Lrnr Marketplace

Lrnr’s marketplace allows you to build a course from scratch or gather content created from peers around the world.

As it stands today, each institution in higher education perceives itself to be a stand alone entity.  Instructors from each of these entities faces common challenges- increased student:instructor ratios, pressures from reduced state funding and diminishing student retention.  Instructors are challenged to find the time to dedicate to produce the material needed to fill the gaps in student learning. They are also challenged to find the right tools to use, often 3 or 4, to support the necessary digital trends that allow for larger classroom sizes.  All of these tools must then be learned and taught in conjunction with the curriculum they were designed to deliver. In the end, all grades must be transposed and transmitted through to the system used at the institution level.

The Lrnr marketplace is designed to give Instructors the motivation to create materials by allowing them to become the paid author.  We will build a community of instructors that spans the walls of the institution- allowing instructors to share content globally. Instructors will no longer be tied to the major publishing houses to deliver rich, engaging activities that are designed to meet the competencies of a course.  Assessment will become a part of the content of the course rather than an afterthought of a textbook. Instructors will visualize their table of contents by organizing their learning content and then begin to add supportive assessment much like a board is created in Pinterest. Each item is attached to a micropayment enabling instructors to control their costs and receive reward for idea generation.  

Many instructors have faced mandates to lower costs to ensure student enrollments are maintained.  Students around the world have to make choices on whether to spend money on education costs or bypass this opportunity for the current job market for which they are qualified.  Our marketplace is designed to flip the current high cost authoring business model- driving the cost of materials down while increasing the level of competition and creativity amongst authors.  Lrnr will enable end user decision making capability and disrupt course material solutions much in the same way Uber and Airbnb disrupted travel. A platform is needed that can provide a framework where a course can easily be constructed from a variety of activities, adaptive assessment, study tools, instructor resources and content.  Lrnr’s marketplace intends to provide this solution.

Lrnr Marketplace is a new technology that will provide a new digital space to drive the production of end-user-created content and assessment.  Lrnr has an existing application of course materials based on OER. Lrnr also currently provides a service to contracted clients to build out unique courses where they need assistance in personalizing their course without placing a burden of high cost on their students.  Our platform will expand Instructor capabilities- enabling them to hold the title of engagement expert, content creator, and course designer.

Lrnr Marketplace is challenged to solve a much bigger issue with the technology it provides.  We are in the midst of a digital divide. Students and Instructors are often of two different “schools of thought” when it comes to technology and our audience comes with a broad range of digital expertise.  The novice must be able to easily construct much like a child builds with legos. The creative must also be able to challenge the classroom norms of standardized tests. Finally the expert must be able to suggest ideas for new and unexpected improvements in digital learning.

Lrnr Marketplace will be building its first course in conjunction with Arizona State University.  Our goal will be to construct the platform and gain a base number of users. We will need to design a global marketing strategy that narrows the focus of disciplines in order to generate a large bank of useable courses and content.  Lrnr's current product has current customers that have already expressed a need for this authoring and classroom delivery product. 

Lrnr Marketplace plans to begin building the repository of information in the US and India simultaneously.  Let's take the India market for example.  The ability for low cost materials to be authored and delivered allows for medical curriculum to now be available in multiple languages and to remote users that currently aren't supported by the medical school infrastructure.  The ability to expand the student population in the medical field will help the country solve one of it's biggest challenges- a shortage of 3 million Healthcare/Nursing workers by the year 2020.

Lrnr will utilize our current product user base and key alliances like Arizona State University in the US market.  In India, we are currently housed in a start up accelerator that is facilitating meetings with key leaders in the industry.  Lrnr has the infrastructure to support the new product alongside our existing product.  

Lrnr has a current product that is being used by more than 60 US Higher Education institutions.  Lrnr is currently building the marketplace as described.  As authors continue to add and self curate content, our network of users will grow.  

There are 7000 US institutions who currently have complete courses built internally from the ground up.  The India market has over 38000 colleges that are relying on the costly traditional content publishing houses to provide materials.  We would target these opportunities first, growing the base of users and content. Based upon the disciplines surrounding the initial courses in the marketplace, we would target discipline specific instructors/departments to expand the user base.  

• Lrnr has assembled a smart, diverse and cohesive team of experienced professionals who know how to manage and execute the company’s strategic plan.

Lrnr will maintain 30% of revenue allowing the author to receive 70%.  Each activity and quiz that is authored will be part of a micropayment system.  When this activity is added to another users course- the author is paid based upon enrollment to that course.  In the current higher education model, the course total cost is paid by the student.  A complete course fee would be based upon the percentage of content created by the author vs. the content used from the marketplace.  

Lrnr Marketplace is being built at the same time that the Solve challenge was presented.  Solve would be a perfect opportunity to unveil our design and receive valuable feedback from the community.  

The Higher Education market has a slow sales cycle and has been historically apathetic.  We hope to change the level of excitement and provide opportunities to be rewarded for their work.  In the end, the student gains the most from this process as costs are lowered, engagement is increased and learning strategies are part of a global conversation.