ICDE OER Advocacy Committee (OERAC) 2017-2019

 
 
Contributed by: Ebba Ossiannilsson ICDE OER Advocacy Committee, Chair and Ambassador

Contributed by: Ebba Ossiannilsson
ICDE OER Advocacy Committee, Chair and Ambassador

The ICDE established a Committee for the Global Advocacy of Open Educational Resources (OER) (OERAC) to strengthen and support the ICDE Chairs in OER. The committee was launched at the 27th ICDE World Conference in Toronto, October 2017.The Committee's mandate was to promote global recognition of OER and to provide political support for the uptake, use and re-use of OER. The mandate period was 2017-2019.

From May 2018, Professor Dr., Ebba Ossiannilsson: Consultant and VP, Swedish Association of Distance Education (SADE), Sweden was appointed as Chair for the committee. Paul Bardack, Chair Emeritus of the United States Distance Learning Association, served for a very short time at the start as the first Chairperson of the Committee. The final report was submitted to ICDE in January 2020, which described the background, mandate, activities of the OEARC ambassadors and recommendations. This Blogpost is a short summary of the report.

All members of the ICDE OER Advocacy Committee (OERAC) were appointed Ambassadors for the Global Advocacy of OER for a limited term until the end of 2019 (31 December 2019). A smaller group of the members formed a core group that were asked to work more closely with the chair to facilitate the activities of the Committee and its members. In fact, a number of members emerged as particularly active and contributed directly to the accomplishments of OERAC. These members are noted with an asterisk (*).

Ambassadors members:

  • *Ossiannilsson, Ebba; Professor, Dr., Consultant and VP, Swedish Association of Distance Education (SADE), Sweden, Chair

  • Aydin, Cengiz Hakan; Professor, Anadolu University, Turkey

  • *Bacsich Paul; Professor of Practice, University of West Indies Open Campus, Barbados

  • Brown, Mark; Office of the Vice President, Dublin City University, Ireland

  • Dubey, Chandra Shekhar; Director, Campus of Open Learning, Delhi University, India

  • *Glapa-Glossklag, James; Dean, College of the Canyons and Past President, Open Education Consortium, USA

  • Green, Cable; Lead OER, Creative Commons, USA, co-opted 8 October 2019 to replace Cable is *Wetzler, Jennryn; Assistant Director of Open Edu, Creative Commons, US

  • Harichandan, Dhaneswar; Director, Institute of Distance and Open Learning, University of Mumbai, India

  • Matkin, Gary; Dean of Continuing Education, UC-Irvine California, USA

  • *Meunier, Jean-Marc; President and VP, FIED and University of Paris VIII Vincennes – St-Denis, France

  • *Peachey, Valerie; Professor in Open Education, Charles Stuart University, Australia

  • *Zhang, Xiangyang; Open University of Jiangsu, China

Vision for the OERAC:

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The ICDE OER Advocacy Committee worked to increase global, national and sub-national awareness and recognition of the power of OER and its potential to solve many of the world’s problems.  The Committee therefore provided information to ICDE members, to UNESCO member nations and other national and sub-national governments, to policy makers and influencers, and to educational institutions on how to become more effective internal and external OER advocates to support its implementation worldwide.

Summary of Activities

One of the firsts common task for the OERAC was to reply to UNESCO OER Recommendations Consultation in spring 2018, this was a even collaboration with the ICDE OER Chairs. The OERAC followed the entire process with great interest. The recommendations were adopted 25th November 2019. More in details as below.

In addition, OERAC also with great interest followed the UNESCO’s Futures of Education initiative, Learning to Become, which  aims to rethink education and shape the future.

The initiative is catalyzing a global debate on how knowledge, education and learning need to be reimagined in a world of increasing complexity, uncertainty, and precarity.

The initiative will for sure have consequences for further initiatives from ICDE, and further work on open education and OER.

The OERAC has during its mandate period 2017-2019 worked on advocacy on OER at macro, meso and micro level within their respective context, and according to the vision and mandate by ICDE. Throughout the two-year appointment (2017-2019) of OERAC, some individual members actively participated in activities designed to support the mandate of the committee. Major activities included:

The UNESCO initiative on Futures of Learning. Learning to Become

UNESCO's Futures of Education initiative aims to rethink how knowledge and learning can shape the future of humanity and the planet. Looking to 2050 and beyond, the initiative seeks to reimagine how education and knowledge can contribute to the global common good.

