1. This project has received funding from
the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 77006
CC BY 4.0
DOIT http://DOIT-Europe.net
H2020-770063
Business models for Open Educational
Resources: how to exploit OER after a
funded project?
Paper by Guntram Geser, Sandra Schön and Martin Ebner
1
Presentation by Martin Ebner, TU Graz
EdMedia Conference 2019, Amsterdam

2. I. Introduction

3. DOIT – A European Initiative
DOIT develops, tests, evaluates and disseminate
• a new learning approach for early
entrepreneurial education with social
innovation in makerspace settings
(„DOIT programme“) and
• open licensed materials (OER) for young social
innovators from 6 to 16 and facilitators
(„DOIT toolbox“).
Duration: 10/2017-09/2020
Grant: EC Horizon 2020 Research &
Innovation Action 770063 (2,4 million)
Webpage: http://DOIT-Europe.net

4. iMooX.at – a MOOC platform
with OER

5. How can OER be
exploited after
a funded project?

6. I. Open Educational Resources

7. OER Definition (UNESCO)
„Open Educational Resources (OERs) are any
type of educational materials that are in the
public domain or introduced with an open
license.“
UNESCO – see http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-
information/access-to-knowledge/open-educational-resources/what-are-
open-educational-resources-oers/

8. Open/Free licenses
e.g. by Creative Commons
Free usage, modification, attribution (BY)
of copyright owner and license.
Free usage, modification, attribution
of copyright owner and license (BY), re-publishing
under the same license („share alike“, SA)
Free usage without any further contraints –
see „Public Domain“
See: http://de.creative.commons.org

9. License: three layers
Illustration: Drei-Schichten-Modells: CC BY 4.0 International
Creative Commons - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/?lang=de
For lawyers
For machines / robots
Short version for
„normal people“)

10. OER is a solution for
restrictments of copyright regulations

11. Two Examples for copyright regulations
Source:

12. Two Examples for copyright regulations
Source:

13. OER is also a solution for other
challenges as well

14. OER is also a solution for
other challenges as well, for example
• Up-date of materials through others
• Usage through others (impact)
• Clear framework for co-operation and later usage
of materials
• Possibilty to cooperate and make something
together

15. II. Methodology

16. Literature on
OER business
model research

17. III. Business Models for Open
Educational Resources

18. 1. Community-based
In-kind contribution of content or
support of activities by community
members; the community of practice
maintains and extends the OER (this
model often depends on a few highly
commited core people)
Source: https://wiki.zum.de/wiki/Hauptseite

19. 2. Institutional
An organization assumes responsibility for
maintaining the OER in-kind, aligned with
their overall mission and core business;
education/training organizations can
incorporate the OER as a free element of
their otherwise paid or sponsored course
offering
Source: http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2014/01/acrl-
sponsors-new-interactive-open-educational-resources-book

20. 3. Governmental/NGO
Subsidies or grants by a governmental
agency or larger NGO; such funding can be
significant but is often unstable due to
shifting policy priorities
The German Ministry financed an OER portal
Source: https://www.bmbf.de/de/neue-informationsstelle-fuer-offene-
bildungsmaterialien-3519.html

21. 4. Philanthropic
Subsidies or grants by foundations, smaller
donations by individuals (e.g. crowd-funding)
The first German OER textbook was crowdfunded in 2014
Source: https://www.startnext.com/schulbuch-o-mat/blog

22. 5. Endowment
Financial contributions by one or several
parties to a fund, interest earned on the fund
finances the OER provision

23. 6. Membership
Annual contribution to a membership
organization (financial or an agreed amount of
support work or service provision); the
organization manages the maintenance,
extension and quality assurance of a shared
collection of OER
The biggest OER and free content collection about and from Austria
Is hosted by an organisation with several members, partners, sponsors
Source: https://austria-forum.org/af/Infos_zum_AF/Foerderer

24. 7. Partnerships
Exchange of complementary resources and
knowledge among a group of partners
(less formal than a membership organization)
A textbook on making with children, co-funded, delivered and published
by several partners
Source: https://www.bimsev.de/n/?Freie_Lernmaterialien___Making-
Aktivitaeten_mit_Kindern_und_Jugendlichen._Handbuch_zum_kreative
n_digitalen_Gestalten

