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Book Trader
Feasibility Presentation
Orange Team
CS 410
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 1
Outline
Introductions
Problem Statement
Research
Solution Overview
Goals/Objectives
Solution Features
Solution Feasibility
Conclusion
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 2
Organization
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 3
Problem Statement
Due to the increasing cost of education and the
unproportional rise in textbooks costs students
are opting to make due without the textbook,
damaging their chances of succeeding in college.
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 4
Cost of Education
Virginia undergraduate students can expect to pay an
average 9.2% more in 2006-07 than they did the prior
year in tuition and all fees
Virginia is the 12th highest state in terms of college cost
Tuition and fees increased by 240% while textbook
prices nearly increased 300% from December 1986 to
December 2004 1
The average total cost for an in-state undergraduate
student living on campus next year is estimated to be
37.5% of per capita disposable income 2
1. State Council for Higher Education for Virginia
2. Government Accountability Report
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 5
Overall Rise in Costs
Average undergraduate tuition, fees, and room and board rates charged
for full-time students in degree-granting institutions, by type and
control of institution: Selected years, 1984-85 to 2004-05
Year and control of
institution All institutions 4-year institutions 2-year institutions
1984-85 $4,563 $5,160 $3,179
1994-95 8,306 9,728 4,633
2000-01 10,818 12,922 5,460
2001-02 11,380 13,639 5,718
2002-03 12,014 14,439 6,252
2003-04 12,955 15,504 6,716
2004-051 13,743 16,465 7,020
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 6
Public Perception
Cost factors prevent 48% of college qualified high
school graduates from attending a four-year institution
and 22% from attending any college at all 3
70% of parents of high school students think higher
education is being priced beyond the income of the
average family 4
Student access to higher education has declined and
students are taking more time completing their course
of study
3. Congressional Analysis of College Costs
4. California Student Public Interest Research Group
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 7
Textbook Costs
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 8
Yearly Textbook Costs
College textbook prices have grown at twice the rate of
inflation
The average cost of textbooks and supplies for a full-
time student in 2003-04 was $898 per year at four-year
public institutions
At two-year public institutions, where low-income
students are more likely to pursue a degree program
and where tuition and fees are lower, the average
estimated cost of books and supplies per first-time full-
time student was $886 --almost three-quarters of the
cost of tuition and fees
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 9
Annual Textbook Proportion
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 10
Textbook Legislation
Concerns over the growing cost of textbooks have reached
government concern 5
In April 2005, a Virginia bill that requires public colleges to
disclose the titles of required books as soon as the campus
bookstore receives the list was approved 5
Exempting textbook purchases from sales tax is another bill
proposed in Michigan 5
New York legislators are debating a bill to create academic
review board that would require publishers planning to introduce
a new edition of a textbook to justify its necessity 5
5. National Association of College Stores
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 11
Student Retention
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 12
Academic Success
78% of students have chosen not to buy a book
for one or more of their classes 6
73% of students said their choice was cost
related 6
“It has been estimated that 85% of learning in
college involves text,” Jodi Patrick co-author of
College Success Strategies and Active Learning
6. Student Success and Textbook Survey
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 13
Retention Factors
75% of college students live off campus and
80% have paying jobs 7
73.8% of undergraduates in 2003-04 received
financial aid 7
An NCES study suggests that full-time work and
part-time attendance, in combination with family
responsibilities, are barriers to completing a
postsecondary credential, at least over a 6-year
time period 7
7. National Center for Education Statistics
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 14
Solution Overview
Website to facilitate the trading of textbooks
Determines feasible trades between students and
alerts them
Maintains user privacy
Enables students to meet other students who
have taken the same course
Saves on the overall cost of education
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 15
Goals
Decrease the price students pay for textbooks
per semester
Encourage the use of textbooks to increase
academic success
Improve student success and retention through
the increased availability of texts
Provide a way for students to meet others who
have taken the same course
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 16
Objectives
Design a website that allows students to trade
their used books for the ones they need
Automatically match students who have the
desired item with the students who need it
Provide a method of private communication
between users
Provide a method of browsing users and their
books
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 17
Functional Diagram
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 18
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 19
What Does it Solve?
