LearningSoft launches ad-supported online learning games

Internet Strategies for Education Markets: The Heller Report, March, 2001

LearningSoft Corp. (Miami, FL, www.learningsoft.com) plans to offer advertising-supported, standards-based curriculum. Those terms don't often go together, and recent uproars over advertising to children can really make heads turn when the company states that their free, ad-supported online learning games will eventually provide a complete home-schooling curriculum.

A conversation with David Cole, ceo and co-founder, makes the plan sound viable. For starters, two members of the management team come from Whittle Communications, a legacy that Cole says has made the company sensitive to fears of commercialism. Chairman Alan N. Greenberg spent 19 years as vice chairman of Whittle Communications. Ashley Shomaker, vice chairman, previously worked as executive vp, marketing and sales for Channel One and Whittle.

The global company is also having to work through the issue of commercialism in numerous cultures. Cole says objections to advertising to children differ from country to country, with the US market being the most unaccepting. Even so, Cole says the company treats every market the same, working only with well-established, multinational brands that are appropriate for children or advertisers selected by local partners.

Cole doesn't believe controversy will scare away sponsors because he believes it will be evident that--whether the site is used for supplemental learning or home schooling -- advertisers are supplying a service that many families would not otherwise be able to have.

Furthermore, the ads are only for the consumer market. LearningSoft will also be selling commercial-free versions of the site to schools. Pricing has not been defined, but Cole says that, as he looks at competitors, LearningSoft would trend to the low end of the pricing scale.

Scalability

The service offered is a collection of standards-based learning games for children ages three to twelve. The technology provides shells of games that can be dynamically populated with a wide range of content for different subjects, ability levels or even languages and localized content. That, says Cole, allows for tremendous scalability. Backed by an artificial intelligence technology, the site observes usage and delivers appropriate content.

LearningSoft initially launched Jugamos.com in numerous South American markets on November 8, followed by the Portuguese language version, Vamosbrincar.com, for Brazilian markets. Gamebrain, their English language version for the US, launched December 8, 2000. Cole says he expects a first quarter roll out of a German version followed by a French version. Korea is likely to be their initial market in Asia.

Localization of content is achieved through partnerships with local educational publishers. Jugamos.com, for example, was created with Santillana USA, a Spanish language educational publisher. The company also uses local networks of teachers to build standards-based content, such as spelling lists or historical facts, to plug into their game structures.

The company plans wide distribution of the sites through partnerships with large portals or ISPs in their various markets. Revenue on the banner ad space available on the site is split. The site provides stickiness and promotional inventory; the ISP partner is responsible for filling the ad space.

The company also plans to leverage their global distribution by selling global sponsorships. A fast food company, for example, could build a multi-lingual "brand land" in which the games -- still linked to primary school curriculum -- revolve around their products and brand. Cole says such areas would be clearly delineated from the other games. "It would definitely be a subsection of the site," he says, "visually different and thematically different."

LearningTrac provides sophisticated Al

High quality will have to be their salvation amidst complaints against commercialization. Cole believes the company is differentiated by its LearningTrac software. Like MindSurf or LeapFrog, the company is using a dynamically loaded database to give the individual user a constantly changing, evergreen experience that is adapted to their needs. After initial play, it determines an age and populates the games with age-appropriate databases. A child's performance on those dictates future sets of content.

LearningTrac uses a proprietary artificial intelligence system that, says Cole, scales beautifully because the more kids use it, the better it gets. In an example of the system learning on its own, Cole explains that the system figured out that more than one child frequently use a single account. The system then bifurcated users into different buckets and delivered appropriate content depending on initial play during that session. Cole also says that the people running the system know that kids tend to lie about their age, but without additional programming, the system learned how to calibrate age and to deliver content at variance from the stated age.

The LearningTrac technology also provides monthly progress reports so parents and teachers can track progress. A variation on this technology, MyLearning Trac, allows teachers using the school version to populate the games with custom content relevant to their classes. The company had initially thought of licensing the LearningTrac technology, but this plan has been placed on the back burner. Cole does not want it used in competitive products.