Preliminary EarthEd Dissemination Plan

by W. Prothero, August 6, 2004

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Here are some of my ideas about disseminating EarthEd Online. I have discussed this plan with Jeff Ryan of NSF and he supports this approach. NSF appreciates the significant challenges faced by materials developers in their dissemination efforts.

Some of the issues faced by educator/developers are:

1.     Creation of a sufficiently robust and easy to use product for the non-programmer educator

2.     Long term support, as operating systems and computers evolve.

3.     Income stream that will fund technical support and upgrades.

4.     Advertising and distribution.

Resource that are available:

1.     NSF adaptation and implementation awards (Info re program: Nov 15, 2004 deadline)

2.     NSF Small Business Inovative Research awards

3.     Non-profit education companies

4.     Commercial publishers

My plan:

1.     Team up with one or two (preferably) bleeding edge early adopter types and apply for an NSF "Adaptation and Implementation" proposal. The amount available is not large, but would fund release time for the investigators and technical support time from a non-profit company (I already have a relationship with New Media Studio, who has a cooperative grant on my current NSF project).

2.     Work the early adopter team to finalize the teacher's interface and assignments library database. Useability issues would also be addressed.

3.     When the early adopter team is satisfied, work with New Media Studio (or some other non-profit or commercial entity) to create the widely distributable version. I presume that even after the early adopter team is finished, there will be various software issues to be addressed.

Challenges that I foresee:

1.     Startup testing. Sufficient startup dollars will be needed to do useability testing. Even though we have a lot of student feedback, observing student use by trained observers will prove valuable.

2.     Polishing and editing of teacher and student documentation.

3.     Creating a sustainable business plan will be the major issue. How will money flow for technical support and upgrades?

a.     Institution pays model: this has the advantage of gaining institutional commitment, but the disadvantage of making it difficult for early adopters who want to try something new.

b.     Department pays mode: possibly attractive for institutions where resources are available in the earth sciences department.

c.     Student pays: textbooks cost about $100, so this would be an upper limit. $20-$25 would seem more reasonable. But, this would only pay for technical support if the software was robust and there were a lot of students. An initial target might be an income of $20K/, which would require 800 students if a $25/student/class charge were levied. The assumption is that technical support would only be provided for the professor. Students would ask questions from the professor, or access a web site with a searchable knowledge base.