Q: I
am putting together a memory improvement course for college
students and eventually plan to tie this in with seminars as well.
But, for now, I'm a bit undecided about what kind of finished
product to sell. My choices are as follows: a) Write the course up
and present it in printed workbook form; b) Write the course up,
copy it to CDs and sell it in that format; or c) Offer the course
in both workbook and CD formats.
My way of thinking is that the CD format is better because of
the following presumptions: 1) Most college students own or have
access to computers; 2) Students would prefer learning from CDs
than from printed workbooks (although the students may want to
print out a few pages of learning material from the CDs); and 3)
It's less expensive to produce and sell CDs. Of course,
regardless of either or both these formats, I will have a Web site.
Any thoughts on these presumptions and how to go about researching
these concerns? I have a college degree but do not go to college
presently.
A:
Before I address your question, I have one of my own: Why is this
course only for college students? Keep in mind, college students
are just that-college students, and many of them already have full
schedules of classes that they're taking for college credit.
Plus, they've already paid their tuition and/or fees-will they
be willing to fork out additional cash to take your course? Some of
them might be interested, but if they're not getting any
college credit-and they're paying extra money to boot-they
might pass it up in favor of classes that meet their graduation
requirements.
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As such, you would be wise to extend your course to your
community as well. You could of course market it to local college
students, but don't leave out business professionals, elderly
individuals and others who might need a memory boost.
As for how to present this course-on CD or in a
workbook-you'll find that this depends on the individual.
Personally, if I'm studying something or reading something
longer than a few pages, I prefer looking at it on paper rather
than on a computer screen. But others might not care about
that-they might prefer a CD-ROM.
Your best bet is to make it easy for students to decide which
method they prefer. Your Web site will come in handy here-you could
put all the course material online, making it easy for anyone with
Internet access (which, let's face it, is everyone, given the
proliferation of home PCs as well as public places by which to
access the Internet) to download and print the information. You
might not even need workbooks or CD-ROMs.
Of course, you'll need to test it out. You could start the
course with the course material strictly online and see how
students respond. If they overwhelmingly prefer to access the
information via your Web site, that might take care of your
question about whether to offer the material in a workbook or
CD-ROM. If, however, they overwhelmingly want a tangible product,
you could make workbooks and CD-ROMs available.
You can start your research as soon as you have a Web site
ready, even if your course material isn't ready. Post an
application form on your Web site, and include a question on the
form about whether they prefer a tangible product (and what kind)
or online material that they can browse and print out at will.
Market the Web site to your target groups--see what kind of
response you get. Good luck, and happy teaching to you.
Karen E. Spaeder is editor of Entrepreneur.com and managing
editor ofEntrepreneur magazine.
The opinions expressed in this column are those
of the author, not of Entrepreneur.com. All answers are intended to
be general in nature, without regard to specific geographical areas
or circumstances, and should only be relied upon after consulting
an appropriate expert, such as an attorney or
accountant.