Business strategies involving OER
Policy and practice report
The aim of this report is to explore how businesses are integrating openness into their strategies. We use openness as an umbrella term to include Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Educational Practices (OEP), this reflects the wider goals of creating more open educational and organisational cultures that support more diverse, equitable and inclusive approaches (Cronin, 2017). The report builds on the previous project report Strategic support for OER value proposition (Farrell, et al., 2022). The report is framed by the following overarching research questions:
1. How are businesses integrating open into their business strategies?
2. What business models are businesses using to integrate open?
The case studies are framed by two theoretical frameworks. A key method for scrutinising business strategy is the Business Model Canvas approach (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010) and its open version, The Open Business Model Canvas. Developed by Osterwalder & Pigneur (2010), this approach facilitates the analysis of a business model through nine fundamental building blocks that articulate the company’s strategy
and revenue models: Customer segments, Value proposition, Channels, Customer relationships, Revenue streams, Key resources, Key activities, Key partnerships, and Cost structure.
An additional noteworthy contribution to OER business models is found in Darwish’s (2019) work on Open Educational Resources (OER) Edupreneurship business models for various stakeholders. Darwish (2019, p. 3855) proposes a typology for educational entrepreneurship (edupreneurship) based on OER, identifying four distinct business models: the static model, the interactive model, the dynamic model, and the
transformative model. This report provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of seven case studies within the educational technology sector, each chosen for its commitment to openness in ethos and business strategy. The selection was based on the intersection between education, technology, and open principles.
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Coordinator of this work:
Orna Farrell, Dublin City University, Ireland
Report Authors:
Orna Farrell, Dublin City University, Ireland
Stefania Aceto, Universidad Internacional de La Rioja, Spain
Mark Brown, Dublin City University, Ireland
James Brunton, Dublin City University, Ireland
