H817b – Block 2 – Activity 10 – Applying sustainability models
In activity 10 we are asked to consider four providers of OERs to determine which of Wiley’s models apply to them:
Coursera
I think Coursera is using the MIT model with elements of the Rice Model. Course material is presented from a number of collaborating companies and institutions (190+ according to the website (Coursera, 2020)).
Coursera employ a large staff including engineers, marketing and content strategists. This reinforces the idea that Coursera collate and distribute course material rather than create it themselves. Beyond information for potential beta-testers there is no request for any submissions. This would suggest that the material delivered is controlled entirely by Coursera.
Coursera offer a large range of courses and levels (including free courses). The sustainability appears to be based on subscription models (such as Coursera Plus which gives unlimited access to a range of courses) and qualifications with one off payments (such as Master of Computer and Information Technology).
BCcampus
The sustainability model for BCcampus is not obvious at first glance. They do not seem to fit with MIT, USU or Rice models. As described on their website (BCcampus, 2020) they receive funding from the Ministry of Advanced Training in British Columbia. They state that they provide income generating services, but it is not easy to find out what these may be. As they are a training provider for educators, perhaps this is one source of income over and above their core funding.
It is clear from their project pages that they distribute grants to in relation to open education. Their open education offering (https://open.bccampus.ca/) offers templates and resources to assist creating open textbooks. They state:
“We have created a robust selection of toolkits and guides to help you find, use, and modify open educational resources (OER) for your classroom.”
Which reinforces the possibility that they are mainly a training and resource provider.
FutureLearn
FutureLearn is a company partly owned by the Open university (FutureLearn, 2020). They seem to use a similar model to Coursera in that they collate and present courses from many different institutions.
The sustainability model of FutureLearn would appear to be users progressing from free courses to paid courses and subscriptions.
No individual model in Wiley’s paper exactly matches FutureLearn. There are elements of the Rice model again with the broad collaboration between institutions.
OpenLearn
OpenLearn is the free learning website from the Open University (OU, 2020). There does not appear to be a statement to provide all of the OU materials on OpenLearn but instead to provide free learning platform to reduce barriers accessing learning.
The material on OpenLearn is of consistent appearance suggesting that all content is created by the OU.
The sustainability model of OpenLearn seems to lie between MIT and USU. Material created for OU courses can be implemented across both the free and fee-paying courses so the latter support the former.
References
BBCampus (2020) About us, Available at: https://bccampus.ca/about-us/ (Accessed: 3th March 2020).
Coursera (2020) Welcome, Available at: https://www.coursera.org/ (Accessed: 3th March 2020).
FutureLearn (2020) Our Story, Available at: https://www.futurelearn.com/about-futurelearn (Accessed: 3th March 2020).
Open University (2020) About Us, Available at: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/get-started/about-us (Accessed: 3th March 2020).