Introduction

About this Case Study Collection

This collection of case studies explores the business models of initiatives that provide technology or curriculum services to multiple organizations. When soliciting case studies, we looked for initiatives that could provide insight into two things:

1. Sustainability and operationalizing: What do services need to ensure they can operate and sustain a service or product over time?
2. Affordances and mechanisms of sharing and collaboration: What might sharing and collaboration look like, what makes it successful, and what are the benefits and challenges? As such, the initiatives described in these case studies tend to be collaboratively governed, use open licenses, or serve public institutions.

All case studies are written by people who have worked directly with the initiative. They provide an overview and history, and insight into the specific value and impact of the initiative. As this collection is focused on business models, the authors then discuss the following:

• Organizational structure and governance: the initiative’s legal status, how it operates, and how decisions are made.
• Revenue model: how the initiative is funded and how revenue is allocated.
• Sharing agreements: the agreements and mechanisms that enable sharing and collaboration, whether that be licenses, community agreements, or contribution agreements.
• Community engagement: how the initiative engages with partners, collaborators, and participants.
• Legal compliance: the work the initiative does to maintain legal compliance, including things related to privacy and accessibility.
• Reflection and learning: the challenges, successes, and recommendations based on the authors’ experiences with that initiative.

Although the initiatives described in these case studies provide services related to technology or curriculum, they come from a range of contexts, each of which provides a unique perspective and approach to sustainability and sharing.

About the Case Studies

Here is an overview of the case studies in this collection, along with some of their key contributions and insights.

Pressbooks

In Three Models for Sustaining Open Source Software: Pressbooks the authors explore approaches to sustaining an open source tool for publishing open educational resources on the web. This case study:

• presents a possible business model for an open source technology, where hosting the software is provided as a service (SaaS) and specific features and functionality are kept proprietary to incentivize becoming a Pressbooks client;
• highlights some benefits of open source technologies, including cost savings for a public system, community code contributions, positive reputation for a private company, and peace of mind for SaaS clients;
• argues that while open source software is technically free, it is not free to create, maintain, or host — each of those things requires expertise and resources; and
• demonstrates how a group of institutions have been able to pool resources and self-organize to support open education projects across their institutions.

BC Libraries Cooperative

Community-Owned and -Led Shared Technology Services: BC Libraries Cooperative describes an organization that exists to support the collective technology and licensing needs of the B.C. public library system. This case study:

• explains what it means to be a cooperative and how that works in a B.C. context;
• demonstrates the impact of resource sharing and centralized collaboration in a public system;
• describes how the cooperative uses open source software and contributes back to the community;
• demonstrates the value of member-run governance models; and
• describes how the co-op has pursued sustainability by expanding members and services.

AskAway Chat Reference

Sustaining Virtual Library Support through Multi-Institutional Collaboration: AskAway Chat Reference describes a virtual chat service that exists on post-secondary library websites where students can chat anonymously with a real librarian when they need help or have questions. This service is coordinated by the B.C. Electronic Library Network and 28 post-secondary institutions in B.C. and the Yukon participate. This case study:

• describes a tiered commitment model, based on institution size, that is made up of a combination of funds and staff time;
• demonstrates how multiple institutions pooling resources can create efficiencies;
• describes the role and value of centralized administration via the AskAway Administrative Centre;
• argues that the community connections that emerge as part of these collaborative models are very valuable and make the service more resilient; and
• discusses how collaborative governance structures cultivate buy-in and support for the service.

An International Medical EdTech Consortium

The Rise and Fall of an International Medical EdTech Consortium describes an international Consortium that was created to develop and maintain a medical educational technology. Despite many years of successful collaboration, the Consortium has since been dismantled and the technology sold. This case study:

• describes the benefits and value that specifically come from collaboration, sharing, and community engagement;
• reflects on the evolution of the Consortium over time; and
• discusses the specific decisions related to intellectual property, licensing, and governance that contributed to the end of the initiative.

