Home Market for Educational OnLine Services Growth of Market and Strategies for Expansion Research Report by Dr. Barbara Kurshan December, 1990 Introduction During the past two years, because of the expansive infusion of computers into the home, the home market for educational online services has grown extensively. Accurate figures on the number of subscribers to these services are difficult to obtain, but general knowledge seems to indicate that the top service has over to 500,000 members while the one of the smaller services has approximately 500 members. Whatever the exact figure, the major telecommunication networks for the home have close to a million and a half subscribers. And this number is growing rapidly as the companies promote their services through initial software giveaways and first month free promotions. Users now receive Prodigy software with the purchase of a computer, NEA teachers receive Prodigy or Promenade with the buy a computer program and many organizations are offering network services to members at reduced rates for disseminating organizational products and information. Educators, students, parents and the user of a home office across the continent are connecting to telecommunication services to connect with each other and to access a vast array of information. All of the home consumer telecommunication services offer email, online references such as an encyclopedia, bulletin boards, conferences, public domain software, online shopping, travel and financial services, news and games. In addition, many of these services are now developing and implementing special online activities for educators and students. The education market is appealing to the consummer network services because of the traditional impact children have on parent buying patterns. Services are now being purchased because one student wants to communicate with his friend that just joined a service and another wants a service to get current sporting event scores. To entice parents to purchase the service, many new information products for education are appearing on traditionally consummer networks. Products on the services specifically designed for the education market include: online tutoring services; courses, education conferences, special school and youth bulletin boards, access to experts, games, references and interactive polls and surveys. These services are being developed by educators to be used at home or in the school by teachers that use the service at home. This report will present an overview of home services with a special emphasis on educational activities on the network. The report includes an overview chart and an analysis of the findings. Home Network Services COMPUSERVE, Inc. 5000 Arlington Center Blvd. P.O. Box 20212 Columbus, OH 43220 (800) 848-8199 CompuServe is the largest home market online service. It offers that most and has the largest user community. The services available include email, forums, software utilities, shopping, travel, entertainment, online references, teaching activities, new, finance and a host of bulletin boards. RATE STRUCTURE: CompuServe charges an initial fee of $39.95 but this is often free under special purchases. In addition, there is an hourly charge between $6.00 for non-prime time and a $12.50 during business hours. ACCESS: CompuServe is accessible through local CompuServe dial-in numbers, Telenet and Tymnet. In addition to the traditional online services, CompuServe has begun to offer some educational products. These include an online encyclopedia, an educational forum called SchoolNet, access to most of the large databases, daily news summaries, weather reports and access to research services. In addition, this year CompuServe is hosting a course on educational software being taught through ISTE's continuing education course program. However, these services are not the primary focus of CompuServe and in the past they have not pursued educational activities. DELPHI 3 Blackstone Street Cambridge, MA 02139-9998 (617) 491-3393 (800) 544-4005 DELPHI is a worldwide, online, full-service communications, information and entertainment network of General Videotex Corporation (GVC). GVC is the developer and marketer of high- quality online information services including DELPHI, INFOLINK Gateway Host Services (interactive database services accessed through incoming gateways); and GROUPLINK (customized private networks for corporations and associations). DELPHI is a fully interactive medium that allows members to communicate directly and amongst each other using the e-mail, real- time conferencing and bulletin board features. It provides special mail features including international FAX, Telex, and Easylink services. Users can access public domain programs and download software, enter worldwide conferences, view UPI news, obtain stock quotes, search Grolier's Encyclopedia, read current press releases, scan movie reviews, make travel and use extensive shopping services. RATE STRUCTURE: (New rates in effect September 1, 1990.) GVC now offers two membership rate structures. The Basic Plan offers usage at a rate of $6/hr., plus a $5.95 monthly fee which includes one hour of usage. The 20/20 Advantage Plan offers 20 hours of evening use per month