The Virtual Tutoring Owl

Introduction The Virtual Tutoring Owl is a product that has come when it is most needed. The Virtual Tutoring Owl, is founded by, Educational Concepts Inc., located at 2400 Calculus Blvd, Knowledge Rock, MD. Our company has chosen the test marketing area of Prince George County, a growing affluent county in Maryland. However, despite its affluent growing population, it has a declining under achieving school system.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on The Virtual Tutoring Owl specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Our in depth research shows that this is a unique situation, that has created a need for the school system to implement a tool that can drastically help improve their students performances. Introducing the Virtual Tutoring Owl, in that area will aid the school system and parents with a much needed supplement to enhance student’s academic performance. Research indicates that students learn more with online tutoring systems and intelligent systems than by using the paper and pencil format. This means that this product has been developed to fill the learning gap needed and also to supplement traditional teaching(Beins, 2004). The Virtual Tutoring Owl has been designed follow the trends of recent past of technological products. It has been constructed to mimic in design devices like the ipad or smartphones which are already familiar with the targeted clients. This will also give the product a more likely acceptance in the market place. This report will show the demand and necessity of the Virtual Tutoring Owl, based on the analysis of situational and external factors in the chosen test market area of PG County, MD school system. Purpose and Mission The purpose of this product is to introduce a supplemental educational device that will assist students in homework, hence achieving better test scores, without attending a traditional sit-in tutoring class. The product’s appeal is that it is: durable, wireless, less time consuming, user friendly, and lastly fun to use because it is voice activated and yields voice responses. The product reduces the amount of time that students would otherwise spend in going for after class tutorials. This is important as some students do not learn much from these after class tutorials as in most cases they are normally already tired. Classes are tiring to the mind. Therefore, if one is to have an after class learning session; it should be fun to the student to benefit him or her. The device also saves time for parents who have to look for a credible tutor and inspect the tutors past in order to establish their credibility. The product thus kills two birds with one stone. Apart from time, the product also save the client money in the long term as they will not have to keep paying the tutor who normally demand regular payments that may be inconveniencing to the parent. Buying this product which has a price range $150-200 do llars, will include all the basic subjects like Math, English, Communication and others learnt by students in the school and also be onetime payment opposed to the regular payments demanded by the traditional tutors.Advertising Looking for research paper on other technology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The product is also advantageous since it is portable, durable, wireless, convenient and computer friendly. Since computers are a big part of our lives, it would be beneficial for the students to learn using this product which will help them to become computer literate(Beins, 2004). Situational Analysis Current Product What is the Virtual Tutoring Owl? The product is a hand held voice activated device which is meant to assist students in their studies and in the process make the learning process easier and more fun. It is portable, easy to carry around, convenient, and yet affordable. Its database will have all major subject taught at public elementary, middle and high schools. Therefore, the product will have the ability to assist students in most any homework study situation and makes it even more convenient. The device can also help the student store questions in the device which he or she may ask during class. This gives students learning aids that help them capture every moment in the learning process (Krugman, 2009). How Does the Virtual Tutoring Owl Work? The Virtual Tutoring Owl is operated by speaking into the device, which also can be operated by hand application. The operator chooses a subject such as math, then sub category algebra. The student asks the device the equation. The equation is then displayed on the screen. Now, the virtual tutor will proceed to help assist the operator along with the answer, yet not automatically giving the answering. It will talk the students through the question step by step, asking rational questions, and confirming correct assumptions to help the students s olve problems for themselves. As an incentive, the Virtual owl has a unique built in feature that motivates students to use it frequently and longer. For every 30 minutes of use, the student earns 10 minutes of game time if they have 3 correct answers in any subject at the end of the session. (Krugman, 2009) Therefore, it will help pupils learn more, without feeling it is a chore. This will also make parents happier to know their children are spending more time studying, which is a goal of most parents. Target Market As an onset point, the product is going to target majorly in a rising affluent income area, where parents are seeking to save time, but still can afford to give quality education to their children (Blanchard, 2008). The marketing strategy to introduce the Virtual Tutoring Owl, in the Prince George County, is simply to find an area where it is most needed and fill it.