Noteable

A University Providing Software as a Service: Noteable describes the business model of Noteable, a coding educational technology offered by the University of Edinburgh to institutions across the United Kingdom and internationally. This case study:

• shows how one institution can be set up to provide educational technology services across a national post-secondary system;
• describes a tiered subscription model based on institutional sizes and needs; and
• discusses key actions contributing to wide adoption and growth: address a wide context, meet a need, and make it easy to set up and use.

The Rebus Foundation

Leading with Values as an Education Charity: The Rebus Foundation describes a small charitable organization that provides professional development and support to institutions working in open education. This case study:

• describes the requirements for being a registered charity in Canada, along with the benefits and challenges;
• highlights the importance of leading and operating from values;
• describes a funding model based primarily on philanthropic grants in addition to service fees; and
• demonstrates how an organization operating outside of the public sector can serve the public sector.

Themes from the Case Studies

These case studies explore models that are diverse and context dependent; there is no one model that sustains all collaborative projects. However, these case studies do demonstrate some common elements and themes.

Sustainability is Iterative

Much experimentation, evolution, and trial and error goes into figuring out how to get an organization, a service, or a product to a point of relative sustainability. It is common for these initiatives to navigate changes in funding sources, revenue models, governance structures, clients, and more before they’ve identified a model that is truly sustainable;  even then, nothing is guaranteed. This is particularly true when thinking about governance and organizational structure. When initiatives are young and small, they benefit from more flexible structures that allow them to be responsive and act quickly. However, as initiatives grow and become more complex, there is a need to formalize and standardize to provide greater reliability and transparency.

For example, in Part 1: Pressbooks (The Company): Software as a Service, Hugh McGuire, founder of Pressbooks, reflects on the many years of lean budgets and uncertainty that the organization experienced while trying to build up clientele for their software-as-a-service (SAAS) offering. During those early years, there were only two paid part-time staff; fixed-term development contracts were key to ensuring they could continue to develop and maintain the software. Another example is AskAway, a B.C. provincial chat reference service for post-secondary libraries that is administered and coordinated by the B.C. Electronic Library Network (BC ELN). In Sustaining Virtual Library Support through Multi-Institutional Collaboration: AskAway Chat Reference, BC ELN describes AskAway’s evolution from a government-funded service to a service now almost completely funded by the participating libraries. A third example of the iterative nature of sustainability comes from the BC Libraries Cooperative. In Community-Owned and -Led Shared Technology Services: BC Libraries Cooperative, Scott Leslie describes how the co-op was formed to allow for the central coordination and provision of software services for provincial library needs. Since then, the co-op has worked to expand their services and membership base in order to be less reliant on government funding and more self-sustaining.

Centralized Administration Helps Sustain Collaborative Projects

Another theme emerging from these case studies is the dedicated coordination that collaborations require in order to succeed in the long term. Many case study authors identified the value in centralizing and formalizing the responsibilities associated with operationalizing and coordinating a service.

For example, BC ELN describes the important role that the AskAway Administrative Centre (based out of the BC ELN) plays in coordinating the AskAway Chat Reference service, including setting schedules, coordinating meetings, providing training, and handling payments. Similarly, the BC Libraries Cooperative is positioned to address the common needs of member libraries and do the work of maintaining existing services and investigating new services on behalf of their members. In The Rise and Fall of an International Medical EdTech Consortium, Matt Simpson describes the Consortium that was set up to sustain a medical educational technology platform that was being used by universities around the world. Although all users were involved in the consortium, the administration and maintenance of the tool was centrally coordinated by one university.

Collaboration and Sharing in a Public System Generates Efficiencies

Another theme emerging from these case studies is how collaboration and sharing allows groups to do more than they could on their own. This is especially crucial for publicly funded organizations and services, which are expected to efficiently leverage public money to provide maximum benefit to a public system.

