Open educational resources policy

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Open educational resources (OER) are learning materials that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. OER policies (also sometimes known as laws, regulations, strategies, guidelines, principles or tenets) are adopted by governments, institutions or organisations in support of the creation and use of open content, specifically open educational resources (OER), and related open educational practices.

Contents

Why Open Educational Resources (OER) Policy?

OER has been widely proposed as a key component in ongoing efforts in education sectors around the world to improve access and quality, to address rising costs, to maximise public investments, and to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4. [1] In light of these concerns, and discussions on the sustainability of OER initiatives, numerous authors as well as international organisations have been calling on institutions and governments to support OER through adoption of appropriate policies to ensure mainstreaming of OER and related practices. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

OER Policy Definitions

There has been widespread agreement in the literature that policies to support OER should be developed, but a range of different definitions of OER policy have been advanced, indicating that it may take different forms at different levels. Some definitions explicitly address OER, and in terms of scope, span across activities of educational institutions as well as governments. However, OER can also be understood as included or impacted, whether explicitly or implicitly, within broader openness policies that address areas such as open content licensing, open science (including open access and open data), open education/open educational practices (OEP) more broadly, and more. [11] A sample of OER policy definitions is offered below. These include definitions with an explicit focus on OER as well as definitions where OER is addressed implicitly within other areas of openness.    

Examples: Explicit OER Policy Definitions

“Policy is related to the establishment of priorities for supporting the decisions made by an institution or organisation. Policies can serve administrative, financial, political or other goals.   OER policies are generally those that support the assembly, use and reuse of OER in an institution or within a jurisdiction.” [6]

“Generally, OER policies are laws, rules and courses of action that facilitate the creation, use or improvement of OER. OER policies may be principles, laws, regulations or funder mandates, and may be enacted by governments, institutions, corporations or funders.” [12]

"Open educational resource policies (OER policies) are principles or tenets adopted by governing bodies in support of the use of open content—specifically open educational resources (OER) -- and practices in educational institutions. Such policies are emerging increasingly at the national, state/province, and local levels." [13]

Examples: Implicit OER Policy Definitions

Open education policies are “formal regulations regarding support, funding, adoption, and use of Open Educational Resources (OER) and/or Open Educational Practices (OEP). Such policies are designed to support the creation, adoption, and sharing of OER and the design and integration of OEP into programs of study”. [14]

“...we define policy as a written document that stipulates the expectations related to Open Education for an institution or country. Its goal is to lead to the creation, increased use and/or support for improving Open Educational Resources (OER). Beyond an institutional policy document, laws, rules, green papers, white papers, roadmaps, declarations, and funding programmes are included in policy”. [15]  

“Open Education policies are written or unwritten guidelines, regulations and strategies which seek to foster the development and implementation of Open Educational Practices, including the creation and use of Open Educational Resources. Through such policies, governments, institutions and other organisations allocate resources and orchestrate activities in order to increase access to educational opportunity, as well as promote educational quality, efficiency and innovation”. [16]

OER Policy Initiatives by International Organisations

International Organisations (IOs) have been advancing the international OER policy agenda since 2002 (See the final report from a Forum [17] facilitated by UNESCO in 2002 during which the term OER was coined). In this respect, IOs have been issuing OER declarations, recommendations, and providing policy support, policy advice, awareness raising and related capacity-building activities. The adoption of the UNESCO Recommendation on OER [10] in 2019, in particular, presents a major milestone and commitment by the international community to mainstreaming OER worldwide.

The Recommendation is structured around five actions areas

  1. Building capacity of stakeholders to create, access, re-use, adapt and redistribute OER
  2. Developing supportive policy
  3. Encouraging effective, inclusive and equitable access to quality OER
  4. Nurturing the creation of sustainability models for OER
  5. Promoting and reinforcing international cooperation

UNESCO member states will be reporting on their progress with the implementation of the Recommendation action areas on a periodic basis (every 3–5 years). Launched in 2020 by UNESCO, The OER Dynamic Coalition (comprising stakeholders from member states and National Commissions for UNESCO, IOs, civil society and private sector) was constituted to support and advance implementation of the 2019 Recommendation on OER. [18]      

UNESCO and Commonwealth of Learning (CoL)

  • (2002) Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries: Final Report [19]
  • (2012) Paris OER Declaration [20]
  • (2012) Mauritius Communiqué [21]
  • (2015) Incheon Declaration: Education 2030 [22]
  • (2015) Qingdao Declaration: Leveraging ICTs to achieve Education 2030 [23]
  • (2016) The 2016 Kuala Lumpur Declaration [24]
  • (2017) Ljubljana OER Action Plan and Ministerial Statement 2017 [25]
  • (2019) Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER) [10]

