How to Provide One Stop Shop eLearning? A Real World Business Model

Abstract

We present a business model for eLearning targeted at small educational institutions, such as schools or colleges. Services are being provided by a consortium of partners around a non-university research institute. Key activities include installation, operation and maintenance of the technical platform by an application services provider. Consulting, training and support services are being offered by the research institute which also operates as a one-stop shop. While content creation is carried out by the customers themselves, they are being supported by features of the technical platform which offers possibilities for best practice sharing. Collaborative marketing activities sum up the partner activities. By offering a standard package that includes hosting, consulting, training and support, the revenue model is largely transaction independent. Additional services (such as additional consulting or training) can be obtained at additional cost and generates a smaller amount of transaction dependent revenue. A profit/loss projections shows that the endeavor can reach profitability after year 3 with a projected number of 28,000 students. We briefly discuss some factors that affect the business model, e.g. size of the institution.

The Know-Center is a Competence Center funded within the Austrian Competence Center program K plus under the auspices of the Austrian Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology (www.kplus.at).