Shea Kelly, Abby Meader, Bryan Vomacka, and Luke Smith

1. Virtual Education Learning: Mobile App
Improving Educational Virtual Teams
Market Analysis by: Shea Kelly, Abby Meader, Bryan Vomacka & Luke Smith

2. “Big Idea”
● To create an educational mobile app that improves virtual teams among
students across the globe.
● Our group realizes the need for easy access to virtual teams of students
who can help each other to learn and retain information in a multitude of
different academic areas.
● According to Sherblom in 2019, “Virtual teams are ubiquitous. They
consist of geographically dispersed professionals who must combine
their knowledge to achieve specific organizational outcomes” (p. 144).

3. Improving Virtual Teams
● Our Virtual Education Learning Mobile App will help to assist in an
improved virtual team environment.
● With that being said, our app will provide users with Sherblom’s (2019)
Virtual Group Communication Participation Rules in order to work better
with other users within the app:
○ Get started right away
○ Communicate Frequently
○ Multitask
○ Acknowledge each other’s messages
○ Be explicit
○ Set deadlines

4. Problem
● Mobile apps have started to redefine what education is capable of.
Students are able to study and learn right from their fingertips, virtually
anywhere.
● Many apps exist to help students study with one another, such as: Quizlet,
Wikispaces Classroom, Padlet, etc. However, no apps offer students who
are studying similar disciplines from around the globe to seamlessly
create virtual teams with abilities to post study guides, group message,
and even video chat.

5. Industry & Outlook
● The Educational Mobile App industry is a
growing trend, making it easier than ever
for students to utilize helpful resources
needed for education.
● According to Shivam Srivastav from
Appinventiv in 2017, Educational mobile
apps are:
○ Providing easier access to education
○ Reducing learning costs
○ Allowing limitless learning
○ Improving student engagement
○ Offering students more collaboration
Source: GoodWorkLabs

6. Target Market
● The target audience for our app is high
school and college students.
● We believe these students will have the
knowledge and experience for collaborating
online.
● Any area of study will be able to benefit
from group collaboration through this app,
where you can share ideas, study guides,
and virtual communication to discuss
studies

7. Market Need
● CMC is constantly growing, specifically within
education.
● With classes being taught online, being able to have an
app for students to connect within similar areas of study
will give students more resources.
● Anyone globally will be able to get help and access to
these resources in the field of study they are looking for.
● According to Sherblom (2019) “virtual teams facilitate
dialogue and learning through the communication
processes of asking questions, providing feedback,
suggesting new ideas, and reflecting on task progress”
(p. 145).
● Through these processes team learning occurs.

8. Analyzing the Industry
● Chegg
○ Offers online tutoring, test prep, textbook rental/purchase, assistance with scholarship and
internship search
○ There is a limited free version; full version is 14.95 per month
● Quizlet
○ Primarily a “flash-card” study service that allows students to create online flashcards and share
with others
○ The primary functions of Quizlet are free; $15 per year allows access to several more advanced
features
● Padlet
○ Allows users to create a digital presentation
○ Base version is free; Padlet has several pricing models for schools, businesses and individual
teachers to purchase

9. Market Trends
● Many of the previously mentioned Educational Mobile Apps have a basic version that is offered
for free
● Users that want to take advantage of all the features that the app offers must pay a
monthly/yearly subscription fee
● Chegg is undeniably the leader in Educational Mobile Apps, but they operate primarily on a
tutor/student relationship
● Other apps like Quizlet and Padlet are limited in their functionality
● We believe that an app that focuses specifically on virtual teams of students helping each other
in a student/student relationship has massive potential
○ Features that would allow students to converse through text or video would be unique
and inclusive

10. Cost
● The average cost to develop a simple app would range between $5,000 to $17,000, depending
on the amount of features we would want to add according to devtechnosys.com.
● The average app developer can be hired from $12-20 per hour.
● So if we decide that we want team related features such as profiles, forum posting, video
conference, image and document sharing, and have the various studies categories for people
to link their profiles to, other features, et cetera. Our estimated cost is $46,350 according to
estimatemyapp.com.
● Say we hire a team of 5 of the best availible developers at $20 per hour and have them work 8-
hour days, it would take about 58 days to develop, factor in weekends/holidays/sick days. Then
it should be complete from 11-13 weeks at that pace.

11. Regulation
● As for regulation of the app, we obviously can’t launch in places like China or North Korea. It
just wouldn’t make it past the federal legislation placed by totalitarian regimes.
● According to Zhao Runhua, China is increasingly tightening down on education apps and
mandating private information be turned over to the government.
● Something that also needs to be established is terms of use policy, privacy policy, and
protection of our intellectual property.
● These are some of the things that are required to have a lunch on popular platforms such as
Apple’s app store and be protected.

12. References
Apple to Require Privacy Policies for All New Apps and App Updates. (2018, September 20). Retrieved November 21, 2019, from
https://www.huntonprivacyblog.com/2018/09/20/apple-require-privacy-policies-new-apps-app-updates/.
Cost and Features to Develop an Educational App. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2019, from https://devtechnosys.com/cost-and-
features-to-develop-an-educational-app.
How Mobile Apps Impact on Education Industry. (2017, October 3). Retrieved November 19, 2019, from
https://www.goodworklabs.com/the-impact-of-mobile-apps-on-education-industry/.
Oozou. (n.d.). Estimate My App. Retrieved November 21, 2019, from https://estimatemyapp.com/.
Runhua, Z. (n.d.). China Tightens Regulation of Education Apps. Retrieved November 21, 2019, from
https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-09-09/china-tightens-regulation-of-education-apps-101460287.html.

13. References Continued
Sherblom, J. (2019). Computer-mediated communication: approaches and perspectives. San Diego, CA: Cognella.
Team, S. (2016, March 29). Top 5 Legal Issues Facing App Developers. Retrieved November 21, 2019, from
https://appempire.com/top-5-legal-issues-facing-app-developers/.