Can a For-Profit, Venture-Backed Company Keep OER Free—and Be Financially Sustainable? - Sydney Johnson, Ed Surge

Based in Toronto, Canada, Top Hat’s new freemium business plan—referred to as its Open Content Initiative—will replace the company’s former paid options. Previously, low-cost and even free materials on the Top Hat Marketplace were only available to students who purchased a subscription for the platform, which cost $26 for one term, $38 annually or $75 for lifetime access. Now anyone who makes a free account can access to Top Hat Marketplace, a repository of more than 20,000 course materials—nearly 90 percent of which are free and openly licensed. In addition, Top Hat has also made its assessment and homework tools free, allowing instructors to create homework assignments based upon the resources they adopt in the marketplace https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-04-12-can-a-for-profit-venture-backed-company-keep-oer-free-and-be-financially-sustainable