Business Models for Online Education and Open Educational Resources: Insights from a Delphi Study

This article determines the most important business models that try to achieve the goals of various online education stakeholders. We employed the Delphi method to consult leading experts in online education, asking them to identify existing business models; describe potentially feasible models that are not currently implemented; identify specific categories of stakeholders involved; and identify the various goals and priorities of these stakeholders. The experts, who included creators, distributors and facilitators of online education courses and materials, identified ten of the most important existing and potential business models for online education which they analyzed and commentated in detail.