Curriki's Blog

If you’re like most of us, this time of year your in-box is filled with solicitations from non-profits. At Curriki, we’re doing some of that as well, but we’re also realistic enough to know that going forward, we need to rely on more than just the generosity of supporters. Over the past several months our team has given a lot of thought to possible revenue strategies that can support and grow Curriki over the short, medium and long term.

Over the last almost 4 years, the features and functionality we’ve added have been entirely in response to the requests of our community. As we look to develop a sustainability model, we again need to know from you, our users, which for-fee services resonate most. Here are a few of the services we’re looking to build out:

Professional Development

We’re looking at a range of professional development services, including in-person workshops on how to use Curriki. These could also be combined with a unit on essential 21st century skills. Our belief is that districts need support to build the capacity of their teachers to take an active role in content development. By engaging teachers in this process, research shows that student achievement improves. Plus, districts can realize significant cost savings by developing materials internally and not having to annually purchase materials from outside vendors.

Custom Content Development

Working in a consultative relationship with a district or ministry, Curriki can develop custom collections of resources. These curated collections can be fully standards-aligned and range from a few weeks of instruction to a full course. Disticts that want to maintain some control over the material while still giving teachers flexibility can hire Curriki to create a customized repository along with these collections. That way, all of the content is fully vetted and standards-aligned, but teachers have multiple resources available to them for each lesson. Like a curriculum playlist, the Curriki tools makes it easy for a teacher to swap one asset out and another in.

Curriki in a Box

For districts not yet comfortable with web-based services, Curriki can offer a behind the firewall solution. For a modest fee, we can provide a turn-key Curriki appliance that the district can have complete control over. Internal staff can select content to feature on the homepage, the district can control the review process and can set up as many groups as they like. This “federated Curriki” can also get periodic updates from the flagship Curriki site as new content is added. Curriki in a Box will be designed to provide for sharing of content both within schools and within the global Curriki community.

We’ve got many more ideas beyond these, including offering fee based technical support for the platform to partners, providing consulting services and cost reduction assessments for schools, districts and states looking to utilize or explore open curriculum and supplying training and certification programs for group leaders.  We’re excited to move into a new phase of our relationship with our users. If any of these ideas resonate with you and your district, or you have other ideas for revenue generating opportunities for Curriki, please contact me directly at plevy “at” curriki “dot” org.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Peter

Peter Levy
Strategic Development
Curriki