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Peer Review

Consumer Guide to Buying a Franchise

Reviewed:
Jan 3, 2019 by Business
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Ratings

Overall Rating: 3.8 stars
Content Quality: 3.8 stars
Effectiveness: 3.8 stars
Ease of Use: 3.5 stars
Overview:

The Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s consumer protection agency, has prepared this Guide (free) to help prospects decide if a franchise is right for them. It suggests ways to shop for a franchise opportunity and highlights key questions they need to ask before they invest. This Guide also explains how to use the disclosure document that franchisors must give them — under the FTC’s Franchise Rule — so they can investigate and evaluate a franchise opportunity.

Type of Material:

Reference Material

Recommended Uses:
  • Individual assignment to report in class
  • Group discussion
  • Discussion forum topics in online class
Technical Requirements:

Worked on the following Operating Systems: Windows Vista, 7, 8, 10 Mac OSX 10.6+ Linux Ubuntu 12+ iOS 8+ (in browser) Chrome 31+ Firefox 35+ Internet Explorer 11+ Microsoft Edge iOS Safari 8.3+

Identify Major Learning Goals:
  • Understand the Franchise Business Model
  • Determine whether a Franchise is appropriate?
  • Learning to find and select the right opportunity
  • Comprehend the Franchise Disclosure Document
  • Learn to evaluate Potential Earnings 
Target Student Population:

Undergraduate business students

Entrepreneurship students

General public

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Would be good to have an understanding of general business and management principles

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:
  • Material is clear and concise
  • Good demonstration of the franchise concept
  • Subject matter on franchising is current, relevant and is grounded on core concepts,
  • Well summarized
  • Information provided is adequate and accurate at the point of publishing
  • Provided by FTC, so should be considered to be accurate information
Concerns:
  • Not designed for academics, as it is a Consumer Guide
  • Published in 2013, so may not be up-to-date on exact information
  • On top part of page, many other topics such as fraud, scams, etc., which may lead students to explore those topics.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:
  • Learning objectives are outlined
  • Franchising concepts are reinforced progressively by building on prior concepts and demonstrating its inter-relationships
  • It’s considerably easy to integrate into curriculum assignments and can be used to measure student learning outcomes
  • Provides a good framework for general decisions
Concerns:
  • Prerequisite knowledge on franchise business and its tools are not clearly evident
  • Learning efficiency is dependent on learner's ability to comprehend material and its subject matter
  • Instructor will have to develop assignments
  • Very simplistic, as those considering franchise would need more information

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:
  • Easy to utilize, with clear instructions and considerably engaging
  • Meets accessibility requirements and can be used on multiple types of mobile devices and platform
Concerns:
  • Some links are not working
  • Does not open in new page - students have to use back button
  • Lacks interaction
  • Not high design quality
Other Issues and Comments:

The Guide has to be updated on an appropriate basis to comply with app updates and upgrades

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