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on The Virtual Tutoring Owl specifically fo r you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Demographics of Test Area Educational Concepts Inc., research shows that, the county has a unique socio-economic status and has great potential for launching the product in that area. According to Blanchard, the census bureau 2011, it is the 70th most affluent county in the nation per capita and the wealthiest county in the nation for Afro-Americans. The population in the area is well structured with a good number being in schools. Prince George’s County has a population with over 300,000 people and it has the third largest school system in the state. Yet, it has one of the lowest student performances rating in the country. This disparity gap has been created from a progressive transitioning of the status quo from earlier years in 90’s. In the past, the county had a high crime and poverty rate. However, since 2004, white collar workers have migrated to the area, and there have been decreases in crime an d the poverty rate. However, somehow the educational system has not keep up with the growing increase in the rise of the community. This may also be due to, high turnover rate of the schools superintendent (Blanchard, 2008). Marketing Strategy However, the increasing demands for higher scholastic achievement from the pressures of parents, school boards and teachers are still ongoing. If students do not achieve the minimum standards on state test, it will greatly reduce funding for schools in the county among other problems in the community. Studies have shown, in an area where the median household is $71,000 dollars, and 36 percent have bachelor degrees, the concern for a better school system is greatly in demand. It has caused some families to relocate or enroll their children in private schools. However, our organization understands that it is the concern of all parents, regardless of income status to have a competitive standard performing school system. Therefore, the Virtual Tut oring Owl will be made affordable, and collaborations will be made with the school system based on the family’s income, to either supplement, or partially reimburse parents for purchasing the Virtual Tutoring Owl. In addition it will be marketed for its likeable attributes. It is hand held, voice activated and portable as a cell phone. Therefore, it will be tagged as the ’’hip or cool† device to own, in which is a major concern among youths. Our organization anticipates by introducing the Virtual Tutoring Owl to schools and parents in the PG County area, it will be a very beneficial profitable venture (Blanchard, 2008).Advertising Looking for research paper on other technology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Moreover, the product will first target elementary, middle and high school students. This is because of the ease to inculcate the syllabus at these stages of learning. Students of these ages are most affected by the traditional learning process of tutoring, therefore giving the product good launch target in its take off stages. To be relevant, the product had to focus on the portion of the market that needed it the most which is the learning stages mentioned above. The product also targets parents seeking to save time and money but still give quality education to their students (Blanchard, 2008). Distributor Network The target distribution network will be in two segments. First it will be sold through a wholesale-retail-consumer format. The product will be delivered to all big boxes stores and big electronic stores the product and enable its development. The price range will be 150- 200 dollars (Krugman, 2009). Secondly, the company will collaborate with the school district directly to have them introduce it to parents and students. This device will be out sourced to be manufactured. This way the product will have maximum potential to be as competitive as possible. Competitors The products competitors include smart phones, online tutoring services and the traditional tutoring services. The competing edge against the smart phones is the lack of regulation that comes with smart phones. Parents are not able to monitor the contents being viewed by their children using the smart phone. This gives Virtual Tutoring Owl a competing edge since Virtual Tutoring Owl is all educational. The traditional tutors are an expensive option in the long term in both financial and time terms. The competing edge against online tutoring services is the tempting view of non-educational views like pornography. This means that the product stands at a good position in the competition edge (Krugman, 2009). Profitability The ability for the product to make a good profit margin will depend on the market uptake. Speculation is that the market especially where the product is launched is an affluent area meaning they have a huge purchasing power. According to a sample survey conducted in The PG County area by CFO Melvin Blount, out of 48 participants, 37 felt their child would have interest in a hand held learning tool, 36 felt their child needed academic help, 41 felt their child would have interest in a cell phone device, 33 would purchase it if recommend by their child’s school, 43 would purchase it if the school reimbursed their purchase, and 32 would be willing to pay between $150- 200 dollars for the product. Analyzing this survey report shows that the Virtual Tutoring Owl will be well received by its audience. If the tutoring device is successful in help raising the student’s performances, this could be used to enhance marketing for the product in other areas to widen the potential of making sales nationally. By using an aggressive marketing campaign , such as big scale advertising and collaborations with school districts, a key component in turning this product into a potentially very profitable venture. A narrow manufacturing cost and a widened marketing which will lead to increased sales and therefore increased revenue will ensure a profit margin (Blanchard, 2008). Market Expenses Market expenses would include the amount