Repository Funding:
Sources
Strategies
and
Challenges
Potential Funding Sources
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Legislature
Re-allocation
Grant/s
Entrepreneurial
Corporate partnerships/sponsorship
Institutional support
Consortia
Private donors/endowments
Rice Connexions
http://cnx.org/
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Began in 1999 by Rice University faculty
Started with donor funding
Supported by:
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Rice University
Foundation grants (HP->$4m 2002-07)
Corporate/research groups
Individual donors
MERLOT
Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning & Online Teaching
http://www.merlot.org
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1997: started by the California State University
Center for Distributed Learning (CSU-CDL)
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1998: established a consortium
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1999: 4 state systems contributed
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$20,000 membership fee
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> $30,000 each in-kind support for faculty release and
travel (University of GA System, OK State Regents for Higher Education,
University of NC System, and the CSU System)
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2000: 23 new institutional partners ($25,000 each)
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Today: Academic and corporate partnerships/$$
MERLOT
MIT Open Courseware
http://ocw.mit.edu
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2000: proposed by MIT faculty
2007: completed the online publication of
the entire curriculum
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> 1,800 courses in 33 academic disciplines
Supported by foundations, corporations,
in-kind contributors, and individual donors
(Hewlett Foundation Grants 2003-2006 totaling
almost $6 million)
Intute: Government Funded
http://www.intute.ac.uk/
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Launched July 13, 2006
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previous incarnation was the Resource
Discovery Network (RDN) established in 1993.
Supported by
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Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
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Intute and its four subject groups
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
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partially funds Intute: Arts and Humanities.
CAREO
Campus Alberta Repository of Educational Objects
http://www.ucalgary.ca/commons/careo
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2001-2007
Funded through a Learning Enhancement
Envelope (LEE) grant (government of Alberta)
Maintained by volunteers
Grant now defunct, repository stagnated
due to lack of funding and volunteer
burnout
Wisc-Online
http://www.wisc-online.com/
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Started with a FIPSE/LAAP Grant 1999-2001
Received NSF funding 2001-2004 totaling
$819,850
State funding to build 100 LOs for 14 critical
core soft skills
Formed consortium of Wisconsin Technical
Colleges
Develop business in corporate training materials
Wisc-Online
Diversified Revenue Streams
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Corporate training development generated about
$200,000 last year
Each of 16 colleges also contribute about $6300
per year
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Users can purchase:
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Support a technician to maintain repository
Develop up to 10 learning resources
downloads or CDs of learning objects
source code; has not been a good revenue generator
Total annual budget of about $500,000
Two Examples
Kentucky Learning Depot: Allen Lind
http://www.kylearningdepot.org
The Orange Grove: Susie Henderson
http://florida.theorangegrove.org/og
Open Discussion of Funding
Sources for your Repository
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Legislature
Re-allocation
Grant/s
Entrepreneurial
Corporate partnerships/sponsorship
Institutional support
Consortia
Private donors/endowments
Questions & Answers