for $20. Additional time is billed at the rate of $1.20 per hour. Costs vary for research depending on the level and breadth of the topic from $20 to $200. Access to Dialogue's search service costs $25/hr on top of Delphi's rate plus research fees. ACCESS: Direct access to DELPHI network in Boston or Kansas city is available at no additional charge. Members in other parts of the country can access DELPHI through the Tymnet data network through a local phone call at no additional charge during Home time (7:00 p.m. to 7:0 a.m., all day weekends, and several holidays), and $9.00/hr during business hours (7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., M-F). Access through SprintNet (Telenet) is $1.80/hr during Home Time and $12.00/hr during business hours. Access via PC Pursuit is free at all times. DELPHI has members from over 40 countries worldwide and through out the U.S. DELPHI has several regional affiliates (Boston, Kansas City, Miami, Argentina and Japan), which provide customized services for their specific geographic locations. In Boston, DELPHI has worked closely with WGBH Public television to provide additional references for television shows like NOVA and FRONTLINE. Kansas City members have access to the University of Kansas Library and other educational resources. DELPHI's partners in South America and Miami offer services in Spanish. In Japan, DELPHI's partnership with ASCII Corporation of Tokyo provides for access to many services through ASCII NET. Delphi provides conferencing, forum, email, fax, telex, and wordnet translation service. It also provides a meeting place and resources for members with common computer, professional or personal interests. Databases of public domain and shareware software, reviews, news pertaining to specific groups and other files are available for downloading. In addition, library access is provided to a wealth of reference materials including Grolier's Online Encyclopedia, with over 31,000 entries and the Kussmaul Encyclopedia. Librarian, an online research service and Research Library a Dialog service with over 250 educational, professional and legal databases. Terra Nova is an international online meeting place for discussions and information. Other educational activities include access to Project Orillas a foreign language project between US students and students in Spanish speaking countries. GEnie 401 N. Washington St. Rockville, MD 20850 800/638-9636 GEnie, the GE Network for Information Exchange, provides hundreds of services to its members including information retrieval on finance, news, travel, shopping, entertainment, special interest groups and subject-oriented roundtables which feature bulletin boards and real-time conferencing. Roundtables are offered for all types of computer-related groups to discuss types of computers, product support, and software groups. A Business and News Roundtable keeps members current on US and world events, provides financial assistance and information including Schwab Brokerage Services and Dow Jones News Retrieval along with information from the NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ. Shopping, travel and leisure and entertainment services and information are available online. RATE STRUCTURE: GEnie Star*Service launched October 1, 1990 is a subscription rate of only $4.95/month including unlimited non-prime time access to more than 100 products and services. There is no sign up fee. Non-prime-time is 6:00 p.m. is 8:00 a.m., local time, M-F, Saturday, Sunday and all holidays. ACCESS: Access is through local dial-up GEnie numbers. An 800 client services number (800/638-9636) is operational 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Saturday, Sunday, and all holidays to assist members. One educational service is CALC, the Computer Assisted Learning Center. This online learning service provides homework help and tutoring, continuing education, self-enrichment and some college- level courses for credit. Students may study towards associate or bachelor degrees offered by Edison State College in New Jersey. Other CALC services include downloadable software libraries, quizzes, a student union 'chat' and academic and career counseling. In addition, GEnie offers Grolier's Encyclopedia and Peterson's College Guide online. GEnie is investigating the possibility of offering SAT prep courses online. An Educational Roundtable Bulletin Board provides areas for discussion on an array of educational topics. GTE GTE Education Services Inc. 8505 Freeport Parkway Suite 600 Irving, TX 75063 (214) 929-3008 The system bills itself as the single, largest provider of on-line informational services to American education. GTE Education Services is an information service that provides curriculum and administrative information. Subscribers to the GTE Education Services Network can access a wide range of bulletin boards, databases, conferences and curriculum applications on general and special education topics. Special delivery services and gateways to other consummer, news and business-related services are also offered as part of the GTE Education Services Network. The major services provided by the parent, GTE Education Services, Inc., through the GTE Education Services Network