of money spent in promoting the product through the media and in the distribution. The product since it is a new product will require a lot of marketing and advertising in order to be known by the consumers. The product will need introduction to the consumers and therefore marketing in almost all forms of media for good results will be necessary. This marketing would include use of billboards, TV adverts, the radio and also the newspapers. Taking the product for review will also give it a good attention and thus promotion. This means a lot of market expenditure for the new product (Krugman, 2009). For a more detail look at marketing expenditures, find the attached financial report. External Forces Cultural Factors The ethnical background of the population is also going to provide the product with a positive edge. It is important to note that the area has a relatively mixed racial residence and has a 59% African-American population, and therefore if any common cultural factors in terms of ethnicity arise, at that time it will be addressed. However, because it is a common technology, and universally used, there should be no need for cultural adaptations to the product. The area has a good technological intake and therefore gives Virtual Tutoring Owl an ease in the adaptation process. Most of students residing in PG County are already employing technology in their education process and as such are at a good position to partake this new technology. (Blanchard, 2004) The higher quality life style perhaps gives them a common cultural Legal Regulatory The legal environment for the product is r anging fare. There is no legal barrier that the product faces which will give it ease in the marketing stage. Technology has been well taken by the government and has been a part of life nowadays. This means that the development of Virtual Tutoring Owl will receive a positive acceptance legally. Conclusion Educational Concepts Inc. believes that the Virtual Owl is an innovative technological product that will have a great positive influence in the education sector. The test area chosen gives the product marketing edge because it will be launched in an area of great demand for increased educational achievement. If the public accepts the concept of the Virtual Tutoring Owl, the company plans to expand into more broad fields such as SATs testing and colleges and universities. Our company feels that we tapped into the heart of what make students attentive in their studies. Learning needs to be fun, innovative and intriguing in order for students to retain and maintain progressive learni ng status. It has been our company’s mission to not only build an affordable device that will generate a high profit margin, but also give back to the education community, by making donations from sales to improve our schools. Educational Concepts Inc., feels that Virtual Tutoring Owl is an unique product, and is highly anticipated to be well received by the public, and therefore being a profitable venture. References Beins, B. (2004). Research Methods: a tool for life. Michigan: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. Blanchard, O. (2008). Macroeconomics. California: Pearson Hall. Krugman, R. W. (2009). Macroeconomics. New York: Worth Publishers. This research paper on The Virtual Tutoring Owl was written and submitted by user Mekh1 to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

How Important Is Vocabulary for the New SAT

How Important Is Vocabulary for the New SAT SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Studying hundreds of fancy words from big lists has long been a mainstay of SAT prep. But with the redesigned SAT focusing on medium-level words in the context of passages, do you still need to drill yourself on little-used vocab words? Before you expend superfluous energy to bolster your cognizance of recondite terminology (or waste time learning lots of obscure words), read this guide to learn whatvocabulary you need for the new SAT. First, what changes are being made to the SAT in terms of vocabulary? Changes in the New 2016 SAT The first and most apparent change in the redesigned SAT is the elimination of sentence completion questions. Gone are the stand-alone sentences with one or two blanks asking you to "choose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole." Instead, the new vocabulary questions are passage-based. They refer to a line within a passage and ask what a word or idiom meansin context.This is a big difference from sentence completion-style questions, so what does this change mean in terms of the skills being tested? With sentence completions, you pretty much had to know the straight definition of complex wordsin order to answer them correctly. The sentence indicated a definition, so you either had to know which word it was referring to or be able to eliminate the other four answer choices. You couldn't rely on too many context clues to figure it out. This is where your studying of SAT Word of the Day and vocabulary lists would kick in and help you fill in the blanks. With the new passage-based questions, you're asked to interpret the meaning of a medium-level word in context. The word may be familiar to you, but it can have different meanings or connotations depending on how it's used. On these types of questions, all of the answers may be correct as definitions of the term being considered. Only one answer choice, though, will be correct for the term as it's being used in that particular context. As you can tell, this is a big departure from sentence completions. It calls upon different skills and a different approach to studying vocabulary. Before discussing how you can adjust your test prep, let's look at a couple examples that illustrate these changes. Does all this change make cents? Old SAT Vocabulary Questions The old SAT had 19 sentence completion questions which tested traditional SAT vocabulary terms. The following is a typical example. There