European Commission

  • (2013) Opening Up Education Communication [26]
  • (2017) Going Open: Policy Recommendations on Open Education in Europe (OpenEdu Policies) [27]

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

  • (2007) Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources [13]
  • (2015) OER: A Catalyst for Innovation [28]

Organisation of the French Speaking States (OIF)

International Research on OER Policies

Additional insights into the type of institutional and governmental OER policy developments can be discerned from numerous studies conducted since 2011 by International Organisations and Associations. These include the following:

OER Policy Creation Guidelines

While there is broad agreement amongst IOs and researchers that policy should be developed in order to foster the uptake of OER, such policies need to be formulated in diverse contexts, and at different levels of governance, from the national through to the institutional or organisational.  Whether the intention is to develop a standalone OER policy, or integrate OER within broader policy frameworks, OER policymaking is therefore a significant undertaking that requires nuanced considerations about its purpose, goals, implementation strategy and more. A variety of guidelines and toolkits have been developed that can assist institutions and governments in reflecting on the process of OER policy making and determine the appropriate actions in the process of its preparation, with recent guides [16] [34] emphasising the value of policy co-creation.

Examples of published guidelines and research reports that can assist with the OER policy making process:

See also

Related Research Articles

Education policy consists of the principles and policy decisions that influence the field of education, as well as the collection of laws and rules that govern the operation of education systems. Education governance may be shared between the local, state, and federal government at varying levels. Some analysts see education policy in terms of social engineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open educational resources</span> Open learning resource

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials intentionally created and licensed to be free for the end user to own, share, and in most cases, modify. The term "OER" describes publicly accessible materials and resources for any user to use, re-mix, improve, and redistribute under some licenses. These are designed to reduce accessibility barriers by implementing best practices in teaching and to be adapted for local unique contexts.

OpenCourseWare (OCW) are course lessons created at universities and published for free via the Internet. OCW projects first appeared in the late 1990s, and after gaining traction in Europe and then the United States have become a worldwide means of delivering educational content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open education</span> Educational movement

Open education is an educational movement founded on openness, with connections to other educational movements such as critical pedagogy, and with an educational stance which favours widening participation and inclusiveness in society. Open education broadens access to the learning and training traditionally offered through formal education systems and is typically offered through online and distance education. The qualifier "open" refers to the elimination of barriers that can preclude both opportunities and recognition for participation in institution-based learning. One aspect of openness or "opening up" education is the development and adoption of open educational resources in support of open educational practices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Council for Open and Distance Education</span> Distance education institutions based in Norway

The International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) is a membership-led global organization in the field of online, open, flexible and technology enhanced education. It consists of more than 200 higher education institutions and organizations in some 84 countries.

An open textbook is a textbook licensed under an open license, and made available online to be freely used by students, teachers and members of the public. Many open textbooks are distributed in either print, e-book, or audio formats that may be downloaded or purchased at little or no cost.

The Tufts OpenCourseWare (OCW) project, was a web-based publication of educational material from a number of Tufts University courses, providing open sharing of free, searchable, high-quality course content to educators, students, and self-learners throughout the global community. The Tufts OCW initiative encouraged the publication and free exchange of course materials on the World Wide Web. First launched in June 2005, Tufts OCW provided materials with strong representation from Tufts' health sciences schools, some of which were equivalent to textbooks in depth. All materials on the Tufts OCW site were accessible and free of charge. As Tufts OCW is not a distance learning program, no registration, applications, prerequisites, or fees are required and no credit is granted. Tufts ended funding for its Open Courseware initiative in 2014, and content on the Tufts OCW web site was removed on June 30, 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education</span> 501(c)(3) non-profit organization

The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2002. Located in Half Moon Bay, California, its mission is to make learning and knowledge sharing participatory, equitable, and open.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open educational practices</span>

Open educational practices (OEP) are part of the broader open education landscape, including the openness movement in general. It is a term with multiple layers and dimensions and is often used interchangeably with open pedagogy or open practices. OEP represent teaching and learning techniques that draw upon open and participatory technologies and high-quality open educational resources (OER) in order to facilitate collaborative and flexible learning. Because OEP emerged from the study of OER, there is a strong connection between the two concepts. OEP, for example, often, but not always, involve the application of OER to the teaching and learning process. Open educational practices aim to take the focus beyond building further access to OER and consider how in practice, such resources support education and promote quality and innovation in teaching and learning. The focus in OEP is on reproduction/understanding, connecting information, application, competence, and responsibility rather than the availability of good resources. OEP is a broad concept which can be characterised by a range of collaborative pedagogical practices that include the use, reuse, and creation of OER and that often employ social and participatory technologies for interaction, peer-learning, knowledge creation and sharing, empowerment of learners, and open sharing of teaching practices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OER Commons</span> Freely accessible online library

OER Commons is a freely accessible online library that allows teachers and others to search and discover open educational resources (OER) and other freely available instructional materials.