For example, in Part 2 and Part 3 of Three Models for Sustaining Open Source Software: Pressbooks Josie Gray (BCcampus) and Michelle Brailey (Open Education Alberta) demonstrate how provincial coordination has allowed the two groups to provide their communities access to open publishing software more efficiently than if institutions were to each set up access on their own. The BC Libraries Cooperative describes how they are able to centrally host open source software on behalf of their members, which is a much more efficient system than each member self-hosting or needing to find an external vendor. And the BC ELN demonstrates that because multiple institutions contribute to the funding and staffing of the AskAway Chat Reference service, the service itself is more robust and reliable, especially for smaller institutions with fewer resources.

Flexible Contribution and Cost Models are Vital for Equitable Access

Some of the case studies describe collaborations between organizations of vastly different sizes and resources. As such, flexible contribution models and cost structures are vital in order to ensure equity across the collaboration. Without those flexible structures, smaller organizations are unlikely to be able to afford the services, which then limits the ability of smaller organizations to support their user community.

Examples of flexible contribution models include Open Education Alberta’s Pressbooks service, which is based on a combination of institution size and Pressbooks usage and BC ELN’s tiered-commitment model for the AskAway Chat Reference service.

Shared Governance and Community Engagement Foster Long-Term Buy-In

Sustaining buy-in for shared services depends upon shared governance models and the work to foster community engagement. It fosters a sense of ownership and responsibility and helps ensure the service is directly informed by the users of the service and meets their needs.

This is demonstrated most clearly through AskAway, the Consortium that developed around a medical educational technology, Open Education Alberta, and the BC Libraries Cooperative.

The “Tipping Point”

In telling the story of how their organizations or initiatives figured out sustainability, many case study authors identify a tipping point: a point where a decision was made, a critical mass was reached, or there was a push that moved the initiative from a place of uncertainty to a place of greater security and sustainability.

For example, in the case of AskAway, the ending of funding from BCcampus in 2014 resulted in participating libraries increasing their contributions to cover the shortfall and ensuring the service would continue to operate long term. When talking about the evolution of Pressbooks’s business model, Hugh McGuire identified the COVID-19 pandemic and associated post-secondary institutions’ shift to digital as key to bringing in enough business to allow Pressbooks to actually become sustainable. In contrast, Matt Simpson identifies the decision to transfer the intellectual property for a medical educational technology platform from individual contributors to one university and move from an open source to a community source license as key changes that allowed for the eventual sale of the software to private equity and the dismantling of the Consortium.

The Value is in the Service and in the Community

One key takeaway from all of these case studies is how often the value is in the service as much as (if not more than) the product itself. This is demonstrated by the many institutions and organizations, including Open Education Alberta, who pay Pressbooks to host and support the software for them rather than try to do that locally. These case studies also demonstrate the specific additional value that comes from models built around sharing and collaboration. For example, the value of the AskAway Chat Reference service is much larger than the specific functionality provided by the chat software. It also includes all of the cross-provincial connections, and resource and knowledge sharing that comes from librarians working together. When looking at Open Education Alberta’s model for supporting Pressbooks, they have also built a robust community of practice that allows them to share expertise and resources around OER publishing. And when reflecting on the dissolution of the Consortium after the sale of the technology to a private equity firm, Matt Simpson highlights all that is being lost: “[The Consortium was] a framework for collaboration, a mechanism for institutions to pool their knowledge, ideas, and expertise in ways that extended beyond code. The Consortium fostered a community where niche medical educational challenges could be tackled collectively and where institutions could refine not just their technology but also the very processes that supported their educators and learners. Its low-cost model allowed universities to invest in their own teams, developing internal expertise, innovation, and self-sufficiency.”

Conclusion

This collection of case studies offers valuable insights into the diverse approaches to sustainability, collaboration, and resource sharing across technology and curriculum service initiatives. While each case represents a unique context with distinct challenges and solutions, together they illustrate important principles for success. Through these real-world examples, we hope to provide practical guidance and inspiration for organizations seeking to develop or improve their own collaborative initiatives. Whether you’re establishing a new service or refining an existing one, these case studies demonstrate that with thoughtful design, clear agreements, and community-centered approaches, collaborative models can create lasting value that extends far beyond what individual organizations could achieve alone.