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Venture Analysis
ETEC522 for Dr. Vogt and Dr. Porter
by Leah R (leahbio)
Pain Point and Solution
Credibility and Advisorship
Presence Learning is a profit venture with large investor backing but has wonderful advisors and team members who are vested in the services they provide due to their own personal experiences with a speech or learning challenge. Therefore, they have a greater understanding of the need within the market.
From a credibility standpoint, as an investor I think based on that criteria I would be more interested in using their services knowing that they have a personal vested interest in my child's learning. This is especially advantageous to them since so many parents of children of special needs are often frustrated by sometimes the lack of decision-making leading to interventions by their school districts. In some cases, parents are not informed of programs implemented by their school to help their children.
This company is one way for educators and administrators to involve learner's families in the education of children with exceptionalities. Families who discover that a child has an exceptionality undergo many emotions which can include grief, anger, depression or stress (Smith et al., 2006). Including parents in their child's academic success and treatment of their exceptionality at home assuages these fears or emotions because they feel more involved.
The pain point that PresenceLearning is a valid one. More and more districts within the United states do not have the necessary funding to pay for one-on-one therapy within the school. Their solution of online therapy sessions diminishes budgetary constraints districts have on providing individualized care at a higher cost within a medical institution for their learners. They market their site very well with client videos, testimonials, offer parental information and lots of research data to back up the use of teleconferencing with SLPs and OTs vs. in person.
There is some competition amongst other telepractice online ventures within the U.S. Market; TinyEye, SpeechPartners, LearnItTherapy and VST.
PresenceLearning seems to be the only one with the most client users, actual statistical success stories from school districts, business credibility from the linguistic community that offer both speech language therapy and occupational therapy.
They offer flexibility to educators, districts and parents to access certified therapists who are culturally and linguistically diverse whenever needed. The improved availability is a huge asset to any stakeholder using their services.
They have demonstrated through research and their own personal assessment that learners are happier and more successful with their video interactions, games and activities. As a result, parents are also happier that their child has achieved greater success in their academics with respect to communication linguistically or their motor skills through therapy.
Competition and Marketability
Flexibility and Success
EVA CRITIQUE OF PRESENCELEARNING
This page will address the strengths of PRESENCE LEARNING whereas the next section will focus on it's weaknesses.
FIVES Criteria and Success
I chose to use the FIVES criteria (Towey, 2012, p.74) to assess PresenceLearning as an online service venture (as cited in Speech Techie, 2012)
• Fairly priced : YES
• Interactive: YES
• Visual: Multiple visual and auditory components.
• Educationally relevant: YES
• Speechie (i.e., programs rich in speech and language can easily be repurposed for therapy use): YES
Based on the results research by Grogan-Johnson, S.,et al., (2010) ,teleconference of speech language therapy online "appears to be an effective and reliable service delivery method for school age children who receive speech language therapy services in public schools" (p. 139)