This document summarizes a webinar on institutional open education and OER policies. It discusses the need for OER policies to guide business planning, resource allocation, and consistency with other institutional policies. Policies can exist at various levels from individual to worldwide. The webinar also reviews levels of OER engagement within institutions and relevant stakeholders. UNESCO's 10 guidelines for OER policies aim to increase OER awareness, support licensing frameworks, and encourage open licensing of publicly funded materials. The webinar provides recommendations to foster innovation, ensure quality review of all learning modes, and move from time-based to output-based academic credit systems.

1. Webinar: Institutional Open
Education and OER Policies
Paul Bacsich, POERUP
www.poerup.info
bit.ly/poerupmap
23 June 2014

2. POERUP: summary
• Inventory of more than 500 OER initiatives worldwide
• 33 country reports – most being updated
• 7 case studies including FutureLearn, ALISON, and OER U
• 3 generic policy documents: HE, FE and schools
• In progress: Policy documents for UK (E, W, S), Ireland,
France, Netherlands, Spain, Poland – and Canada
• Project reports in September 2014

3. Why policies?
Because...
1. Business planning
2. Allocation of scarce resources
3. We have them for everything else!

4. Policies: the levels
1. World (UNESCO,....)
2. Continental (Europe)
3. Bloc (EU)
4. Country (UK)
5. Autonomous Region (England)
6. Subregion (Borsetshire)
7. Institution (Poppleton University)
8. Department (Basketry)
9. Me! (MOOC on underwater basketweaving)
As above, so below
(Trismegistus, H. – n.d.)

5. Levels of engagement in an institution
1. Localised exploitation – of OER
2. Internal integration – of OER
3. Business process redesign – based on OER
4. Business network redesign – between HE and
delivery partners
5. Business scope redefinition – unbundling?
Reference?

6. OER in context
E-learning
Distance learning
OER
MOOCs
Strategies must
cohere
Flexible learning

7. Sector actors
• Ministry – or ministries
• Funding councils
• Quality agencies (are they in ENQA?)
• Grant and/or loan scheme operators
• Associations of providers – and sub-sectors
• Unions
• Student associations…

8. UNESCO OER headings x 10
1. Foster awareness and use of OER
2. Facilitate enabling environments for use of Information and
Communications Technologies (ICT)
3. Reinforce the development of strategies and policies on OER
4. Promote the understanding and use of open licensing frameworks
5. Support capacity building for the sustainable development of quality
learning materials
6. Foster strategic alliances for OER
7. Encourage the development and adaptation of OER in a variety of
languages and cultural contexts
8. Encourage research on OER
9. Facilitate finding, retrieving and sharing of OER
10. Encourage the open licensing of educational materials produced with
public funds

9. Opening Up Education: awareness/use
• Widen access to education at all levels, both
formal and non-formal, in a perspective of lifelong
learning (thus contributing to social inclusion,
gender equity and special needs education); by
the promotion and use of OER
• Improve cost-efficiency of teaching and learning
outcomes; through greater use of OER.
• Improve quality of teaching and learning
outcomes; through greater use of OER.

10. POERUP: some summary
recommendations
• Foster innovation and cost-analysis
• Ensure quality review is mode-neutral
• Systematise APL/APEL including introducing an
Open Accreditor
• Move from time-based to output-based
measures: Bologna-bis

11. But how do I do it?
Ideas

12. (Other) Sources of inspiration
• Projects: OPAL recommendations for institutions (old)
• UK: Flexible Learning; FELTAG; Wales; Scotland
• Institutional e-learning strategies (several new ones)
• MIT90s gives you the structure
• Benchmarking (e-learning) gives you the topics to focus
on: usual suspects – strategy, staff development, IT etc
• Business model: that’s the hard part!
– Tip: look for allies and partners