This outline of open educational resources provides a way of navigating concepts and topics in relation to the open educational resources (OER) movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OER Africa</span>

OER Africa is an initiative of Saide, established in 2008 with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, to collaborate with higher education institutions in Africa in the development and use of Open Educational Resources (OER), to enhance teaching and learning. OER Africa's vision is to support the emergence of vibrant and sustainable African education systems and institutions that play a critical role in building and sustaining African societies and economies through free and open development and sharing of common intellectual capital. Recently, OER Africa undertook collaborative work to develop the professional competences and skills of stakeholders within African higher education institutions so that they can implement OER practices to improve the quality of teaching and learning. Currently, OER Africa is

The UNESCO 2012 Paris OER Declaration, otherwise known as the Paris declaration on Open Educational Resources, is a declaration urging governments to promote the use of open educational resources (OERs) and calling for publicly funded educational materials to be released in a freely reusable form.

The Incheon declaration is a declaration on education adopted at the World Education Forum in Incheon, South Korea on 15 May 2015. It is the logical continuation of the Education For All (EFA) movement and the Millennium Development Goals on Education, and many of its goals were based on a review of progress made since the 2000 World Education Forum in Dakar.

Online credentials for learning are digital credentials that are offered in place of traditional paper credentials for a skill or educational achievement. They are directly linked to the accelerated development of internet communication technologies, the development of digital badges, electronic passports and massive open online courses (MOOCs).

Open Educational Practices in Australia refers to the development, implementation and use of Open educational resources (OER), open access, open learning design, open policies, and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to open up education in Australia.

Open educational resources in Canada are the various initiatives related to open education, open educational resources (OER), open pedagogies (OEP), open educational practices (OEP), and open scholarship that are established nationally and provincially across Canadian K-12 and higher education sectors, and where Canadian based inititatives extend to international collaborations.

Global Reports on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE) are a series of reports that monitor progress on Adult Learning and Education (ALE), promote action, identify trends in the field of ALE, and explore solutions to challenges.

Open access in New Zealand consists of policies and norms affecting making research outputs, data, and education materials openly available. This is influenced by tertiary education institutions as well as national government and changing international norms. The New Zealand Government has applied open access principles to its own work, adopting the New Zealand Government Open Access Licensing Framework (NZGOAL). It has not mandated that these apply to schools or the tertiary sector or to research funding agencies. Some tertiary education institutions have developed their own open access guidelines or policies but neither of the two major research funding agencies in New Zealand—the Marsden Fund and the Health Research Council—have done so, unlike Australia, Canada, Europe or the United States.

The Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) promotes the awareness of open educational policies, practices, and resources. CCCOER is part of Open Education Global. CCCOER describes itself as a community of practice for open education, providing various resources, support, and opportunities for collaboration for learning, planning, and implementing successful open educational programs at community colleges and technical colleges. This support includes webinars, online advocacy events and conferences, a community email list, community blog, workshops and presentations throughout North America, as well as generally raising awareness of open education and supporting the needs of students and faculty at colleges adopting open educational resources and full degree pathways.

