udacity report

Monday, April 28, 14

INTEGRATIVE GROUP PROJECT

Team members: Bac Tran Hong Quang

He Huang

Siqi Li

Qing Li


I. What is MOOC?

II. An introduction to Udacity

III. PESTEL Analysis for MOOC

IV. Porter

V. SWOT

VI. The Current Business Model of Udacity

and Other Players, Recommendation

INTEGRATIVE GROUP PROJECT: UDACITY


What is MOOC?


WHAT IS MOOC?


An Introduction to Udacity


Founder

Sebastian Burkhard Thrun (born May 14, 1967) is an educator, programmer, robotics developer and computer scientist CEO and co-founder of Udacity:

- Research professor at Stanford University

- Google Fellow

- Inventor of the autonomous car and project lead on Google.


An Introduction to Udacity

Udacity is a for-profit educational organization founded by Sebastian Thrun, David Stavens, and Mike Sokolsky, the company is offering massive open online courses (MOOCs).

2011Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norving offered their Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

Feb 2012Udacity was announced at The Digital Life Conference

March 201190,000 students had enrolled the initial two class

20149 full courses and 24 free courses


Investors

LaunchedCharles River Ventures + $300,000 of Thrun's personal money

Oct 2012Andreessen Horowitz led the investment of another $15 million in Udacity

Jan 2014Masters degree program with Georgia Tech. Expect generate $1.3 million by the end of its first year

2014AT&T, which put up $2 million in

seed capital: well-trained engineers.


PESTEL Analysis for MOOC (in US)


Political

- The U.S. Federal Government does not directly support higher education.

- The U.S has one of the most expensive higher education systems in the world. In 2012-13, the average cost of annual tuition in the United States ranged from $3,131 for public two-year institutions (community colleges) to $29,056 for private four-year institutions.

- The reduction of state and federal appropriations to state colleges, causing the institutions to shift the cost over to students in the form of higher tuition.

Economic

- Many families went into debt in order to pay for their children to attend college.

- Financial bubble.

- U.S. Congress' occasional raising of the 'loan limits' of student loan which the increased availability of students to take out deeper loans sends a message to colleges and universities that students can 'afford more

- Keeping tuition increases at the rate of inflation would require the state kick in $128 million more tax dollars between now and 2015.

-Long-term price.


Social

- Tuition increases in the U.S. have caused chronic controversy since shortly after World War II. It was during a time when the workforce was slow from the aftermath of war and higher education was blooming in order to pursue more knowledge in hopes of finding a successful, stable career.

- instructor and administrator expenditures.

- 47% of American parent surveyed do not have the resources to put their children through college

Technological

- The era of all-the-time Internet connectivity.

- Affordable Internet connectivity to millions of homes. Meanwhile, the smartphone era ushered in by Apples iPhone launch in 2007 has removed most geographic constraints on this connectivity

- Media hype (YouTube)


Legal

- Lack of consumer protection: Federal law removing all standard consumer protections (truth in lending, bankruptcy proceedings, statutes of limits, the right to refinance, adherence to usury laws, and Fair Debt & Collection practices, etc.) strips students of the ability to declare bankruptcy.


Porters Five Forces Analysis


Buyers:-Students -Employers-Academy faculty

Suppliers:- Owners (Institution & Academy)-Technology companies

Threat of new entrants:Pearson Education

(moderate)

Threat of substitute products or services:

- University education- Corporate training- Apprenticeship(moderate)

Rivalry among existing competitors


Rivalry(among(exis0ng(

compe0tors:(

Coursera EdX Udacity

Credentials Founded by Stanford CS faculty

Collaboration between Harvard and MIT

Founded by Stanford faculty and Google employees

Classes 190+ courses, in diverse subjects

8 courses currently, expanding in 2013

15 classes, primarily in skills and computer science

Connections Stanford, Michigan, Princeton, Edinburgh

Harvard, MIT, Cal, University of Texas

Google, Stanford, Silicon Valley employers


The Threat of SubstituteProducts or Services

- Traditional higher education threat : high offer high quality course, supervision of teacher, verified certificated, interact with teachers.- Corporate training : (moderate) supervision, motivation from company, professional tutors.- Especially in companies like internet, tech, bio-tech, green energy.- Apprenticeship : (moderate) useful knowledge for your own work, experienced tutors.- Social network - Linkedin: Low (for Udacity: high)

Threat of new entrants:

- Pearson Education : Moderate

Demonstrating that they can provide a credible assurance of the achievement of students in non-accredited contexts such as MOOCs.


Bargaining power of suppliers

Powerful suppliers transfer costs to the enterprise or retain power and control over key aspects of the industry.

The collegial owners of the institution and responsible for much of the leadership of the academy who offer the courses.

Technology companies(Microsoft, Google, and Blackboard) achieve the level of scalability and robustness needed to support MOOCs with potentially hundreds of thousands of students. (think MOOC as a platform)


Bargaining power of buyers (niche market):

- Students : High Students depend on the system to deliver significant personal benefits, and make substantial personal investments in the system. Buying volume: low (personal) high (total)Other options: tradition school,books, EDX, Udacity, Coursera.Buyer price sensitive : high

- Employers & Government: ModerateBuying volume: moderateOther options: They can buy courses from MOOC or they can invite professional person or some training institution to train people They can get the employees information from linkedin (for employers)Buyer price sensitive: moderate

- Academy faculty : moderateTarget: the institutions do not have capital to depend upon. Buying volume : moderateOther option: Pearson education, books, hire professional teachersBuyer price sensitive: moderate


The Business Model

- The Udacitys current business model.

- Compare to Courseras business model

- Recommendation & strategy about a new business model for Udacity


Management & Analysis

Value Creation

Founding Team

Main Activities

Main Resources

Universities

Big Companies/Start-ups

Partners

Equipments Platform Management

Cost Structure Revenue Streams

From Recruiters

Free

Students

Working Professionals

Recruiters

CustomersFree

Course

Job-matching Programs

Informations about Top Students

Value Proposals Relationships

Community

Online

Channels

Employment Opportunities

From Employers

Subscription Fee

HR Course Instructors, Office

PremiumCourses


Develop Platform

Develop Partnership

Platform

Main Activities

Main Resources

Participating Universities

Partners

Platform MaintenanceRevenue Shared with Partner Universities

Cost Structure Revenue Streams

Free

Students

CustomersA Wide Range of

Courses

Free or Affordable

Easy to Access

Value Proposals Relationships

Coursera.org

Online

Channels

Certificate Fees

Meet-up

Marketing


Recommendation

- Concentrate on scientific courses, make it to be the best one in technical field compare to others.

- Extend range of target customer: ex. 2014 masters degree program with AT&T

- Create new partnership with more universities, like Chinese universities, to find new market area.

- Provide the courses to universities.

- Continue to build innovative and interested way to teach


udacity report

Documents

state colleges

form of higher tuition

sebastian thrun

social tuition

reduction of state

state kick

average cost of annual

world war