Implementation of the UNESCO OER
Recommendation: The way forward
ICDE OER Advocacy Committe
Symposium: Implementation of the UNESCO OER Recommendation: The way forward
- Thursday, 16 February, 2023 13:45-14:30. 2D2 - Implementation of the UNESCO OER Recommendation
OEW2023
9 March, 2023

Today’s presenters Ebba, Rosa, Connie, Cristine
Professor, Dr. Ebba Ossiannilsson
ICDE Board Memeber and OER Advocacy Committee, Chair
Swedish Association for Open, Flexible and Distance Education
University of Wellington, New Zealand
Sweden
Dr. Connie Blomgren
Open, Digital & Distance Education
Athabasca University
Canada
Professor. Rosa Leonor Ulloa Cazarez
Universidad de Guadalajara
Mexico
Professor Cristine Gusmão
Federal University of Pernambuco
Recife - Brazil

ICDE OER Advocacy Committee
members 2023-2024
● Ebba Ossiannilsson, Swedish Association for Open, Flexible and Distance Education, Europe
● Melinda de la Pena Bandalaria. University of the Philippines Open University, Asia/Philippines
● Xiangyang Zhang, Jiangsu Open University, Asia/China
● Cristine M G Gusmão, Individual member - Federal University of Pernambuco, Latin America/ Brazil
● Rosa Leonor Ulloa Cazarez, Guadalajara University, Latin America/ Mexico
● Constance Blomgren, Athabasca University, North America/Canada
● Jozéfa Fawcett, Individual member - JFI Academy / Buckinghamshire New University, United
Kingdom, Europe
● Chadia Mansour, Athabasca University, ICDE Student member, North America/Canada
● Richard Kajumbula, Lecturer, Program Manager, Uganda
● Lilia Cheniti, Associate Professor, Sousse University, Tunisia
ICDE is seeking ambassadors from Oceania to complete the committee

SDG 4: Ensure inclusive & equitable quality education
& promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
1. Accessibility
2. Assurance
3. Inclusion
4. Equity
5. Quality
5. Opportunity
6. Learning
7. Permanence
8. Universality

UNESCO OER Recommendation - 5 Action Areas

Related SDG to SDG4
(UNESCO OER Recommendation 2019)
Building on the Ljubljana OER Action Plan 2017 to mainstream OER to help
all Member States to createinclusive knowledge societies and achieve the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, namely SDG 4
(Qualityeducation), SDG 5 (Gender equality), SDG 9 (Industry, innovation
and infrastructure), SDG 10 (Reducedinequalities within and across
countries), SDG 16 (Peace, justice and strong institutions) and SDG 17
(Partnerships for the goals).

Global Examples and Case Studies

#1
Ossiannilsson, E. Aydin, H., & Wetzler J. (2021). Report from the
ICDE OER advocacy committee’s survey 2020: implementation of
the UNESCO recommendation on open education resources
(OER). Oslo: ICDE

#2
From Open Educational Resources to Open Educational Practices
for resilient sustainable education.
Ossiannilsson, E., Zhang, X., Wetzler, J., Gusmão, C., Cengiz, H.,
Jhangiani, R., Glapa-Grossklag, J., Makoe, M., Harichandan, D. (2020).
From Open Educational Resources to Open Educational Practices for
resilient sustainable education. Distance and Mediation of Knowledge.
https://doi.org/10.4000/dms.5393

https://www.oerknowledgecloud.org/record2783
#3

#4 IRRODL Forthcoming…
The UNESCO OER Recommendation:
Some Observations from the ICDE OER
Advocacy Committee

#2 Canadian Case Example
Engaging Youth in
OER Animation
co-creation to
accelerate vaccine
confidence
“Accelerating Vaccine
Confidence”

Land Acknowledgement
Athabasca University respectfully
acknowledges that we live and work
on the traditional lands of the
Indigenous peoples (First Nations,
Inuit, Metis) in the country known as
Canada. We honour the ancestry,
heritage and gifts of the Indigenous
peoples and give thanks to them.

Collaborative approaches & Online technologies
● Funding from Canadian
government
● 8 minute OER animation
● collaborative approaches and
online technologies
● Youth: virtual high school &
youth from a non-profit
community group that supports
African immigrants in the city of
Edmonton
● co-designed the animation
script.
● 3 generations involved

Action Area 3 Effective, inclusive, and equitable access to high-quality OER
● script reflects a relatable
narrative
● conveys the message of
science literacy & critical
thinking when making health
decisions
● OER animation provides
curricula support for an
important health topic
● available in French and
English on Youtube
● the importance of local
collaborations with an
international reach

Insights for OER & Open Pedagogy
•Peer-to-peer learning & exchanges
•Changed attitude for intellectual
property
•Diversification of cultural expression
•Workplace skill development
•Empowered conception of citizenship
•Applied context for extending digital
literacy skills
(Hegarty, 2015)

Acknowledgements
•The Accelerating Vaccine Confidence
project was additionally co-created with
youth from Sikunia Community Group,
Edmonton, Vista Virtual School, Alberta.
•Tri-funding council grant administered
by NSERC held by Dr George, Dr
Blomgren and Dr K Cook, Athabasca
University.
•We acknowledge the support of the
Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council of Canada
(NSERC).Nous remercions le Conseil de
recherches en sciences naturelles et en
génie du Canada (CRSNG) de son
soutien.

