Overview of the IMMLP project to create outreach operations in Illinois. Find out more at http://www.marketplaceliteracy.org/ and http://makerlab.illinois.edu

1. Illinois Marketplace and
Maker Literacy Program
Aric Rindfleisch &
Vishal Sachdev
MakerLab, College of Business
Madhu Viswanathan
Subsistence Marketplaces Initiative
& Marketplace Literacy Project
Ron Duncan
Unit 27, U of I Extension
Philip Fairweather
Bethel New Life

2. What is Marketplace Literacy
• Focus on marketplace literacy instead of financing or market access
• Socially embedded form of marketplace literacy; not basic literacy
• Emphasizes know-why about marketplaces as basis for know-how
about being informed consumers or entrepreneurs

3. Illustrating Marketplace Literacy –
Running a food shop to survive?
• Have cooking skills to make and sell food (vocation
or trade skills)
• But to run it successfully – know-how
designing menu
ensuring raw material
identifying good location
• To adapt to changing circumstances and opportunities – know-why or
a deeper understanding of marketplace
retailing partly-prepared food to households
supplying restaurants
even changing from food to some other business based on a broader
consideration of opportunities

4. Exploring Marketplace Literacy
• Levels of marketplace literacy
 Vocational/trade
 Know-how
 how to design products
 how to communicate benefits
 Know-why
 Deeper understanding of
marketplace
 Why choose an enterprise
 Why strive for customer value

5. Marketplace Literacy Approach
Localized
Research
Generic Business
Education
Customized Consumer
and Entrepreneurial
Literacy
• Begin with know-why as basis for know-how
• Build on social skills irrespective of
literacy level
• Use role-plays, picture sortings, simulated shopping
• Treat consumer and entrepreneur as two sides of the same coin
• Concretize, localize, “social”ize

6. Marketplace Literacy Example Task
– Prioritizing Elements of Business
Wholesale Rice Shop
Rice Producer/Harvester
Wholesale Rice Delivery
Retail Rice Shop
Currency
Consumers

7. Method
• Bottom-up research to learn strengths
and vulnerabilities
• Curriculum development
• Broad learning goals
• Specific content/topics
• Instructional methods
• Materials
• Piloting and customization
• Documentation
Viswanathan, Madhu, S. Gajendiran, and R. Venkatesan (2008),
Enabling Consumer and Entrepreneurial Literacy in Subsistence
Marketplaces, Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

8. Assessment
• Qualitative
• Consumer literacy
• Entrepreneurial
literacy
• Quantitative
• Self-reports
• Ability
• Skills, self-confidence,
and awareness of
rights

9. Wider Deployment Through
Teacherless Multimedia
• Movie as emotional platform
• Embedded with marketplace literacy issues
• 14 video-based modules
• Community based television programs

10. Marketplace Literacy Education
• Two states in India
• Tamil Nadu
• Movie and teacherless video-based
education
• Andhra Pradesh
• Facilitator-based community videos
• Tanzania
• Ongoing small program with
Maasai tribe
• Argentina Pilot
• Illinois

11. Maker
Literacy
Empower
Train
Make

12. What if…

14. 3D Printing Benefits
1. Zero set up time
2. No material waste
3. Complexity is free
4. Self assembly
5. Precise replication

15. Content of IMMLP
• Consumer Literacy
– Before, during and after shopping
• Sustainability Literacy
• Generic marketplace literacy
– Examples
• What is important in forming a business
• The value chain
• Entrepreneurial Literacy
– Examples
• Philosophy of doing business
• Choosing a business
• Creating, communicating and delivering value
• Maker Literacy
– Integrated into topics above

16. Maker Literacy and 3D
Introduction
• What
• How
• Examples
Ideation
• Groups
• Empower
Application
• Demand
• Design
• Value Chain
Printing

17. Road Map
• Pilot and Launch – Urbana Adult
Ed – 2010-14
• Pilot: Summer 2014
– Bethel New Life, West Side,
Chicago
– Unit 27; Anna, Illinois
• Ramp-Up Now
– Programs with different partners
• Full speed
– Weekly programs in Southern
Illinois by January
– Bimonthly programs in Chicago

18. Beyond the Face-to-Face
Program
• Parallel development of Online Portal
– Manuals
– Teaching videos
– Exercises
– Caricatures/animations
– Local content