive advantage - that we can offer detailed information on a wide range of subjects at a very low cost.

Richness and Reach

Reach can be defined as the number of people the site will attract, whereas richness relates to the quality of the product, in this case information about education.
The proposed site is richer than traditional organisations which tend to advertise themselves alone and do not offer information on competitors courses. It will offer broad and unbiased information about all institutions across the South East in order to be wide-ranging and authoritative.
Richness will be added to the site through detailed descriptions of courses, college sites and pricing schemes. Features will also be provided about these subjects in a magazine style to make the site look 'chatty' and not simply an online database.

We will attract people to the site by advertising in schools, local newspapers and by getting as many links as possible from the websites of the institutions we feature. We hope that these establishments will allow us to market through inserts in their prospectuses. The online delivery of the product will add richness and reach. Richness through the quality and neutrality of the information provided, and reach through the Internet medium, bringing information to all that request it.