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LON-CAPA Sustainability: Issues and Discussion

LON-CAPA Sustainability: Issues and Discussion. Cheri Speier Michigan State University 2003 LON-CAPA Conference. Sustainability Issues. Financial sustainability Ongoing system development Building user base Synergistic and inter-related issues!!. Financial Sustainability.

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LON-CAPA Sustainability: Issues and Discussion

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  1. LON-CAPA Sustainability: Issues and Discussion Cheri Speier Michigan State University 2003 LON-CAPA Conference

  2. Sustainability Issues • Financial sustainability • Ongoing system development • Building user baseSynergistic and inter-related issues!!

  3. Financial Sustainability • Component of NSF grant proposal • Create non-profit entity to administer system • Need to be financially self-sufficient and not rely on MSU to provide ongoing $$ support

  4. Where does $$ come from currently? • MSU support ~ $225K/year • Centralized IT • College and departmental resources • Is used to • Pay for ongoing system development • Pay for support resources

  5. And, what’s the problem? • Existing $$ not enough to support development and support needs • Overall economy presents a more uncertain funding environment • Non-MSU user base growing making it more difficult to “sell” MSU on providing LC resources

  6. So, what are the options? • System is open source—LC system is and will continue to be free • Service Provisions • Installation • Ongoing support • Training • Consortium membership • Content

  7. Installation and Support • Free support through • LON-CAPA mailing lists: http://mail.lon-capa.org/ • FAQ: http://help.lon-capa.org/ • Enhancement Requests/Defect Reports: http://bugs.lon-capa.org/ • Additional support provided by LC personnel • Remote installation support: $550 • On-site installation support: $850/day + lodging and travel • Remote upgrade support: $300

  8. Consortium Membership • Bronze membership • Inclusion in LON-CAPA distributed content resource pool • Personal email and phone incident support • $550 year per institution • Silver membership • All of the above + • Free upgrade support • 2 conference and 2 workshop registrations per year • $950 year per institution • Gold membership • All of the above + • Remote maintenance of LC server • 5 conference and 5 workshop registrations per year • $1650 year per institution • Membership fees can be waived in recognition of significant contributions to the code base or content pool of LON-CAPA.

  9. Content • Content Creation • Public domain content • Faculty adopting Lon-Capa • Faculty not adopting Lon-Capa • Publishers • Royalty/Payment Alternatives • Other funding alternatives

  10. Public Domain Content Creation • National STEM NSDL Digital Library initiative

  11. Faculty-Oriented Content Creation • NSF CCLI grants for high quality content development in academic disciplines where LC has strengths • Allocated resources to support content conversion from CAPA to LC to facilitate adoption

  12. Electronic Coursepack Concept Faculty select content (problems and/or “content”) from LC repositories Students pay for electronic access via “key” Revenues pay for development, support and royalty to content creator “Web Assign” model (similar)

  13. Royalty Models • Discussions with faculty suggest broad array of options: • Pay faculty for desirable content • Make content available and receive royalties on a per use/quality of material basis • Make content available and receive recognition (based on usage/quality)

  14. Publishers as Content Providers • Struggling with what “ancillary materials” are value-added to support book adoption and in which formats (e.g., Lon-Capa, Blackboard, WebCT, etc.) to provide… • What does it cost to create format? • What is usage rate of these materials in each format? • How does this help support textbook adoption and retention?

  15. Royalty Models for Publisher Content • Publisher pays for LC coding and makes content available to any adopter, content resides on adopter’s server • Publisher pays for LC coding and maintains control of content by hosting content on their own server

  16. Ongoing System Development • Linux distributed development concept….doesn’t seem to be working effectively for developing LC.

  17. Reality Check? • Linux users are typically organizational IT employees who actively use Linux in the workplace on a day-to-day basis • LC users are faculty who have teaching, research and service commitments….may not have development skill set, let alone interest

  18. So, we are back to $$ • If development enhancements don’t come from the user base, how do we continue to fund (preferably fund more) developers • Desired features • Bugs • Usability

  19. Building User Base • The proverbial Catch-22 • The bigger the user base, the more worthy of resources, publisher attention, etc. • The bigger the user base, the greater the likelihood of survival • The bigger the user base, the more the support and development crew is spread thin and unable to meet demand

  20. Questions? Comments?

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