  • Consultation on the UNESCO OER Recommendations

  • Developing a LinkedIn group

  • Contributing to the ICDE blog

  • Participating and presented OERAC work in the ICDE Lillehammer LLL Summit, February 2018

  • Hosting and facilitating a webinar on the UNESCO OER Recommendation, June. 2019

  • Facilitating an interactive symposium on UNESCO OER Recommendation at ICDE WCOL November 2019 in Dublin

  • Participating and presented OERAC work in the ICDE WCOL2019, November 2019 in Dublin

  • Consultations by ICDE

  • Consultations on individual basis

ICDE OERAC has during its mandate period collaborated with the OER World Map as well as with the OER University. In addition, a key outcome of the two-year OERAC period was the community of OER Ambassadors – high-level researchers and practitioners around the world – that has been formed.

Communication Channnels

Since May 2018, online meetings have been held in ZOOM, set up by ICDE. ICDE has also participated in all the meetings (Gard Titlestad, Morten Flate Paulsen, Torun Gjelsvik, Caroline Seville and Julie Schiering). Meetings started always with “Round the Table” and “Whats on the Radar” from all of us. Many of the meetings concerned the Roadmap, ICDE WCOL2019, and the UNESCO OER Recommendations.

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A LinkedIn group was created and used for information and conversations/discussions.

E-mail list and individual emails

A Dropbox was set up by ICDE, however this changed later to a Folder in Drive,  where all docs are archived and reached from all of us, including ICDE. All the recordings from our meetings are to be found there as well.

Several of us has met during international conferences.

Contacts and some cross-actions have been made with ICDE OER Chairs, OER University, Creative Commons, OER Policy Forum, and OER World Map. Each of us advocates at national and regional levels as well, at conferences and with stakeholders.

Meetings with ICDE in between our monthly OERAC meetings.

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UNESCO OER RECOMMENDATIONS

The ICDE OERAC took initiative and worked together with the ICDE OER Chairs on the UNESCO consultation process in 2018, for at that time forthcoming OER Recommendations. This was also reported in our interim report as one of the first common tasks we had in OERAC. The UNESCO OER Recommendations was then adopted by the UNESCO’s General Conference on the 25 November 2019. With this an important step was taken towards quality education and access to information for all.

Mr. Moez Chakchouk, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information highlighted that:

The Recommendation on OER will contribute to the building of open and inclusive knowledge societies, and to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

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Since the adoption of the OER Recommendations, OER is now defined as: 

Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others.

Open license refers to

 ...a license that respects the intellectual property rights of the copyright owner and provides permissions granting the public the rights to access, re-use, re-purpose, adapt and redistribute educational materials.

The  Recommendation  addresses  five  objectives:  and   areas   of   action   of   this   OER  Recommendation are as follows:

(i) Capacity-building: developing the capacity of all key education stakeholders to create, access, re-use,  re-purpose,  adapt,  and  redistribute  OER,  as  well  as to  use  and  apply open licenses in a manner consistent with national copyright legislation and international obligations;

(ii) Developing supportive policy: encouraging governments, and education authorities and institutions to adopt regulatory frameworks to support open licensing of publicly funded educational and research materials, develop strategies to enable use and adaptation of OER in support of high quality, inclusive education and lifelong learning for all, supported by relevant research in the area;

(iii) Effective,  inclusive  and  equitable  access  to  quality  OER:  supporting  the  adoption  of strategies and programmes including through relevant technology solutions that ensure OER in any medium are shared in open formats and standards to maximize  equitable access,  co-creation,  curation,  and  searchability,  including  for  those  from  vulnerable groups and persons with disabilities;

(iv) Nurturing the creation of sustainability models for OER: supporting and encouraging the creation of sustainability models for OER at national, regional and institutional levels, and the planning and pilot testing of new sustainable forms of education and learning;

(v) Fostering and facilitating international cooperation: supporting international cooperation between stakeholders to minimize unnecessary duplication in OER development investments and to develop a global pool of culturally diverse, locally relevant, gender-sensitive, accessible, educational materials in multiple languages and formats.

