Showcase Your Insights: Share Successes and Challenges with the Sustainability of Shared Technology and Curriculum Initiatives

By Josie Gray, manager, production and publishing, BCcampus

The Shared Educational Resources and Technology (SERT) Advisory Committee, managed by BCcampus, is soliciting case study proposals that address the sustainability of shared technology and curriculum initiatives. We are looking to get the word out about these case studies beyond the regular BCcampus network.

What We Hope to Learn From These Case Studies

Over the years, British Columbia’s post-secondary system has produced many locally developed and shared educational technology and curriculum initiatives. However, these initiatives often face challenges in sustaining shared service or technology in the long term. It’s easy to say, “Let’s just all share resources.” It’s much harder to put sharing into practice in a clear, fair, and sustainable way. Institutions are based in different contexts. They have different resources, processes, and priorities that can make sharing across institutions difficult. As such, we are looking to understand how other organizations have navigated these challenges to establish sustainable, shared services.

To address this challenge, the SERT Advisory Committee is seeking case studies from initiatives operating globally and across other sectors (i.e., education, health care, community engagement, workforce development) that have established sustainable models for sharing and delivering technologies or curriculum services across multiple organizations. Through these case studies, we hope to document the experiences and work of other organizations and share it back in a way that can benefit the B.C. post-secondary context and beyond.

What We Mean by “Shared”

For the SERT Initiative, we are thinking about “shared” at a systems level, or in this case, the sharing of curriculum and technologies across the B.C. post-secondary system. Rather than each institution developing or purchasing their own curriculum and technologies, how could institutions pool their resources to benefit the system? What needs to be put in place to ensure sharing is successful? As such, we are interested in case studies from initiatives that work at a similar systems level and serve multiple organizations, rather than individuals.

What We Mean by “Sustainability”

We are thinking about sustainability broadly, but still in a business context. What are all the things an organization needs to consider and work through to ensure it can continue to operate long-term? Things like:

Business model
Revenue
Governance
Legal compliance
Operations and growth
Community engagement

We are interested in case studies from initiatives that are non-profit, don’t rely on short-term grant funding, have established structures in place to support sustainability and operations, and can demonstrate longevity. We are willing to consider case study proposals from commercial companies if their service or product is openly licensed/open source.