Provides one place for all students to swap
textbooks
An improved ability to swap books equates to
less of a need to buy new or used textbooks
Reduces a student’s school expenditures
Increases student success
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 20
Fliers Vs. Website
Flier Method Website Method
Create a flier, including Sign up
personal information Post the books you want to
Print flier and walk around trade, and the books you
campus posting it need to have
Wait for responses Wait for the site to find
Haggle with respondents available trades
over price or appropriate Contact the students listed
trades Set up a meeting and trade
Eventually determine a
proper trade or sale
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 21
Pros
Reduces yearly textbook and education costs
Easier than existing solutions
Student Privacy
No shipping / handling fees
Cheap and limited risk project
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 22
Cons
Needs users to succeed
Unreliable users
Requires similar book needs
Some existing solutions
Bookstore buy-back program
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 23
What’s in the Box
Web services
ISBN lookup
Trade listing
Email aliasing
Trade matching
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 24
Cost
Free for students and universities
Advertisers starting at $2 per ad for every
thousand views
Initial Investment
Hosting - $200/month
Coding – 740LOC
Site Design - $750
Domain Name Negotiation
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 25
Resources
Hosting
Web Server
Email Server
Support Staff
Database
Development Environment
Development Team
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 26
Tech Issues
ISBN lookup
Required textbook lookup
Browser compatibility
Data storage
Load testing
Server uptime
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 27
Management Issues
A website is a real time demand
Production must be rapid enough to meet
demands of users
Project would need to be deployed at a peak
time for textbook swapping
If the window for this is missed then the project
must be delayed
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 28
Scope
Will Do Won’t Do
Link students for trading Display personal
Allow students to information
contact each other Guarantee trades
through aliased emails
Email students about
available trades
User ratings
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 29
Competition Matrix
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 30
Customer Identification
Universities to reach student populations
Students to use the website for trading their
books
Advertisers to provide revenue for the site
operation
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 31
Student Support
According to the CALPIRG, 86% of students
would buy and sell used textbooks through an
online book swap 4
60% of students surveyed stated traditional
trading was difficult 6
4. California Student Public Interest Research Group
6. Student Success and Textbook Survey
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 32
Social Website Popularity
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 33
Customer’s ROI
Students
Lower cost of education
Put in contact with other students
Increased chance of success
Universities
Increased retention
Increased rank
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 34
Return on Investment
Average ad: $1 - $10 per thousand views 8
2 ads at $5 (per thousand) and 2k views per day at 100
schools: $2k per day or $730k per year
4,000 universities in the US
Average of 4,000 students
odu.facebook.com
20,000 views per day
vt.facebook.com
65,000 views per day
Facebook $100 million per year
MySpace $2 per user per year
8. Web Developers Journal
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 35
Risks
1) No Student Support
2) No Feasible Trades
3) No University Support
4) Server Failure
5) Website Failure
6) Database Failure
7) Security/Privacy Issues
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 36
Risk Descriptions
Student support – users to trade books
Feasible trades – student ability to find the books
they need with the books they have
University support – assistance to reach students
Server failure – when the web host goes down
Website failure – scripting components fail/buggy
Database failure – data is lost of unavailable
Security/privacy issues – student information being
revealed inadvertently or maliciously
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 37
Risk Justifications
Without student support the website will not function at all, but
Without feasible trades students will find the website useless, but
The possibility of university support is not great, but students
can still be reached without it
The possibility of the server failing is low if the host chosen is
decent, but if it were to happen the website would be
inaccessible
With regular backups the database information will be secure
from loss, but if it were to happen all site information would be
lost
Since no sensitive student information is asked for there is no
chance of it being revealed inadvertently, and information that is
revealed will be harmless
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 38
Ways To Mitigate Risk
Marketing targeted towards students
Link trades between three or more people
Convince universities of textbook cost and
success correlation
Acquire reliable hosting
Regular database backups, reliable hosting
Ask for minimal student information at signup,
secure coding practices
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 39
Conclusion
“An educated and skilled citizen is essential to the economic and
social health of every nation.” To accomplish this end, it is
crucial to make college education affordable
The pricing of textbooks affects quality and affordability of
higher education
Increasing prices in college education, including textbooks, are
causing decline in retention rates and academic success
There is need to provide alternatives to reduce the overall
expenses of a college student
Students using a website to trade textbooks will reduce the
overall cost of education and thereby increase student success
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 40
References
1. State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. 2006-07 Tuition and Fee Report.
http://www.schev.edu/Reportstats/2006-07Tuition&FeesReport.pdf
2. United States Government Accountability Office. College Textbook Report
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05806.pdf
3. Congressional Analysis of College Costs.
http://www.house.gov/ed_workforce/issues/108th/education/highereducation/CollegeCost
CrisisReport.pdf
4. California Student Public Interest Research Group
http://calpirg.org/reports/textbookripoff.pdf
5. National Association of College Stores. www.NACS.org/news/statebills.asp
6. Student Success and Textbook Survey.
7. National Center for Education Statistics. Work First, Study Second. Postsecondary Education
Descriptive Analysis Reports. Table 316. Percentage of Undergraduates receiving aid
http://www.nacs.org/news/statebills2005.asp
8. Web Developer Journal.
http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/articles/banner_ads/banner_advertising_industry_sta
ts.html
9. Make textbooks Affordable.org
http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.org/Koch_ACSFA%20College%20Textbook%20Cost
%20Study%20Plan%20Proposal_9%207%2006.pdf
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 41
Appendix
Estimated
2005-06 2006-07
Tuition and Fees States Tuition States Tuition
in Selected States Ranked
and
Mandatory Ranked
and
Mandatory
Public Colleges 1. New Jersey
Fees
$8,653 1. New Jersey
Fees*
$9,458
and State 2. Ohio $7,567 2. Ohio $8,271
Universities by 3. New Hampshire
4. Illinois
$7,190
$6,780
3. New Hampshire
4. Illinois
$7,859
$7,411
Cost Rank 5. Maryland $6,755 5. Maryland $7,383
6. Vermont $6,484 6. Vermont $7,087
7. Michigan $6,268 7. Michigan $6,851
8. Pennsylvania $6,263 8. Pennsylvania $6,845
9. Indiana $6,171 9. Indiana $6,745
10. South Carolina $5,984 10. Virginia $6,426
11. Connecticut $5,925 11. South Carolina $6,409
12. Virginia $5,906 12. Connecticut $6,346
7. National Center for Education Statistics
April 19, 2010 Orange Team - Feasibility Presentation 42
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