is no doubt that Larry is a genuine -: he excels at telling stories that fascinate his listeners. (A) braggart(B) dilettante(C)pilferer(D) prevaricator(E) raconteur This sentence indicates the definition of the vocabulary word: a person who excels at telling fascinating stories. You either have to know that "raconteur" means just that, or you have to know thatthe other choices don't fit that definition and use process of elimination to get to (E). If you don't know these words and their definitions, you're left having to make a wild guess. The new SAT, on the other hand, usually doesn't feature such difficult words. Let's take a look. Redesigned SAT Vocabulary Questions The new SAT asks about words as they occur within the context of the passage. You probably don't use "prevaricator" and "raconteur" all that often in daily conversation. The words on the new SAT are meant to have broader utility in college and professional life. According to College Board, the new SAT emphasizes "the meaning of words in extended contexts and on how word choice shapes meaning, tone, and impact." They give the following example (this is an excerpt from a longer passage): "...The coming decades will likely see more intense clustering of jobs, innovation, and productivity in a smaller number of bigger cities and city-regions. Some regions could end up bloated beyond the capacity of their infrastructure, while others struggle, their promise stymied by inadequate human or other resources." As used in line 55, "intense" most nearly means... (A) emotional(B) concentrated(C) brilliant(D) determined Based on this example, you can immediately see the difference in the vocabulary's level of difficulty. You can also see how all of those answer choices could be correct interpretations of "intense"- depending on its context, it could mean emotional, concentrated, brilliant, or determined. Only (B) concentrated, however, works within this passage, as intense is being used to describe the "clustering of jobs...in a smaller number of bigger cities and city-regions." Rather than calling upon your knowledge of a word's definition, this question asks you to glean meaning and connotation from the context of a passage. Did you notice any other differences in this question? It only has four answer choices, instead of five. These improved odds, plus the fact that the new SAT has no penalty for wrong answers, means you should always make your most informed guess on all the questions. Some other medium-level difficulty words that might be tested on the new SAT include "alleviate, consistent, synthesis, empirical, coincide, congenial, indelible, discord, occur, mention, emerge, admit, perform, fortunate, require, and maintain." Even if you think you know all these words, is there a way you can study them to be better prepared for SAT vocab questions? What Do These Changes Mean for Your Studying? Given these changes, do you still need to study vocabulary for the new SAT in 2016? I would still highly recommend studying vocabulary, but in a different way. You can forget about those lists of "2,000 SAT vocabulary words" (phew!) and focus on "multiple-meaning" words of medium-level difficulty. The key thing to remember is that these words might have different meanings in different contexts, so you want to ensure that you understand each word in all of its dimensions and applications. You can do this by finding a word used in several example sentences, rather than just one, as well as noting how vocabulary words are used when you readbooks, articles, and the news. The New York Times Word of the Day Learning Blog has a useful tool that lets you find all the articles in which a term shows up. While many of the words they feature apply better to the old SAT, you can use that idea of finding terms in many different sources to enhance your understanding of it. There are also several other sites that are helpful for studying these words in various contexts, like Quizlet and ProfessorWord. Plus, incorporating them into your own writing is the best way to fully grasp how their meaning is affected by word choice and usage. Since these changes closely resemble the ACT, you can also check PrepScholar's list of the 150 most commonly tested ACT words. College Board and Khan Academy have sample practice questions for the new SAT. Finally, when using older practice materials, I would recommend focusing on the passage-based questions, especially the ones that point to a specific word or phrase. Generally speaking, you can forget about the sentence completions. Overall, what are the most important takeaways from the changes that were made to the SAT? The Gist of Vocabulary Changes The following are the most important points to remember about vocabulary questions on the new SAT: Sentence completions are gone. New questions focus on moderate-level words that may have different meanings in different contexts, like "intense." To prepare, you should focus on learning how words are used in different contexts, along with how you can gather context clues to determine the meaning of a word. Check out sample questions for the new SAT and make sure you understand the changes that are being made. This will help you adjust your studying and not waste time focusing on material that's no longer relevant. Plus, studying vocabulary based on context will help you improve your overall writing, reading, and communication skills, which will be extremely helpful for high school, college, and beyond. What's Next? Besides vocabulary questions, what else is changed on the new SAT? Read about all the changes and what it means for your test prep in our full guide to the redesigned SAT in 2016. In addition to learning about the changes, figure out what these changes mean for your studying. Read all about how to study for the new SAT here. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points?We've written a guide about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: