Study Buddy
AOL Homework Help’s search engine for K - 12 students
StudyBuddy.com was a search engine specifically developed by AOL for homework help that limited results to content that were pre-screened by teachers and librarians. Created for K - 12 students, parents, and teachers, the site was built to provide only useful videos, articles, links to websites, or educational games - limiting the risk of exposure to unreliable or offensive content from the web at large.
Students could search by subject area or enter questions into the search and find the homework answers they need. The search engine was built on the HP Autonomy platform; it searched partner content databases and thousands of educator-approved websites. Students could also choose their grade level and browse through thousands of articles on hundreds of topics designed to help with their homework. Study Buddy also had a dictionary, thesaurus, atlas, and a translator.
The site was also focused on helping teachers ensure the student’s homework was manageable in terms of time and the level of difficulty. Homework assignments were placed in the student’s virtual backpack, ensuring teachers and parents could see all of the assigned homework in a single location to coordinate and avoid overload.
Jason Munson
Director, Product Management (2005 – 2006)
AOL Homework Help – Subscription Products
Promoted to lead an essential eLearning customer acquisition program for AOL.com Subscription Services.
Created an Affiliate Marketing website (studdybuddy.com) to draw audience traffic and up-sell AOL.com eLearning Products.
Increased eLearning product subscription by 6% in year one, achieving break-even ROI within seven months of product launch.
Defined and ran the design (UX), development, launch, measure, and refine phases for a personalized AOL Homework Help website.
Vendor management, including RFP and selection for Digital Agency, System Integrator, Enterprise Search vendor.
Managed the internal team of content authors, designers, developers, librarians, marketing, product, and project managers.
Established market entry strategies; developed and closed strategic content and distribution partnerships.