include ED-LINE, SpecialNet, CNN Newsroom, Youth News Service, WorldClassroom, ISTENet and Electric Pages. In addition, VANet, ORNet, and California SchoolCom reside on the network. RATE STRUCTURE: Fees vary depending on the service being used. The annual fee for ED-LINE is $35 with a one-time setup fee if $25 and a minimum online access charge $14. SpecialNet has fees similar to ED-LINE. Usage costs for Edline and SpecialNet are $14/hr for 7a.m. to 6 p.m.; $7/hr for 6p.m. - 9 p.m.; and $4/hr for 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. Subscribers to EdLine or SpecialNet are allowed access to the other's network at no additional cost. CCN Newsroom is free to users with the only charge being time online to download the curriculum guide. The subscription fee YNS for a limited time is $179. With a subscription, users receive a one-year license to YNS NewsLine and a one-year subscription to YNS News, a twice monthly newsletter that usually costs $89. WorldClassroom has a set subscription fee of $395 which includes all connect charges, the curriculum and online and 800 line help. ISTE-Net and AASA ActionLine fees are set by the respective organizations. ACCESS: GTE is accessible through Telenet and Dialnet. Online Services: ED-LINE is the nation's oldest and most comprehensive electronic news service specifically targeted to education professionals. It is an online educational news service available as a bulletin board and as a searchable database. Subscribers have access to a network of over 9,000 educators. It was created and is maintained by the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) in 1981. The news service consists of news, research, statistical reports and policy developments tracked by NSPRA professionals, nationwide. Users also have access to NSPRA professionals and services. ED-LINE is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week on the GTE Education Services Network. ED-LINE bulletin boards and databases cover a wide spectrum of information critical to educational administrators and public information officers. ED-LINE Daily NewsLine, updated each weekday, is the nation's only online information service dedicated to education. Federal Alert Line covers governmental actions that impact education and Ed-Tech Update provides news and information regarding technology, hardware and software applications for schools today. Subscribers to ED- LINE have access to other GTE Education Network services including curriculum applications, conferencing and special education content at no additional subscription fee. SpecialNet is a worldwide electronic information and communications system created by the National Association of State Directors of Special Education for teachers, administrators, parents and students interested in special education. SpecialNet is carried exclusively on the GTE Education Services Network. Every state education agency in the U.S. uses Special Net, as well as one-third of the nation's school districts. Many colleges and universities, agencies, special interest organizations and individuals across the U.S. use SpecialNet, as well as professionals in 70 countries. Topics on SpecialNet include Early Childhood development, federal information for administrators, news of international meetings, promising practices in eight areas, data needs for personnel in all educational areas and text-searchable databases. CNN Newsroom is a daily broadcast produced by Turner Educational Services to bring current events and curriculum related topics to middle and secondary students (grades 6 - 12) and professional educators nationwide. CNN Newsroom is aired M-F on CNN at 3:45 a.m., EST. Each commercial-free program is 15 minutes long. The Classroom Guide provides a means to integrate CNN Newsroom content into a wide range of educational curricula. It is available from GTE Education Services by 8:00 a.m. each day. Each Classroom Guide includes a summary of the Newsroom program for the day, suggested classroom activities, discussion questions, additional sources and vocabulary lists. These materials allow in- depth examination of each CNN Newsroom broadcast with links to broader learning objectives. Youth News Service (YNS) is a national journalism cooperative that produces news and features stories by and about teenagers. YNS Newsline, the electronic voice of teenagers, is provided exclusively on the GTE Education Services Network. It features information on youth issues from a teenagers' point of view. The system is used by more than half a million students from the U.S. and Canada. WorldClassroom, sponsored by GTE Education Services, provides an opportunity for computer-based telecommunications to move into the heart of the curriculum. The network delivers curriculum and resources that can be used within each participating site and shared internationally. Curriculum applications are available for Science, Social Studies and Language Arts. In addition, users have access to guest speakers, technical and teacher forums, extensive online support and NewsLink, an international newspaper published by and for all participants. Currently, students from the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Soviet Union, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Lithuania, and Peru participate. Japan, Spain, France, Argentina, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Indonesia will join the network soon. The goal of WorldClassroom is to transform distance learning into an interactive experience that incorporates high quality, educationally-sound curriculum with immediate, personal feedback. It also seeks to foster students' understanding of each other internationally by increasing cultural awareness and engaging students in cooperative efforts to examine the worldwide problems of peace, hunger and the environment. ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) is the nation's largest nonprofit association dealing with computer- related technology in education. GTE Education Services Inc. provides an electronic franchise for ISTE and its membership which includes teachers and others interested in incorporating technology into education. The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) is set up the same way. GTE provides the electronic structure for AASA members to communicate. Electric Pages is the network which resides in and is of interest to the Texas Education group. This bulletin board and email system is sponsored by the Texas Education Agency and the AASA. Training is at customer request. Online training of all kinds is available through help, tutorials and help disks. Help is available 24-hours a day through an 800 number. Downloadable educational materials are available on WorldClassroom. IGC Networks PeaceNet and EcoNet 3228 Sacramento Street San Francisco, CA 94115 415/923-0900 PeaceNet is a service of the Institute for Global Communications, a division of the Tides Foundation, a San Francisco-based public charity. PeaceNet is to be used to help educate users and the general public in efforts to achieve world peace and justice. PeaceNet offers email, conferencing and information resources. Information Resources include databases on such topics as arms control and military legislation, bibliographies of international security matters and Central American current events, American and Soviet nuclear weapon systems, international peace organizations; peace movement job opportunities, progressive speakers and congressional voting records. PeaceNet is a founder of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). With partner networks in Nicaragua, Brazil, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden and Germany, APC is the world's only distributed computer network linking peace, social change and environmental access. RATE STRUCTURE: Costs include a one-time $15 signup fee, and a $10/monthly fee. Connect charges are $5.00/hr. for off-peak hours and $10/hr. for peak hours (M-F, 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.). Users get one free hour of off-peak service per month with their monthly payment and an extra free hour of off-peak service when they open an account. ACCESS: PeaceNet can be accessed from over seventy countries through local phone access on SprintNet. PeaceNet is also a member of Internet. PeaceNet has gateways to many international systems and mailing systems. PeaceNet, EcoNet, HomeoNet, and ConflictNet all operate out of IGC. A member of one network has access to the others. These bulletin- board-style networks provide the vehicles for world discussions on peace, the environment, homeopathic medicine and conflict resolution. Two educational projects reside on PeaceNet and EcoNet: TERC's Global Lab is on EcoNet and The Copin Foundation Telecommunications Project is on PeaceNet. EcoNet appears to have the greatest educational-related traffic. EcoNet is committed to serving organizations and individuals who work for environmental preservation and sustainability. Resources available on the network include the Sierra Club National News Report, the National Wildlife Federation's Conservation Directory, Global Action Network's federal legislative information, action alerts and newsletters from around the world. Hundreds of conferences discuss disarmament, rain forests, the Middle East crisis and environmental education. The Alliance for Environmental Education, the North American Association for Environmental Education and international environmental educational groups use conferences to post announcements on educational matters. Grassroots environmental education groups including The National Wildlife Foundation have used EcoNet to post the information provided by the educational areas within their organizations. The Alliance for Environmental Education also puts downloadable materials online. K-12 educators use EcoNet as a resource to supplement their classes and as a laboratory for students and teachers to learn online. Electronic conferences are used to explore and discuss issues for class reports and projects. One example of a bulletin board activity involved a student research project on recycling and reuse of laser printer toner cartridges. He posted questions on the recycling and got feedback from experts all over the world. There are no education courses, per se, but groups are developing these applications now. Online help comes in two forms. Documentation is available online by exchanging email with the account