Comments from judges. I only picked out the ideas and categorized them for easy reference.
Distribution and delivery channels.Where the Internet does not reach, are the facilities for any type of playback available? How do we ensure playback in poor communities sitting on the wrong side of the digital divide? I think this is an important question to answer to demonstrate that the project is both well considered and realistic.
Continuity.
Marketing and fund raising drive to show that the project will continue beyond the original prize monies.
Content.
- A crystal clear vision of what the deliverable videos will or should be about? We need to make sure content aligns with the audience.
- It was not quite clear to me whether the team plans to focus on school, academic or do-it-yourself types of edu materials
- Basic literacy is the biggest obstacle of reaching the world’s poor.
- E-learning needs to overcome the physical barrier to train people to become critical, independent problem-solvers.
- Articles about e-learning: http://www.uopeople.org/groups/about_e-learning
Similar ideas.
- Open Education Resources: http://www.oercommons.org/about#about-open-educational-resources
- UK Open University: http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/
- Peer to peer university: http://p2pu.org/
- University of the People: http://www.uopeople.org/
Networking.
Networking, alliances, and proven business models are the areas this proposal needs to develop.
CONCLUSION
It’s very surprising (to me at least) that there are several similar successful models! The only problem is that the innovators are English speakers and from advanced countries. They did not tackle language problem and distribution problem. To successfully bring education to the most underprivileged people in the world (including millions of people in Vietnam), these problems cannot be undermined. I feel like Conned is the missing piece (and so we have a lot less work to do!) for Vietnamese people to enjoy world class education for free! (YAY! 
). Conned Academy is now very pleased to realize itself as a joint effort to make free, open education happen around the globe!
Accordingly, for now, Conned identifies the following direction for its next step (to be gradually refined):
- Focus on basic literacy, English, secondary level courses (grade 6 for now). Secondary school courses need to be taught in Vietnamese but using English textbooks or providing equivalent English terms so that learners can be ready to join the bigger world wealth of knowledge by the time they “graduate” from our e-school
. - Create an effective distribution channel.
- Create complete, engaging e-learning experiences. We can replicate an existing model, such as http://www.oercommons.org/about#about-open-educational-resources or http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/ or http://www.uopeople.org/groups/faqs
- Build a business model.
- Look for sponsorship.
We’ll leave the following for later:
- University-level courses taught in Vietnamese with equivalent English terms, using English textbooks. We’ll see if this is necessary.
- Open vocational classes. I think vocational classes is the other missing piece in open education. There are young people (but not too young) without a job, without skills, without time and under the pressure of earning a living to support themselves or their family. (we’ll leave this for later)
- Open traditional Vietnamese language, art, history, culture classes. I just feel like this is necessary. Once we decide to join the greater world, we also need to maintain our culture. (we’ll leave this for later)
A few things I’ve noted so far.
1. We need to redefine our target group so that we can be focused for the short-term plan. Updated high-school courses or vocational skills? We need to decide which one we have more resources to tap on and are more likely to realize it at least this summer. Make it works first then scale it up later.
2. With that focused group in mind, we then proceed to market research in order to design the core programs and attract the right people.
3. We need to partner ourselves with one credited educational institution in Vietnam. This is really challenging, though
Talk to you later!
I think “cấp 2″ will be best, not too young to use e-learning and still fresh to absorb the English terms in academic subjects.
partner with an accredited school would be nice, but i don’t think it’s that important now. just make sure our programs are world-class quality first.
btw, I just looked at those “similar idea websites”. Quite disappointing, one of them charges money, the other ones are not good enough and has no videos.
Targeting secondary students sound feasible for now.
I’m concerned how you define “world-class” quality? I still think we need to check on copyright issues if we will be adapting English textbooks. (and which one?) I think I can take care of this legal issue.
Regarding resources for affiliates, I’m thinking whether we should leveraged on retired secondary teachers. They have time to commit with us and passions for teaching. But a big problem would be language if we’re gonna use English textbooks.
However, I’m thinking actually the standards of local teaching materials between urban and countryside already has huge differences. Leveraging retireed teachers in cities and bring the resources to countryside pupils may be a good direction? What do you think?
For now I’m just guiding teachers with basic requirements. I’m encouraging them to use SGK with English terms, but please look more closely at the legal issues to adapt English textbooks if you can.
Retired secondary teachers are good resources. However, they have problem with English, which is a must, plus a conventional teaching method. We can contact them when we come back VN (or you can contact them before the final and get their commitment, that would be great to include in the business plan), but I think they’ll also have a hard time adopting new teaching concepts such as creative, critical thinking and project, which we are trying to do.
It’s still VERY worthwhile and potential though. Please try. It can turn out to be a very successful approach, no one knows for sure.
I’m focusing more on the younger teachers.