1. 1 Koalicja Otwartej Edukacji OER conference Warsaw, 23 April 2009 Open Educational Resources: Building a Culture of Sharing Susan D’Antoni UNESCO

2. 2 I Open Educational Resources: Building a culture of sharing

3. 3 Challenges…  Challenges facing societies –Globalization –Rise of knowledge-intensive societies  Demand for increasingly skilled population  Challenges to education systems –Extend reach of education –Improve quality and flexibility  Could technology offer the solution?

4. 4 New developments…  An important convergence –Increasing connectivity –Growing numbers of low-cost devices –Expanding body of open digital content  Together they facilitate the sharing of knowledge

5. 5 Open Educational Resources  What are they? –Digitized educational materials offered freely and openly for use and re-use in teaching, learning and research  Why are they important? –Contribute to building a culture of sharing

6. 6 II The growing OER movement: Evidence of a culture of sharing

7. 7 MIT OpenCourseWare  1999: faculty response to challenge of online education  2000: OCW initiated  Goal: make accessible all primary course material on the web  2002: launched 50-course pilot  2009: almost 1,900 courses available

8. 8 2002 UNESCO meeting  Academics convened to assess potential of open courseware for developing countries  Positive response  Participants coined the term Open Educational Resources for this “universal resource for the whole of humanity”

9. 9 Growth of a movement… OpenCourseWare Consortium  2005: consortium established to assist the OCW movement  Goal: support collaboration among 200+ member institutions worldwide  mid-2008: 6,200 courses available

10. 10 OpenER… responding to national objectives  Goal: 50% participation in higher education by 2010  2006: Open University of the Netherlands launches OpenER  Objectives –Bridge gap between informal and formal learning –Reduce barriers to higher education  2008: Minister of Education launches national OER infrastructure

11. 11 III UNESCO action: Promoting awareness of OER

12. 12 The need for awareness raising  Potential of OER to contribute to building knowledge societies – especially knowledge-sharing societies But…  No awareness of availability  resources not utilized and potential not realized

13. 13 Building the OER Community  Objectives –Increase awareness –Support capacity building and decision making  Activities –2005: first forum 500 participants from 90 countries –2005-2007: regular topic-specific discussions –2007: Way Forward consultation

14. 14 Characteristics of the community  600+ members  98 countries  67 developing countries

15. 15 Community members… organizations represented  Over 50% from higher education institutions  Over 20% from international organizations and NGOs

16. 16 Community members… positions held  Almost 40% held high- level positions  Almost 20% teaching professionals

17. 17 2007 consultation: 14 issues Advancing the movement  Awareness raising  Communities and networking  Research Enabling creation and re-use  Policies  Standards  Technology tools  Quality assurance  Capacity development Enabling learning with OER  Learning support services  Assessment of learning Removing barriers to OER  Accessibility  Copyright and licensing  Financing  Sustainability

18. 18 What are the priorities?

19. 19 6 priorities  Awareness raising and promotion  Communities and networking  Capacity development  Sustainability  Quality assurance  Copyright

20. 20

21. 21 Who should take action?  Academics  Higher education institutions  International organizations  National government

22. 22 IV Strengthening a culture of sharing at the national level

23. 23 The need for stimulus funding  Need for new funding models  Examples from Europe –Funding for OpenER from Dutch ministries –UK funding call: £4.7m for pilot OER programmes  Educational materials developed through public funding should be available to all

24. 24 The importance of accessibility  Investment needed in infrastructure and technology  Challenge to public archives: respond to increasing demand for storage and access  Reach new audiences and enable new use through collaboration with online platforms (Flickr, Wikimedia Commons…)

25. 25 The need for enabling policy  A national culture of sharing must be enabled by policy  Output of government-supported work should be open  Degree of openness could be used to determine awarding of grants and contracts

26. 26 The need for champions  A key stakeholder role: –OER champion!  A role taken up with energy and commitment in Poland: –Modern Poland Foundation –Open Education Coalition

27. 27 Thank you for your attention Join the Community Email s.dantoni@unesco.org Consult the resources Wiki http://oerwiki.iiep-unesco.org