Presentation of Paul Bacsich, EDEN Fellow, Matic Media Ltd and Sero Consulting Ltd, for the Open Education Week's first day webinar on "Education 2030 – Open knowledge, skills, attitudes and values in Europe and the world" - 4 March 2019 Recordings of the discussion are available: https://eden-online.adobeconnect.com/pdu1u75yqba1/

2. Do we have a business model
for openness in Europe?
by Paul Bacsich
paul.bacsich@sero.co.uk

3. Don’t expect overnight answers!
It’s all a bit slow... even in US
• 1969: Foundation of UK Open University
• 1999: Quality on the Line: influential US
report
• 2019: “Higher ed groups ask for flexibility
with online learning rules”
And you were wanting rapid progress to
make OER and badges part of the HE
quality/accreditation system?

4. “Business model”
• “The method or means by which an institution
tries to capture value from its activities”
• “An institution’s core strategy to generate value,
normally in the form of revenue (from someone)”
• “An essential part of strategy”
• “The fundamental link between student demand
and the factors of production especially staff”
“There is no difference between a ‘MOOC-based degree’ and an online degree.
Let's stop pretending that these companies haven’t pivoted away from MOOCs or
that MOOCs are anything other than a limited marketing channel for tuition-based
online programs.” (Who said this?)

5. General principles
Courses cost money!
• Money has to come from somewhere, year after year:
• €uropean Union or other multinational entity
• General government grant to your institution
• Earmarked government grant to your institution
• Per-capita grant per student from government
• Foundations (e.g. Hewlett)
• Students (either direct from them or loans to them)
• Within your institution
(an internal business model)
5

6. EU business models for online
• In a few Member States, there is a viable business model for online
learning based on students paying fees.
• Clever schemes of fee unbundling (as seen in some MOOCs and
OER u) can make fees more palatable (if allowed under
regulations).
• The model works also if the government will provide extra resources
for each new student to institutions, but there are often quotas.
• A loss-leader variant of the model is that the online courses are free
but attract new f2f students to the institution (who then pay fees or
can be charged back to government).
• All other business models are marginal, which does not mean that
they are not useful, but they will not scale.
• They include impact, civic role, research, earmarked funding,
hovering and third party (sale of data).

7. EU business case challenges for open
• Development of MOOCs and OER is (was?) outside most
providers’ mission (as set by government)
• The classic “high-fees” market/business model of
OER/MOOC > MSc pull-through does not work well in most MS
• The classic “open textbook” cost-saving model can apply*
(SharedOER) but only when teacher autonomy is limited
• There are not yet strong drivers for better retention & grades
• “Quality” is as usual too diffuse and procedural to be a driver
• Business models work better when extended to VET and CPD and
“carefully” incorporate accreditation and APL [not as gimmicks]
* and only ~ 5% savings (UNESCO, SharedOER, etc)

8. Observations on US experience
Take great care in drawing conclusions for EU from US:
• Take special care with experience from California/Silicon Valley
• Note the financial resources and strategic flexibility of many US HEIs
• Check funding sources for developments you read about before
making assumptions on their long-term sustainability
• Understand that US population and immigration dynamics are
completely different from EU Member States and there are massive
skill shortages in some US states
• Accept that US employment laws are very different and employment
is much less secure, so “hiring mistakes” are more easily corrected
But there are relevant US practices worthy of attention:
• close integration of the vocational education sector (ISCED 4) with
the HE sector (ISCED 5-8) – and uniform quality/funding regime
• the importance given to vocational skills (such as programming)
• systematised easy credit transfer (not rhetoric)
• strong links to employers
8

9. Competences and outcomes
are not new solutions
• Only in some jurisdictions
• Most didn’t notice because they were
used “only in TVET”
• Luckily many of the techniques can be
applied in HE also (PLAR/APL etc)
US readers: microcredentials and micromasters are not new!
I first heard the phrase “modular masters” in 1996. (Anyone earlier?)
Ever heard of ECTS?
Of course in many MS, ECTS is a general theory not an operational tool.
See Bane of Bologna.

10. Unit 5 Title: “Selection and use of open and online content”
Learning
outcomes.
The learner will:
Assessment criteria
The learner can:
Suggested
assessment
method
O1 Understand
online, free and
open educational
resources,
relevant to own
specialist area
1.1 Describe the various
approaches to copyright and
their advantages/ disadvantages
in terms of use in learning and
teaching
1.2 Describe the specific
advantages/disadvantages of
open educational resources
1.3 Describe the impact if any of
the no commercial restriction on
own specialist area and
institution
Portfolio,
including
authenticated
evidence of
asynchronous
discussion of
these issues
Learning outcomes in action
at TVET level (4)

11. So what to do? And by whom?
• Take a systems and financial viewpoint
• Be patient: take EU, MS and institutions as they are
• Obvious recommendations may be unpalatable:
standardise curricula, reduce teacher autonomy, etc
• Broad focus: battle for Open Access is by no means won
• Avoid gimmicks, often based on misunderstandings
• Leverage more on lessons from other sectors
• Ensure quality and funding agencies do not have implicit
bias against non-classroom modes
• Incentivise one-off more than fund constantly
• Train teachers (ongoing)

12. And finally....
What ISCED
level is your
MOOC,
mummy?