3. Sweden

GOVERNMENT CONSULTATION MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

4. OCEANIA New Zealand
Learning and Teaching Development team from
Otago Polytechnic Ltd have contributed under the
guidance of Wayne Mackintosh to the creation of
new open courses: ‘Digital Skills for OER Sharing’
(DS4OERS) for the Pacific nations (an initiative of the
Commonwealth of Learning, New Zealand Foreign
Affairs and Trade Aid Programme and the Pacific
Centre for Flexible and Open Learning for
Development), the ‘Empowered digital teacher for
online learning’ (EDT4OL) online course, for
educators in the Pacific Islands, and a French
language version of Open education, copyright and
open licensing in a digital world (in partnership with
UNESCO, ICDE and L’Université Numerique, France,
supporting the UNESCO OER recommendation in
the Francophone countries).
In addition, the Learning and Teaching Development
team (Otago Polytechnic Ltd) developed the
multi-topic format for Moodle which is now widely
used through the Moodle open-source community.
Otago Polytechnic Ltd also developed the multi-topic
format for Moodle which is now widely used through the
Moodle open-source community. The Multitopic format
is a course format plugin for Moodle. Course format
plugins determine the layout of course material. The
Onetopic format, which Otago Polytechnic has been
using, is designed to present each topic on its own page,
with a tab bar across the top of the pages providing links
to each. OP courses, however, are laid out with several
topics within a page. Because the Onetopic format
considers each page to be a seperate topic, is has options
for moving, hiding, or deleting whole pages, but not a
group of resources within a page. To move, hide, or
delete a group of resources within a page in Onetopic
format, each resource must be moved, hidden, or
deleted individually. The Multitopic format is designed
to present several topics on a page, so provides options
for moving, hiding, or deleting groups of resources within
a page together. Course pages with multiple topics per
page, created in Multitopic format, are therefore easier
to edit. The Multitopic format has been installed on over
2,000 Moodle sites.

Mexican Case Example
Developing Supportive Policy
The Mexican government, in the 2020 year
implemented an Open Knowledge Access
policy (OKA) to incentivize researchers’
interaction with society.
By 2021 year, at the beginning of the policy implementation, there was a call for research quality
evaluation that included the publication of one OER by year. This call included an economic
incentive, which has been released yearly since then.

Mexican Case Example
In support of OKA policy, the National Science,
Humanities and Technology Council of Mexico
(CONACyT) created a journal devoted for Open
Science and OER.
(https://conacyt.mx/ciencias-y-humanidades/)
Other several calls have been released to promote
OKA:
● 2021 - Call for the Preparation of Project
Proposals for the Promotion and Strengthening of
Scientific Vocations, which support the project
PACE – By its initials in the Spanish language for
Program for the Approach of Science to Education
https://www.cibnor.gob.mx/ninosyjovenes/programa-acercamiento
-ciencia-educacion/pace

Mexican Case Example
● 2022 – Creation of the Network of Ethnobiological Gardens, to recover and make visible local and
regional ethnobiological knowledge related to the biocultural wealth of Mexico.
“This seeks to promote the active participation of communities and knowledge exchange among society in
general (…) is carried out through
projects that promote the
conservation of local and regional
living flora and fauna, the
safeguarding of knowledge
related to them, and the
promotion of knowledge
dialogue.” (CONACyT, 2023)

+SABERES Project - Brazilian Case in Higher Education
Skills and Digital Transformation: Opportunities in
Higher Education
- Integration between the labor market and research
opportunities
- 2030 Agenda - Research aligned with the Sustainable
Development Goals
- Professional formation and development - Stimulation of
skills and competences
- Interaction between professionals, specialists, researchers,
teachers and students.
Open Content - 12 hours of open sessions and 4 hours of
podcasts

Education in Focus
Knowledge in the workplace - The research focus has been on professional qualification as
teachers are helped to prepare for their work in a different context with virtual learning
environments that arise specific demands. In this way, the webinars were designed to help
them connect academic knowledge with practice in the workplace and carry out their
professional tasks.
Work with multidisciplinary teams - The second area of our interest examined how
multidisciplinary academic teams learn to work together. The structuring of the professional
speakers, the technical-pedagogical team and the time allocated to each theme.
-
Thematic Sections and
Upskilling
25 hours of Open
sessions
20 hours of meetings
and developing
competences material:
- Communicating
information and ideas
- Self-management and
Emotional Intelligence
- Organizational
Awareness | Conflict
management

You are invited for a dialogue
YOUR VOICES ARE
IMPORTANT
What has happened in your
country /region?
How has the monitoring of OER by your
government been conducted recently? (e.g.
survey, consultation, invited specialists, etc).

Attributions
Screenshot of SDG Goals
https://sustainability.acadiau.ca/un-sustainable-development-goals.html
Screenshot of Moodle Open Education https://moodle.com/about/open-education/

References
Hegarty, B. (2015). Attributes of Open Pedagogy: A Model for Using Open Educational Resources.
Educational Technology, July– August, 3–13.
Ossiannilsson, E. ·Gomes de Gusmão, C.,· Ulloa-Cazarez, R., · Agbu Obiageli, J. Open Innovation
Framework: Emerging Narratives from the ICDE OER Advocacy Committee. Oslo: ICDE
https://www.oerknowledgecloud.org/record2783
Ossiannilsson, E. Aydin, H., & Wetzler J. (2021). Report from the ICDE OER advocacy committee’s
survey 2020: implementation of the UNESCO recommendation on open education resources (OER).
Oslo: ICDE
Ossiannilsson, E., Zhang, X., Wetzler, J., Gusmão, C., Cengiz, H., Jhangiani, R., Glapa-Grossklag, J.,
Makoe, M., Harichandan, D. (2020). From Open Educational Resources to Open Educational Practices for
resilient sustainable education. Distance and Mediation of Knowledge. https://doi.org/10.4000/dms.5393