First of all, we'd like to thank everyone for your continued support to the BrillKids online community. In the past year, we have grown our forum membership by leaps and bounds, and through your help, we have been able to offer two of our educational tools - Little Reader and Little Math.
As always, we strive to continually improve our products further so as to make it easier for you to teach your child, especially in response to all your valuable feedback. We are happy to announce that several changes will be made to Little Reader, Little Math, and the related Forum features.
OUR AIMHere are some of the important reasons behind the upcoming changes:
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Super SimpleWe want to make our programs very simple to use for virtually anybody. For users who are new to early learning and using the computer, you no longer have to think about what to play, or how to play it. All you will need to do is to press PLAY.
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Higher Quality ContentWe want to have more high quality content available, of consistent quality, so people will have a better idea what they get before downloading.
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Third Party ContentWe want to encourage professional third party content providers to produce content, especially for Little Reader.
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Payment OptionsWe also want allow users to pay as they go, on a monthly basis, instead of in one lump sum.
To achieve these goals, we will be implementing the following main changes:
THE LITTLE READER / LITTLE MATH LEARNING SYSTEMS•
Learning SystemsLittle Reader and Little Math will no longer just be software tools, but will now include a learning curriculum, along with the content to enforce that curriculum.
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Enhanced FeaturesThere will be new and improved software - more streamlined interface with one-click play for the next lesson in course mode. The next versions of Little Reader and Little Math to be released along with these changes will contain some of the new enhancements, with a lot more to come in future upgrades to be released later this year.
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BrillKids ContentThere will be A LOT MORE content produced by BrillKids, especially for Little Reader – many more categories, and much more media, including video and picture audio. Hopefully before long, we will also be able to offer third-party professionally-produced content, too.
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Payment PlansYou will have the option of paying to use Little Reader or Little Math on a monthly basis, or simply subscribing to one of the two available courses (6 months course and 12 months course). For these options, our programs will be available for use only until the end of the length of their course choice. You may also choose the “Lifetime” plan, where there will be no expiry or deactivation at any time.
NOTE: All users who purchase Little Reader before the deadline (including all current users) will NOT be affected by the price changes - you will enjoy a
free software upgrade to the new system, and will be able to carry on using Little Reader indefinitely. (See below for further details).
TIMINGWe are aiming to release the new systems some time during the
last two weeks of this month (May). This is also when most of the changes outlined here will take effect.
EDIT - PLEASE NOTE LAUNCH DATE PUSHED BACK TO JUNE 12th/13th. SEE UPDATE ANNOUNCEMENT HERE:
http://forum.brillkids.com/announcements/update-on-upcoming-changes/PRICINGNaturally, the development of the program and the creation of content and curriculum require much more resources for us, and the pricing structure will be changed to make it economically feasible for us to do so.
Although the whole system will cost significantly more, there will be options to just pay for the duration of the course you choose, or on a monthly basis to help spread out the cost.
Existing Users - As mentioned above,
all existing users of Little Reader and Little Math will not be affected by this price increase – you will continue to be able to use the software indefinitely.
This same offer will also apply to anyone who purchases Little Reader / Little Math BEFORE the release of the new systems.
DOWNLOAD AREAWe are going to separate the online lesson libraries for Little Reader into 2 sections:
Free and
Premium. Premium downloads will include all BrillKids content as well as user-generated content which meet certain quality standards.
These Premium downloads will require points for download (or in the case of BrillKids content, may also be purchased separately in content sets). Points details to be announced upon launch.
Similar changes may also be applied at the same time or later with respect to other user-generated content in the Downloads areas (such as PowerPoint and PDF files) although the amount of points involved will likely be different.
EARNING POINTSIf you are a creator of Little Reader content, points will only be earned if it has been approved to be classified as a Premium download, although the points earned will be substantially higher than what is earned now. Points details to be announced upon launch.
To get a Premium classification (which you can opt out of if you prefer that your content remains in the free area), your file will first need to be downloaded by other users a certain number of times, upon which it will be reviewed by us to see if it meets Premium download standards.
Similar changes may also be applied at the same time or later with respect to other user-generated content in the Downloads areas (such as PowerPoint and PDF files) although the amount of points involved will likely be different.
You will still be able to earn points by posting, adding videos, participating in forum discussions, joining contests, and referring new members and subscribers.
DISCOUNT COUPONSAll discount coupons for BrillKids products will be removed from the Forum Shop on May 20, 2009. A new system of discount coupons (details to be announced) will be introduced with the launch of the new system. Members should
NOT assume that any of the current discounts offered will continue to be offered with the new system.
IN CLOSING•
For anyone who is interested in getting Little Reader or Little Math but haven’t already done so, we would encourage you to do it very soon. •
For anyone intending to get any of the BrillKids coupons in the Forum shop, we would encourage you to do it very soon.Again, we'd like to thank all of you who have supported us through all this time. We look forward to continue providing you all with constantly improving products and services, and to help make it easier and more effective for us all to teach our little ones!
Sincerely,
KL
Founder, BrillKids Inc.
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