Home - SamArmand/Google-Expeditions-Reporter GitHub Wiki
- System Diagram
- Product Loop
- Goals
- Development Process
- Architecture Diagram
- Stakeholder Touchpoints
- Market Size
- Go-To-Market Strategy
- TUX Map
- Narrative-Complete Product
- Punch List
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Allowing the teacher to view relevant information about a student's activity
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Obtaining relevant data from VR devices to display to the teacher
These are three user stories that are visible from the system diagram.
- The teacher teaches the students the lesson in class.
- Students apply what they learned on the VR devices.
- The teacher monitors relevant information on student activity in the VR space.
After the last two product sketches, we can see that, while the third user story is the most relevant, we absolutely need to merge it with some aspect of the second user story in order to form a narrative complete product.
The teacher monitors relevant information on student activity in the VR space that was collected while they were using the VR devices to apply what they had learned in class.
A teacher teaches her students a class. She asks if they all understood. They automatically respond "yes". She asks if anyone has any questions. "No", they respond, almost robotically.
Without assessment, there is no way to know whether students have truly grasped the knowledge. VR allows for quick assessment of the learned skills in a virtual reality setting. A teacher can then monitor their activity to truly determine who grasped the knowledge, and who did not.
I’ve never worked on an EdTech (or VR) project before. This is a great opportunity for me to explore a completely new field in technology while simultaneously delivering a proof-of-concept which can eventually benefit both Google and the education sector.
I want to guide the team into delivering a product that is representative of their true potential - something that they will be proud to have created - not just a quick demo of something that already exists.
- Design a UX Wireframe
- Sketch the user flow
- Mock up the interface
- Gather Assets
- Start coding
- Implement only the designed interaction
- Stop coding
- Test
- Validate the prototype with users
- Rinse and repeat
| Who | How | When |
|---|---|---|
| Project team (myself) |
Talk to myself in the mirror | Every morning at 7:30 AM |
| Course administrators (Greg, Leland, J, Sonia) |
Email progress reports Presentations |
Weekly When required |
| Subject matter experts (Cornell Tech students with knowledge of VR and EdTech) |
Interview and have them try a new prototype | Whenever a new feature is developed |
| Teacher and students at a school | Interview and have them try a new prototype | As needed throughout the semester |
Global education expenditure is at about $5T annually. Only about 2% of education is digitized. The educational technology (EdTech) industry is expected to grow 17% annually to $252B by 2020.
Due to the current state of the Google Expeditions platform, we will focus on elementary, secondary, and combined schools in the USA, disregarding special-needs and vocational schools.
There are 97,369 public schools and 30,861 private schools (2012 est.) in the USA. Out of the public schools, 68.52% are elementary, 24.94% are secondary, and 6.54% are combined. We will assume that the same ratio applies to private schools.
Source: US Department of Education
Average class sizes vary at about 26 students in elementary schools, 24 students in secondary schools, and 19 in combined schools.
Source: US Department of Education
The Google Expeditions classroom kit is sold on Best Buy Education.
Source: Best Buy
Due to the average classroom sizes, we assume that elementary and secondary schools will buy 30-student kits and combined schools will buy 20-student kits. We also assume that extra devices and Google Cardboard viewers are available for classes that vary in size.
Apart from equipment sales, Google has yet to monetize the Google Expeditions platform. Based on application prices in App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android), other digital education platforms such as Amplify, and premium content on TES, we estimate schools to spend an average of $100 per device per year. This revenue is assumed to be received in-full by Google, as they will likely be the first to publish content, as they are currently doing with Google Expeditions.
The dollar value of the market size for this platform is about $596,542,000. If we estimate it within the Google Expeditions platform as a whole, then the platform's market size is estimated to be about $2,642,349,562.
At first glance, the total market size seems rather small for this new feature, especially since Google would need close to 100% market penetration only to reach the $0.5B mark. If we factor in the sales of Google Expeditions classroom kits as well as additional devices and viewers, and then add to all that the possibility of Google monetizing the Expeditions platform through the sale of third-party content, this figure will rise dramatically.
This estimate of market size is very conservatively only considering US operations. Since Google Expeditions has extended its reach to the United Kingdom, and support for more languages is being added, Google Expeditions may sell quite well outside the US.
This product concept should not be viewed as a stand-alone product but rather as an extension of the Google Expeditions platform. As such, demonstrating the use of this reporting feature through another tour similar to the Google Expeditions Pioneer Program, Google will be able to reach multiple institutions and get them to try out the system in the classroom.
Google owns the most used search engine in the world, Google Search, as well as the most successful advertising platform in the world, Google AdWords, which will make it easier (and cheaper) to spread the word. Both these advertising platforms should be utilized.
The success of this product's entry to the market will depend on content availability and quality. Google can likely develop some content to start with, however it is important that third-party developers start developing good content in order to generate repeated business and a justify the value proposition. Google already has a network of partners developing the current content on Google Expeditions, however they should probably start distributing software development kits (SDKs) for Google Expeditions to unaffiliated software developers and content creators, possibly video game developers.
The salesforce partnership with Best Buy can continue in order to facilitate the sale of Google Expeditions Kits. Although, Google may want to consider vertically integrating distribution since this new feature can eventually be integrated into its already existing Google for Education campaign.
It is rather difficult to acquire public schools as early adopters due to their management's limited control over curriculum and equipment budgets, therefore the bulk of marketing efforts will be placed on private schools, particularly those with a strong STEM focus.
Other possible early adopter groups are homeschool or distance learning students. Since this particular feature is being built to work with a cloud-based infrastructure, there is no need for the instructor and student to be on the same WiFi network or even anywhere near each other!
VR video game developers looking to expand into the EdTech space will be provided with the opportunity to do so.
The solution starts with any virtual reality (VR) educational technology application. In this use case, we focus on chemistry. After teaching a class on some topic, the teacher instructs students to complete a VR assignment.
In this case, a student is tasked with building the water molecule H2O. The student completes the task then submits the assignment.
While the student is using the VR application, it is collecting various points of data such as: total time spent on an assignment, tasks completed out of the total list of tasks, steps taken, et cetera. This information is sent to a real time database built using Google's own Firebase cloud platform.
Using this NoSQL database, information can be stored in any structure.
Information stored in Firebase is sent to the teacher's device running the main component of the solution: Google Expeditions Reporter.
As soon as the student finishes the challenge and the information is relayed through the Firebase database and back to the Reporter application, the list of students who completed it is updated.
To view detailed information about the student's performance, the teacher clicks on the name and is then presented with various points of data and metrics.
