3 OER initiatives
Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Build an awareness of significant OER initiatives around the world and in Australia
In Chapter 2 we considered the global benefits of OER: how they can be translated into other languages, adapted for local context, enhanced with culturally relevant examples, and how they can open up education to more students. The global benefits of OER have shaped UNESCO’s advocacy for OER as a means of overcoming inequality in education. Let’s take a closer look at their influential initiatives.
The UNESCO OER initiatives
Back in Chapter 1 we touched on how the term OER was first adopted at UNESCO’s 2002 Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries funded by the Hewlett Foundation. Since then UNESCO have led several OER initiatives and taken a leadership role in making countries aware of the potential of OER.
In 2012, UNESCO convened a World Open Educational Resources Congress in Paris. This resulted in the 2012 Paris OER Declaration, which “calls on governments worldwide to openly license publicly funded educational materials for public use” (UNESCO, n.d.).
In 2019, the UNESCO OER Recommendation was adopted. It outlines five Areas of Action:
- Building the capacity of stakeholders to create, access, re-use, adapt and redistribute OER;
- Developing supportive policy for OER;
- Encouraging inclusive and equitable quality OER;
- Nurturing the creation of sustainability models for OER; and
- Promoting and reinforcing international cooperation in OER.
Through its recommendations, UNESCO hopes to make OER the norm worldwide.
In March 2020, UNESCO launched the OER Dynamic Coalition to support the implementation of their recommendations. You can find out more about UNESCO’s OER initiatives on their OER website.
Watch this video to hear from educators about their perspectives on the UNESCO OER Action Area:
Watch: Open Educators reflect on the UNESCO OER Action Area: Building Capacity [5:50 mins]
Note: Closed captions are available by clicking on the CC button in the video.
Beyond UNESCO’s work, other global initiatives have sought to increase awareness and uptake of OER. Let’s take a look at some of these now.
OER initiatives around the world
Here are some key initiatives:
- Open Education Global is a global non-profit that supports the development and implementation of open education around the world. One of their key areas of focus is OER, although they also advocate for MOOCs, open educational practices, and aspects of open research. Each year they coordinate Open Education Week.
- In Chapter 1 we briefly looked at OER Commons which was launched by Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) in 2007 with a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. This freely accessible online library of open educational resources facilitates easy discovery of OER.
Do: Explore key OER initiatives
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