GroupWork2.0
The following inforgraphic describes the marketplace for e-learning, specifically mobile applications and the K-12 and post-secondary sections.
GroupWork2.0 would target several of the market trends in e-learning. For example, the app would bring together the two most frequent use of in-class mobile devices - searching for digital content and communicating/ collaborating (MMS Education, 2014). Additionally it will have both a mobile version and a desktop version enabling students to have access to the content no matter what type of device they are using, because despite the increase of personal mobile devices owned by students not all students have easy access to a mobile device. GroupWork2.0’s key differentiation for capturing a share of the e-learning market will be interworking of search, communication, documentation and presentation applications within a common workspace.
Google is working hard at convincing schools to use its family of products and services as part of their move to expand their business beyond the search engine market. For example, Chromebooks replaced iPads as the most popular device being purchased by schools at the end of 2014 (Kosner, 2014). With their Education Suite they are trying to tap into the lucrative e-learning market, although their present Education Suite is purely focused on K-12. GroupWork2.0 would go beyond K-12 and to address the post-secondary e-learning market by being more about collaborative learning and less about classroom or teacher driven learning.
The GroupWork2.0 application would be beneficial to Google as it would help them to expand their products into the e-learning market by additional applications targeted to the K-12 market as well as the post-secondary educational market. The opportunity to provide hosted applications and services for common workspaces adds revenue potential and increases customer capture/retention to the ecosystem.