support area. Dial-in help is also available but there is no 800 number for this service. PeaceNet and EcoNet are gatewayed to over 40 other networks like AT&T, Internet, BITNET, MCIMail and Telemail (SprintNet). Messages can also be sent via fax or telex. PRODIGY Prodigy Services Co. 445 Hamilton Ave. White Plains, NY 10601 914-993-8000 The Prodigy Services Company (formerly known as Trintex) is a partnership of IBM and Sears. It is an interactive personal service targeted at home computer users. Its users range from 6 year old children to senior citizens. Major Prodigy services feature information, shopping, stock quotes and news, brokerage, travel and leisure, consumer information, an online encyclopedia and learning opportunities, banking, expert columns and entertainment. Advertisements at the bottom of each screen help keep user costs down. The key to the financial success of the service will be the fees from orders placed for various products that will be purchased by consumers through the system. Depending on the product, fees range from two percent to 20 percent. RATE STRUCTURE: A flat rate of $12.95/mo. provides access to all services, 30 free messages a month and unlimited bulletin board access. There is an initial charge for connect software. ACCESS: PRODIGY services can be used in the Macintosh or IBM environment. Access is through a local phone call in most metropolitan areas. PRODIGY is not in the curriculum/education business but it does provide a wide range of features that can support education. Monthly National Geographic features, Nation in the News weekly feature, student contests, educational games and access to an online encyclopedia. WGBH Nova features monthly topics that have addressed the environment, fundamentals of science and basic physics of movement. National Geographic offers a look at places and people of the world and their culture, and has featured the Titanic, butterflies and the Erie Canal. Nation in the News is a weekly feature with an indepth look at a nation in the news. Prodigy's first foray into the educational environment was the Time Capsule contest. Time Capsule is contest for 1st to 12th graders. Last year 16,000 kids participated. Prodigy also offers reference materials such as the Academic American Encyclopedia and databases of hundreds of articles for parents. Consumer Reports and Dow Jones materials are also provided online for classes. Games offer reading, writing and computer skill development for children. These include Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, MadMaze, Smart Kids Quiz and Story World from Weekly Reader. Gateways offer access to banks, Easy Saabre and Dow Jones quotes. At the present time there is not gateways to other networks. Users cannot upload or download information, but they can print news and science projects. There is no online user help in the educational areas, but PRODIGY offers tutorials about the service, messages can be sent asking questions, an 800# offers help for installation problems and general system problems. Quantum Computer Services, Inc. 8619 Westwood Center Drive Vienna, VA 22182 703/448-8700 Promenade America Online PC-Link Q-Link Quantum Computer Services, Inc. is the parent company for Promenade, America Online, Q-Link and PC-Link. America OnLine is targeted at the Macintosh and Apple environment with a recent expansion into the MS-DOS market. PC-link was developed for Tandy computers and now serves the MS-DOS environment. Q-Link serves the Commodore community. Quantum's four separate services are organized by hardware users. The services on each service are generally the same. However, the interface on the more advanced machines is graphic and very user friendly. Services include email, chart lines, real time conferencing, courses, online classes, references, travel, news, entertainment and the usual shopping services. RATE STRUCTURE: Each service is priced separately but in general the costs are hourly plus a small monthly fee of approximately $6 that includes one hour of non-prime use. There is no fee for the software or for joining the service. ACCESS: Access to the service is through local Telenet numbers America Online offers the most educational services. These include online courses, tutoring, online home help, an SAT course and a database college guide. In addition, the service is planning online practice tests, a database of course syllabi and some form of book summaries like available in Cliff Notes. There are also several projects online initiated by teachers. Additional activities are being explored for implementation on this service and the others. Promenade is being given to teachers through the NEA buy a computer plan. This potential member group is influencing the growth of educational activities on all four of the services. PC-Link is part of the Tandy operating system and comes with the school computer package. THE WELL Whole Earth Lectronic Link 27 Gate Five Road Sausalito, CA 94965 415/332-4335 (voice) 415/332-6160 (fax) A Unix-based computer conferencing system with over 4000 users. Users are mostly researchers, librarians, and writers. The brainchild of Whole Earth's Steward Brand and Larry Brilliant, known for his work with the SEVA foundation