25. 8. Corporate Sponsorship
Acknowledged support of the OER initiative
by a company (financial support, cost-free
use of services or other)
The MIT open course ware initiative can be seen as a corporate
sponsorship for own PR and marketing issues (MIT has fees for
students)
Source: https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

26. 9. Advertisers
Paid advertising of third parties is placed on
OER content; suitable advertisers must be well
chosen (issue of exposing students to
advertising)
L3T.eu is an OER textbook
which found 3 advertisors for the first edition (2011)

27. 10. Contributor Pays
Is a model for open access academic
publications not appropriate for individual OER
contributors; institutional providers may pay
for the hosting of larger amounts of OER
Source: CC BY SA Wikipedia
APC

28. 11. Consultancy, Training and
Other Support
Support of third parties for using the OER in
their programs, especially if the set of OER
and activities follow a certain model (e.g.
DOIT co-creative social innovation)
A MOOC for adult educators which is for free and OER
has several additional partner offers
as „Inverse Blended Learning“ for free – and paid

29. 12. Course and/or Certificate Fees
The OER is free but students (or sponsors) pay
for the educational program; in some cases the
students can learn on their own but pay for the
assessment and certificate
Source: https://www.mooc-list.com/course/meaning-rome-
renaissance-and-baroque-city-edx

30. 13. Value Added Products or
Services
Users do not pay for the OER but added value,
for example enriched formats, special tools or
services; called freemium or conversion model if
the provider actively uses the OER to convert
users to customers of the value added products
or services
L3T.eu is an OER textbook
printed version for sale!

31. 14. Licensing Value Added Content
Producers who add significant value to openly
available OER can try to license the enhanced
content to education/training providers

32. IV. The OER business model cards

33. Business Models cards

34. Sharing is caring!
CC BY 4.0
Guntram Geser, Sandra Schön and Martin Ebner
DOIT http://DOIT-Europe.net
H2020-770063

35. Contact
Dr. Sandra Schön (DOIT co-ordinator)
Sandra.schoen@salzburgresearch.at
Dr. Martin Ebner (presentor)
Martin.ebner@tugraz.at

36. Annex: More about DOIT

37. DOIT – A European Initiative
DOIT develops, tests, evaluates and disseminate
• a new learning approach for early
entrepreneurial education with social
innovation in makerspace settings
(„DOIT programme“) and
• open licensed materials for young social
innovators from 6 to 16 and facilitators
(„DOIT toolbox“).
Duration: 10/2017-09/2020
Grant: EC Horizon 2020 Research &
Innovation Action 770063 (2,4 million)
Webpage: http://DOIT-Europe.net

38. 3 strands
of DOIT‘s
learning
approach
ENTRE-
PRENEURIAL
EDUCATION
MAKERSPACE
& DIGITAL
FABRICATION
TOOLS
SOCIAL
INNOVATION

39. Makerspace
Learning room with
digital fabrication tools
for co-design and
prototyping

40. SocialInnovation
Social innovation meets social
needs and solves burning
societal challenges.
Schön, Ebner & Hornung-Prähauser (2017) -
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/32
4313817

41. Entrepreneurial
Education
Developing the skills and mind-
set, which allows people to turn
creative ideas into
entrepreneurial action.
European Commission’s Thematic Working
Group on Entrepreneurship Education

42. Objective of the DOIT programme
Support skills development for all steps in an innovation project
journey: identify the social need, create together, prototype and
sharing the idea of a new solution at young age.

43. DOIT programme:
7 steps for young social innovators in digital world
EXPLORE
Do it because
you can
SENSITISE
Do what
matters
WORKTOGETHER
Do it together
CREATE
Do it now
REFLECT
Do it better
SCALE-UP
Do more
of it
SHARE
Do inspire
others

44. DOIT supports children and facilitators
DOIT‘s toolbox and materials

45. Some more (future) DOIT results
Policy recommendation
and memorandum
Facilitator trainings
and open online course
(MOOC in 2020)
More than 100 success
stories of young social
innovators

46. This project has received funding from
the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 77006

47. DOIT consortium