The Open Learning Initiative (OLI) at Carnegie Mellon University develops online courses in twelve disciplines, with partial funding from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Looking towards the future, OLI sought to identify sustainability models so that it could continue to provide its high-quality online courses to the public.

Ithaka researched the market environment for two of OLI’s courses, statistics and chemistry. These in-depth studies provided insight into the value that OLI creates for its constituents and, as a result, identified sources of ongoing revenues to support OLI’s activities.