Presentation slides: ETUG Fall 2010 Workshop, New Westminster, British Columbia. Jo Axe and Geoff Archer, Royal Roads University Session Description: From personal enrichment to professional credentialing, distance education courses are growing in popularity. The convenience or necessity of learning in one’s underwear is significantly affecting the mix of how educators work. Yet for students, learning is enriched by engaging with others in activities that are directly linked to the world outside the living room. Striving to combine these two realities, Geoff Archer and Jo Axe investigated ways to connect online undergraduate students with each other and the external environment. In this session you will explore innovative ways to engage distance learning students through experiential activities that foster real social, environmental and commercial endeavors. As an integral part of an active audience you will participate in a discussion of four successful works in progress; 1) The Video Elevator Pitch, 2) The Online Venture Challenge, 3) The Microfinance Business Ideas Competition (www.mfbic.org) and 4) the Parallel Universe of SIFE Online.“

2. Engaging
Students Across
Space and Time
Geoff Archer
Jo Axe
November 4, 2010

3. Overview
Adult Learning
Experiential Exercises
Service Learning
Educational Travel
Clubs & Associations

4. Learning Theory
What do you know about how adults learn?

5. The Elevator Pitch
How many of you know what an Elevator
Pitch is?

6. Elevator Pitches in TV Shows
BBC's Dragon's Den TV show (UK) ,
CBC's Dragon's Den (Canadian copycat)
ABC's Shark Tank (U.S. copycat)
American Inventor (ABC 2006)
Others?

7. Elevator Pitches in TV & Movies
Sold, Bought or Processed (Say Anything)
7 Minute abs (Something About Mary)
Waffle Cone (Something About Mary)
iToilet (Curb Your Enthusiasm)
For Kids (Hudsucker Proxy)
Car of Tomorrow (Tucker)
Muffin Tops (Seinfeld)
Others?

8. Video Elevator Pitches
www.vator.tv
http://pitches.techcrunch.com/
www.prosper.com
Contests such as
http://beta.ventureport.org/elevator_pitch_cont
est.67.html

9. Tactical Solutions to Putting the
Elevator Pitch Online
What are your experience and/or
suggestions?
Youtube Vimeo
Everybody can see it or
you can delineate user
IDs for ‘private’ setting
Allows password
protection

10. Examples from the course
Which one of these is not real?
Lorraine
http://dspace.royalroads.ca/docs/handle/10170/384
Roy
http://dspace.royalroads.ca/docs/handle/10170/370
Tammy
http://dspace.royalroads.ca/docs/handle/10170/372

11. Video Elevator Pitch
Take-Aways
Enables Context
Encourages Creativity
Good Excuse to learn New Technology
Captures Visual Learners
Facilitates Contemplative Exchange

12. Unanticipated Reversal
The Video Elevator Pitch (developed to include
online students in a traditional on-campus
exercise) has so many positive externalities
that it will now improve the on-campus
entrepreneurship course

13. Experiential Exercise
How many of you incorporate some kind of
experiential exercise in your courses?

14. The Venture Challenge
11 year tradition at Royal Roads
Teams of 5 students
$5 Seed Money
5 Weeks
Raise max. profits for a charity partner
2010 average was >$500 per student
$41k total from 14 teams

15. How we took it online…
The Venture Challenge
Books for Literacy
Selling Used Books to Support
Literacy

16. Real-World Examples of
Mission-Driven E-Commerce
Alliance of Students Against Poverty
Artisan Wedding Rings
Baby Teresa
Basabody
Donors Choose
Exorcise Cancer
Figs
Filt Waste Oil Candles
Goodshop
Kidonaki
The New Masters of Fantasy
Procrasdonate
Rideshark
The Sustainable Village

17. Mission
The 'mission' you adopt is up to you. Here
are two examples of very different reasons
to purchase livestock online:
 Heifer International would have you buy a
goat to help a (human) family in need.
 The WWF (World Wildlife Fund) wants you
to buy a goat to help a leopard.
What is important to your team? Is there a
charitable organization whose work you
would like to support?

18. Business Model
Your team will design the business model that you
implement. Many different business models might
support the same mission. For example, Kashless
keeps used items (sofas, baby toys, flower pots,
etc.) out of the landfill by connecting them with
new owners. Babyplays keeps toys out of the
landfill by offering a rental service.

19. Profit-Orientation
Although 100% of your profit from this one
month of business needs to be donated to a
charity, the future business investment
opportunity that you present on September
21 can be either a for-profit or a non-profit
venture. This choice of corporate structure
is up to you and your team. Notably,
www.microplace.com and www.kiva.org do
roughly the same thing - connecting
microfinance lenders and borrowers. Kiva is
a non-profit, whereas microplace is owned
by eBay (and is obviously not a non-profit!).

20. Assessment
 10/30 for website DESIGN - this aspect of
the course is evaluated by Tracy as my
CTET Partner
 8/30 for PERFORMANCE – in the future we
will have benchmarks to guide this e.g.
Profit > $500 = A
 12/30 PRESENTATION

21. Results of the Online Venture
Challenge
OVC1 – February, 2010
E-commerce was NOT enabled
http://www.wix.com/claurin/lovebug
OVC2 – September, 2010
9 Teams raised over $7,300 in one month
http://www.floodofgoodwill.com/
http://booksforliteracy.blogspot.com/

22. Added Benefits
Some projects become real businesses
www.govoluntouring.com
Some are spin-in to real organizations
http://harvestchallenge2010.blogspot.com/
The Online Venture Challenge is a great
platform for on-campus students to learn-
by-doing in an organized, more easily
auditable way

23. Nelson Family Microbusiness
3-Phased Program
1. World’s First Microfinanace Business Ideas
Competition www.mfbic.org
2. The Microbusiness Experience: East Africa
3. Nelson Family Microbusiness Fellows

24. How Do We Know Which Ideas
are Best Suited for East Africa?

25. We Went There and Asked
What percentage of these students are
Online students?

26. Nelson Family
Microbusiness Fellows
3 graduating students
3 different ideas
3 different business plans
100 days in Tanzania
$5000 seed capital for each business
Transitioned to local entrepreneurs

27. Engaging Online Learners
What Other Methods Can We Use?
 Educational Travel (a.k.a Field Trips)
 Clubs (i.e. SIFE and now Real Estate)
 Faculty ‘on location’ coffee in major Canadian
markets
What are your ideas?

28. Be In Touch
jo.axe@royalroads.ca
geoff.archer@royalroads.ca