 Member States are thus recommended to strategically plan and support OER capacity

-building, awareness raising, use, creation and sharing at the institutional and national levels, targeting all education sectors and levels. Member States are encouraged to consider the following:

(a) building awareness among relevant stakeholder communities on how OER can increase access to educational and research resources, improve learning outcomes, maximise the impact of public funding, and empower educators and learners to become co-creators of knowledge;

(b) providing systematic and continuous capacity-building (in-service and pre-service) on how to create, access, make available, re-use, adapt, and redistribute OER as an integral part of training programmes at all levels of education, including assistance in initial training programmes for educators.  This should include improving capacity of public authorities, policy   makers, quality development and assurance professionals to understand OER and support their integration into learning, teaching, research and everyday life;

(c) raising awareness concerning exceptions and limitations for the use of copyrighted works for educational and research purposes. This should be enacted to facilitate the integration of a wide range of works in OER, recognizing that the fulfilment of educational goals as well as the development of OER requires engagement with existing copyright protected works.

KEY QUESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FROM OERAC

President and CEO Professor Asha Kanwar, COL (Commonwealth of Learning) emphasized in her opening remarks at PCF9: Innovations for quality education and lifelong learning (Edinburgh Scotland 9-12 Sept 2019.

Lifelong learning is no longer an option, but an imperative for sustainable development. We need to change the business-as usual approach and the brick-and mortar mindset if we want to achieve the SDG4

OERAC recommends ICDE to continue to be a leading organization in the global transformation and transition for enhanced open education worldwide? (Including lifelong learning, OER and Open Education more broadly, and open education culture).

OERAC recommends as a worldwide organization to advocate and take actions together with its members on the UNESCO Initiative for 2050 on the UNESCO Initiative on the Futures of Education; Learning to Become.

OERAC recommends ICDE to support member countries to implement the UNESCO OER recommendations in their countries and in their institutions?

OERAC recommends ICDE to follow up on the proposed network by UNESCO on Dynamics for the establishment of a network of institutions actively supporting access to quality learning opportunities for persons with disabilities harnessing open solutions (both physical, cognitive and social) and for indigenous people (as culture and social diversity).

OERAC recommends ongoing collaboration with the coalition of organizations formed to support the UNESCO OER Recommendation, given ICDE’s membership in the coalition.

OERAC recommends exploring how other partnerships/efforts to solve other global challenges might dovetail with advocacy and support for the UNESCO OER.

OERAC recommends that ICDE strategically integrate training on the OER and its wider implications for Open Education into future ICDE events. Offer guidance to on “Opening Up Education” to institutional members? Assist regional leaders and policymakers in formulating regional policy around Open Education? From these strategic questions, specific actions will follow. For example, ICDE could offer members introductory online courses on Open Education; include a session on Open Education leadership and opening up

OERAC recommends continued support and updates for the OER World Map, especially now that the OER World Map offers a list of open policies, in order to ensure that there is a comprehensive collection of all relevant reports including policies and commentaries on these.

OERAC recommends that a useful tool for advocates can be the Guidelines on the development of open educational resources policies (UNESCO, 2019).       

OERAC recommends that OERAC (or similar) and the UNESCO/ICDE OER Chairs support ICDE in its missions and activities, and to support both stakeholders around the world and ICDE members?

OERAC recommends that much more outreach must be undertaken in order to fully inform academics of existing mechanisms for learning about and engaging in advocacy for OER. This may be an appropriate task for the OER Advocacy Committee, and the ICDE OER Chairs may be appropriate partners in this work.

OERAC recommends ICDE to consider making direct consultation available to members interested in designing and implementing OER projects or Open Education.

OERAC recommends whenever possible, ICDE invites OERAC members in relevant conferences, regional or international, to present policies, research or case studies about OER practice in realizing the concept of OER into good practice, making OER visible to diverse communities of teaching and learning in the world.

OERAC recommends recommend ICDE to find and advocate for projects that exist in the overlap between other SDGs.     

OERAC recommends ICDE to consider what is needed to advance the work of OERAC and UNESCO/ICDE Chairs to support ICDE in its missions and activities to be a leading organization in the global transformation and transition for enhanced open education (including OER) worldwide?

OERAC recommends ICDE to work on developing and underdeveloped countries in education and use of OER.

PUBLICATIONS (a selection)

Declarations








 
ICDE Advocacy Committe, ICDE BLOG, ICDE OERACCaroline SevilleOER Chair, OER