and head of Network Technologies (NETI). Whole Earth and NETI each own half of the WELL. Brand envisioned the WELL as the "kind of thing coffee shops were supposed to be about, but are pretty hard to find these days." There are over 100 conferences categorized as business-education, social-political-humanities, arts-recreation-entertainment, grateful dead, computers, technical-communications, and the WELL Itself. Smaller conferences are held under each category with 100 to 500-600 options each. RATE STRUCTURE: Costs are $8.00/month and $3.00/hr. ACCESS: The lowest cost access is through CompuServe Packet Network without subscribing to CompuServe. Others access the system through PC Pursuit, a subscription service that comes in 30 hour packets. Mail gateways are available to MCIMail and SprintMail. There are no other gateways at this time. Through the WELL, members have access to a huge international communications network that connects universities, businesses, and research institutions. There are no specific activities for education but many teachers use the conferences in the form of an online lounge. OnLine help includes help conference, live-time support, office- hour support and a mini-manual. Comparative Information on Home Networks Educational Activities Service 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 CompuServe x x x x x x x Delphi x x x x x x GEnie x x x x x x x x IGC Networks x x x PeaceNet EcoNet Quantum Services* x x x x x x x x x The WELL x x *In general, marked services are available on all four Quantum networks. One some of the networks there might be additional charges for the service. Key to Information on Chart 1. Projects for classroom and/or home learning 2. Online help 3. Encyclopedia 4. Other research facilities 5. Courses 6. Conferences 7. Real time chat 8. Tutoring 9. Academic and homework help 10. Educational databases 11. School package - price, materials and program Conclusions The home market for telecommunication services is one of the fastest growing computer related consumer areas. This growth is being examined by educators and businesses that perceive that education is a potentially rich market for their services. Therefore, many services are being implemented and designed to attract the home user. Education in the home is important for all ages. Students want instant access to information, parents want to provide educational resources and supplementary learning materials, teachers want to enhance the classroom lessons and administrators in schools want to provide communication links between the home, the community and the school. Currently home network services all offer similar activities for home use. These include (there is not one service currently that offers all of these services): Online tutoring Courses Forums on educational topics Online references including encyclopedias Homework help Database access Practice tests Course summaries and syllabi Book summaries Educational games Educational products for ordering Access to experts Educational contests Bulletin boards for education Classroom projects The above services represent the obvious and the simplistic options for the fast entry into the home market. The next generation of home market services will need to be more sophisticated and unique. These services will include such options: as real time simulations; multi-player/participant games on the environment, peace and careers; testing with feedback; expert interaction; parent access to teachers and school information; access to integrated learning programs in the school district; adult literacy programs; and gateways to exciting online projects such as National Geographic's Kids Network, TERC's Star School Curriculum and Global Lab; GTEES WorldClassroom; Computer Pals Writing Program; and FrEdMail bulletin boards. In addition, networks will need to update and expand facilities to transfer not only data but sophisticated graphics, compressed media and multi-media products. In essence the network will need to become the electronic library, video store, movie theater, music store and coffee house. To provide these services, home networks will need to depend on a new breed of information providers. These developers will create network products that will be able to be delivered across any network. This concept is parallel to software that is now available on multiple platforms. A network product in this model is Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia. Regional telephone operating companies and commercial networks, are in the position to provide the channels for new networks and to develop new products for use by the home, schools, communities and the global village. This task will require insights into understanding that learning is now a life long task. NM. Here are the files I have onthe state network activity and home networks. I had sent these once and I don't know why you didn't get them so please let me know if you receive these. Haven't heard from Paul on his final decision. Will be in touch. bobbi Barbara Kurshan "Bobbi" Computer Education Consultant Educorp Consultants 4940 Buckhorn Road Roanoke, Virginia 24014 Bitnet: kurshan@vtvm1 Applelink: B.KURSHAN CompuServe: 71420,3512 Office: (703) 774-0193