Initiative Background

Introduction At the heart of the movement towards Open Educational Resources is the simple and powerful idea that the worlds knowledge is a public good and that technology in general and the Worldwide Web in particular provide an opportunity for everyone to share, use, and reuse it (Smith, M.S. and Casserly, C.M. 2006. The promise of Open Educational Resources. Change, Vol. 38, No. 5, pp. 8-17) The term Open Education Resources (OER) was first adopted at UNESCOs 2002 Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries funded by the Hewlett Foundation. Open Education Resources (OER) are defined as: materials offered freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners to use and re-use for teaching, learning and research OER can be deposited (by donation) by a variety of sources to one or more of the many OER repositories, which are mainly online. UNESCO has taken a leadership role in making countries aware of the potential of OER. The online OER Community, with over 900 members from 109 countries, already links developing and developed countries to share information and experiences across the wide spectrum of OER development and support. At the 2009 World Conference on Higher Education: The New Dynamics of Higher Education and Research For Societal Change and Development (UNESCO, Paris, 5 8 July 2009) it was communicated that ODL approaches and ICTs present opportunities to widen access to quality education, particularly when Open Educational Resources are readily shared by many countries and higher education institutions (Communiqu, 8 July 2009). Communiqu (English) Communiqu (French) The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) has made the use of OER an important component in all aspects of their work. COL has taken a holistic and process-oriented approach to OER, emphasising the delivery of products - mostly in the form of course materials. Examples of COL's OER work are OER for Open Schooling, materials developed through the Virtual University of the Small States of the Commonwealth (VUSSC) and the Commonwealth Computer Navigators' Certificate (CCNC), to name a few. COL has also adopted an OER policy (http://www.col.org/progServ/policy/Pages/oer.aspx) and releases its own materials under the most feasible open license, which includes the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license (see: https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/28384) Despite the progress generated by this activity within the OER community, which has indeed contributed to the wider use of OER, the OER concept is still not widely known and understood, especially by policy makers and institutional managers. Moreover, it is probable

that the flow of OER is currently occurring mainly in one direction from the north to the south. Despite some emerging initiatives OER are still a marginal and donor-driven phenomenon in most of the developing world (Kanwar, Balasubramanian & Umar, 2009). This presents the danger that a potentially important development is perceived as a manifestation of neo-colonialism before it has had a chance to embed itself in Africa and other developing countries. In 2010, UNESCO, in collaboration with COL launched the initiative: Taking OER beyond the OER Community: Policy and Capacity with the aim of increasing the level of understanding of OER by educational decision makers and quality assurance experts so as to promote their wider use. The initiative focuses in the first instance on higher education institutions universities located in Africa, Asia and the Pacific and is being implemented as part of a Joint Work Plan Agreement between UNESCO and COL. It builds on the results of previous and ongoing collaboration between the two organisations. The initiative is financed through extra-budgetary funds provided by the Government of the United States, regular programme funds from the Division of Higher Education, UNESCO and COL. Under this initiative seven advocacy and capacity-strengthening workshops (in Africa and Asia) and three online forums on OER have been held. In December 2010 UNESCO and COL convened Member States to a Policy Forum on OER in Paris to reflect on progress and chart the next steps in the process. The Policy Forum recommended that COL and UNESCO develop policy guidelines to support the integration of OER into higher education. In response to the recommendation, through a broad consultative process, UNESCO and COL have developed Guidelines for OER in Higher Education (see: http://oerworkshop.weebly.com/guidelines-for-oer-in-higher-education.html). These are loosely inspired by the model of the 2005 UNESCO-OECD Guidelines for Quality Provision in Cross-Border Higher Education (see:http://www.unesco.org/education/guidelines_E.indd.pdf) and, like them, address key stakeholder groups: governments; higher education providers; teaching staff; student bodies and quality assurance/ accreditation & qualification recognition bodies. COL and UNESCO have invited comments on these Guidelines from their networks of governments, institutions and individuals by 21 September 2011. These guidelines will be launched at the 36th UNESCO General Conference that will take place in October/November 2011. In parallel, A Basic Guide to Open Educational Resources (see: www.col.org/oerBasicGuide) has been published and is an important starter document and compendium of information and resources. These activities all provide a solid foundation for work in 2011-2012 that will further advance the ideal of making educational resources developed with public funds freely available for re-

use and re-purposing, called the 'Fostering Government Support for OER' project. The key event will be UNESCOs 2012 World Open Educational Resources (OER) Conference to be held in Paris on 20-22 June, which will be a milestone on the route to a further conference on OER and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) scheduled for 2015 the target date for achieving the MDGs. At the June 2012 World OER Conference governments will be invited to adopt a statement (referred to as the Paris statement) that will include a clear definition of open licenses and encourage governments to support the principle that the products of publicly funded work should carry such licenses.