@article{0b18720ac6a2417e9c1713879bc1c328,
title = "Trends in the crowdfunding of educational technology startups",
abstract = "This article presents an analysis of active crowdfunding campaigns posted on ten crowdfunding platforms in May 2013 to provide a glimpse of the recent trends in the crowdfunding of educational technology startups. We describe the characteristics of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns in educational technology and identify the most popular crowdfunding platforms. This research provides important implications for educational technology entrepreneurs. Top performing educational technology fund raisers tend to a) request a modest but reasonable amount for each phase of the project, b) focus on the informal, out-of-school, rather than formal contexts of learning, c) attract supporters with a tiered system of rewards, and d) communicate with supporters and inform the public of the status of the project through periodic updates and progress reports. Directions for future research include conducting an in-depth content analysis of archived data and exploring the perspectives of successful educational technology entrepreneurs using qualitative interviews.",
keywords = "crowdfunding, entrepreneurship, project design",
author = "Antonenko, {Pavlo D.} and Lee, {Brenda R.} and Kleinheksel, {A. J.}",
note = "Funding Information: Numerous students and alumni in educational technology and related fields choose to pursue careers as designers and developers of educational technology products and services (Ritzhaupt, Martin, & Daniels, 2010). For example, in 1996 three instructional technology graduate students from Utah State University formed the 3GB group (3 Guys in the Basement) to create an online learning management system entitled Syllabase. The system quickly gained popularity and was adopted by several institutions including Brigham Young University, Colorado State University, and the University of Michigan. Syllabase research and development was funded through a grant by the Utah System of Higher Education; however, in today{\textquoteright}s climate of decreased state and federal funding, many educational technology entrepreneurs are exploring other options for seed funds, including venture capital and crowdfunding (Lawton & Marom, 2012). Funding Information: Crowdfunding was a direct societal response to the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and to the consequences of tighter business loan regulations and diminished funding from both federal and state agencies and private and corporate foundations. Crowdfunding, or collective, community-driven financing of projects, has attracted creative individuals from around the world since 2009 when the first crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter, was launched. Crowdfunding involves a person or an organization that proposes the ideas or projects to be funded, and “the crowd” of people who provide relatively small monetary donations to support the proposals. Fund-raisers and supporters interact using a crowdfunding platform like Kickstarter or StartSomeGood, which brings together the project initiator and the supporters. Given the public interest and the potential benefits to the national economy, crowdfunding has recently garnered attention from policymakers as evidenced by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act) recently signed into U.S. law (Chasan, 2012). Of the 50 highest funded projects through 2012 on Kickstarter, 45 have turned into ongoing entrepreneurial firms (Mollick, 2012). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2014, Association for Educational Communications and Technology. Copyright: Copyright 2015 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",
year = "2014",
month = oct,
day = "11",
doi = "10.1007/s11528-014-0801-2",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "58",
pages = "36--41",
journal = "TechTrends",
issn = "8756-3894",
publisher = "Springer New York",
number = "6",
}