References

  1. ↑ "Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) | Education within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development". sdg4education2030.org. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  2. ↑ Mulder, Fred (2013). "The Logic of National Policies and Strategies for Open Educational Resources". The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. 4 (2): 96–105. doi: 10.19173/irrodl.v14i2.1536 .
  3. ↑ Bossu, Carina; Bull, David; Brown, Mark (2012). Dhanarajan, Gajaraj; Porter, David (eds.). "The open education movement in Australia: the need for political leadership" (PDF). Proceedings of the Regional Symposium on Open Educational Resources (OER 2012). Penang, Malaysia: Open Education Resources Asia: 1–7.
  4. 1 2 UNESCO and Commonwealth of Learning (2015). "Guidelines for Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education". unesdoc.unesco.org. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  5. ↑ "Open Licensing and Open Education Licensing Policy". Creative Commons. 2017-06-05. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  6. 1 2 3 Miao, Fengchun; Mishra, Sanjaya; McGreal, Rory (2016). Open Educational Resources: Policy, Costs and Transformation. Commonwealth of Learning (COL). ISBN   978-1-894975-75-9.
  7. ↑ UNESCO (2015). "Incheon Declaration: Education 2030" (PDF). UNESCO.
  8. ↑ UNESCO (2015). "Qingdao Declaration: Leveraging ICTs to achieve Education 2030". unesdoc.unesco.org. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  9. ↑ Commonwealth of Learning (2016). "The 2016 Kuala Lumpur Declaration (30 November 2016)".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. 1 2 3 UNESCO (2019). "Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER)". portal.unesco.org. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  11. ↑ Atenas, Javiera; Havemann, Leo; Nascimbeni, Fabio; Villar-Onrubia, Daniel; Orlic, Davor (2019-06-22). "Fostering Openness in Education: Considerations for Sustainable Policy-Making". Open Praxis. 11 (2): 167–183. doi:10.5944/openpraxis.11.2.947. ISSN   2304-070X. S2CID   196213245.
  12. ↑ "Open Educational Resources and Public Policy - OE Global 2018". pdfhall.com. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  13. 1 2 OECD (2007). Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources. doi:10.1787/9789264032125-en. ISBN   9789264031746 . Retrieved 2021-07-06– via www.oecd-ilibrary.org.
  14. ↑ "7 Things You Should Know About Open Education: Policies". library.educause.edu. 13 August 2018. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  15. 1 2 Vanessa Proudman; Gema Santos-Hermosa; Jen Smith; Victoria Ficarra (2020-06-24). "Open Education in European Libraries of Higher Education". doi:10.5281/zenodo.3903175.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  16. 1 2 3 Atenas, Javiera; Havemann, Leo; Neumann, Jan; Stefanelli, Cristina (2020-11-19). Open Education Policies: Guidelines for co-creation. doi:10.5281/zenodo.4281363.
  17. ↑ UNESCO. "Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries, UNESCO, Paris, 1-3 July 2002: final report". unesdoc.unesco.org. Retrieved 2021-07-08.
  18. ↑ "OER Dynamic Coalition". UNESCO. 2020-04-14. Retrieved 2021-07-08.
  19. ↑ UNESCO (2002). "Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries: Final Report". unesdoc.unesco.org. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  20. ↑ UNESCO (2012). "Paris OER Declaration". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  21. ↑ "OHCHR | 6. The 18th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers - Mauritius Communiqué (2012)". www.ohchr.org. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  22. ↑ "Education 2030: Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action Towards inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all". UNESCO IITE. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  23. ↑ "Leveraging information and communication technology to achieve Education 2030: report of the UNESCO 2017 International Forum on ICT and Education 2030". UNESCO IITE. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  24. ↑ "The 2016 Kuala Lumpur Declaration (30 November 2016)". 2016-11-30.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  25. ↑ UNESCO (2017). "WOERC Action Plan and Ministerial Statement – 2nd World OER Congress" . Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  26. ↑ "Press corner". European Commission - European Commission. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  27. 1 2 INAMORATO DOS SANTOS, Andreia (2017). Going Open: Policy Recommendations on Open Education in Europe (OpenEdu Policies). doi:10.2760/111707. ISBN   9789279734960 . Retrieved 2021-07-06.{{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  28. 1 2 Orr, D; Rimini, M; Van Damme, D. "Open Educational Resources: A Catalyst for Innovation | en | OECD". www.oecd.org. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  29. ↑ Hylén, Jan; Damme, Dirk van; Mulder, Fred; D’Antoni, Susan (2012-06-25). "Open Educational Resources: Analysis of Responses to the OECD Country Questionnaire". OECD Education Working Papers No. 76. OECD Education Working Papers. doi:10.1787/5k990rjhvtlv-en. S2CID   109289563.
  30. ↑ Hoosen, S. "Survey on Governments' Open Educational Resources (OER) Policies". Commonwealth of Learning.
  31. ↑ Commonwealth of Learning (2017). "Open Educational Resources: Global Report 2017".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  32. ↑ "ICDE OER Advocacy Committee's survey report on the Implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation on OER". ICDE. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  33. ↑ "An Exploration In Hermeneutics Of Dedicated OER Policies And Implications For OER Initiatives In Canadian Post-Secondary Institutions". On-LineLearning. Retrieved 2022-09-20.
  34. 1 2 National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (2021). "Guide to Developing Enabling Policies for Digital and Open Teaching and Learning". National Resource Hub. Retrieved 2021-10-30.
  35. ↑ UNESCO (2019). "'Guidelines on the development of open educational resources policies'". unesdoc.unesco.org. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  36. ↑ Skidmore, James; Provida, Myrto (2019). "A Place For Policy: The Role Of Policy In Supporting Open Educational Resources And Practices At Ontario's Colleges And Universities". The OER Knowledge Cloud. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  37. ↑ "Understanding the Impact of OER: Achievements and Challenges". UNESCO IITE. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
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