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We are a start up company, buiding a E learning content for our medical schools/college and we are in good situaltion with the E learning tool however we do not have the content for our tool. We had hired consultants to build one but they couldn't give us more than few!! and we also try to partner with the medical university/school however they said all the preofessors are busy in practice, teaching and not able to find the time. And another problem they stated is the professors are not willing to adopt to the E learning (from their previous experince) and faced difficulty in motivating them, which she said is very challenging.

So i am looking for different ways of building content, and also money is concern now as we do not have a lot money left, so we have 2 strategy either get fundings (for which we need to give stakes and many people suggested not to go for now as your very nasal stage[7 months old company] & easily loose stakes for small money) Or sell the tool to 1 or 2 clients and with that money you can invest on content building. IF we sell what should be the product pricing? (lets say my product price is $10,000 with X-content)

So what strategy to use and is their a way to motivate professors(other than money)? We are 3 co founders already, So at this stage giving out some stakes is a good idea?

I know too many questions, but all are breaking my head Thanks in advance :) Karan

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Hi Karan, and welcome to answers.onstartups.com. I suggest picking a specific question and asking only that question if you want to get a valuable answer. Subject questions or questions that have too many questions posted in the text don't usually result in quality Q&A. – Michael Pryor Feb 27 '11 at 21:55
Hi Michael, Thanks for your suggestion really appreciate. Would keep in mind before posting one! – Karan Mar 5 '11 at 19:38

3 Answers

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Karen, I feel there is another option that you have not stated. Working with professors would be a plus because of their expertise, but professors can be difficult and it looks like you learned that. Instead have you considered working with a bunch of students? The right students will be motivated by experience, money, and a situation where they can learn and potentially fail. You hedge the failure problem by getting twice the number of students you would need (or more). Put them to making your content and search for a single content expert to review and sort the content to give you the best of what was created.

Maybe even structure your payment to the students on how much of their content is accepted, makes it more of a competition.

The biggest downside of this approach is time. If you and your partners can together find ways to extend your time in business to allow the content generation to run its course I think this approach will be very budget friendly and provide excellent content.

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I am strongly against this approach. First, let me tell that I am an associate professor. It has several drawbacks : the first one is that students are... well... students, so they mostly don't have what needed to design learning material (a good student know the stuff, but not how to teach it). But the main important drawback is that it is difficult to sell an e-learning content not designed by experts. – Sylvain Peyronnet May 1 '11 at 19:45
@Sylvain - I hear you, I would always prefer work done by experts. It's a classic cost/benefit analysis. If you can raise the funds to pay for good content, great! If not, one alternative is student labor that gives a good balance of cost/knowledge at the sake of experience. – Justin C May 2 '11 at 12:46
I will mitigate my comment: you can hire students for designing the content, and pay a professor to endorse it. It will be cheaper. – Sylvain Peyronnet Jun 6 '11 at 21:59
up vote 1 down vote

and we also try to partner with the medical university/school however they said all the preofessors are busy in practice, teaching and not able to find the time.

To me it's look like you contacted the wrong person. Did you ask directly to professors instead of university/college. I am an associate professor and I can tell you that if the money is good, then you will always find a professor that can find the time.

And another problem they stated is the professors are not willing to adopt to the E learning (from their previous experince) and faced difficulty in motivating them, which she said is very challenging.

It is true and false at the same time. If your e-learning platform is a carbon copy of a standard lecture, then its interest is zero. But if you provide new ways of teaching hard stuff, then it will not be difficult to make it accepted. Again, professors are the one to contact, this is the professors that propose to the university the teaching material, not the administrative team doing the opposite.

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up vote 1 down vote

I second Justin's approach.. Residents may turn out to be the answer you are looking for. As an example, the whole First Aid series is written by residents of different specialities, and so is a lot of other USMLE and Indian PG preparation material. Residents are some times better suited for creation of content as they have recently updated themselves on the material, during prep for their boards/exams.

I would recommend talking to people on online forums like http://forums.studentdoctor.net, http://usmle.net and http://aippg.net and getting them excited about creating content for you. If it helps them in preparation for their exams, they just might be willing to do it for free!

Another thing I would strongly suggest (though not directly related to your question): Focus on one subject/speciality initially and build 'depth' in that subject, covering all material in that subject. It will help you become a unique niche provider of content in that subject, which will provide you that 'extra edge' over existing tools and help you gain initial 'super users'.

It's great that you are thinking on the lines of creating content to complement your learning tool! All the best! Do share the link when you feel appropriate.

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