OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES AND PRACTICES IN EUROPE

(OEREU)

In its recent Communication on Rethinking Education, the European Commission announced a new initiative on “Opening-up Education” to be launched mid-2013. It acknowledges that openness has the potential to widen access to education and to improve, amongst others, access, cost-efficiency and quality of teaching and learning. However, Open Educational Resources (OER) are currently underexploited. There is a need to understand better how the potential of OER can be seized and what should be the policy objectives when promoting them.

The OEREU project has as main objective to provide empirical evidence to policy makers in order to guide policies on the field of Open Education. It is focused on three educational levels, School Education, Higher Education and Lifelong Learning, and has the following specific objectives:

• Study the sustainability and business models of OER and OEP initiatives

• Build a classification of OER initiatives and practices, and a detailed and critical assessment of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

• Contribute to the analysis of the socio-economic impacts that OER and OEP can have on the education systems

• Implement a participatory foresight methodology, based on targeted stakeholder consultations, in order to develop visions and scenarios on the future of Open Education

• Derive policy recommendations

Consultation and Dissemination Activities

• Haché, A; Ferrari A &  Punie, Y (2012): Open Ediucation Initiatives in Higher Education – An Overview of Current Business and Sustainability Models (pp 81-98)
• Redecker, C &  Castaño Muñoz, J (2013).: The potential of OER. Directorate-General for Education and Culture (DG EAC), Thematic Working Group on ICT and Education (Brussels, 21 Jan 2013):
• Visionary papers on the future of Open Education (forthcoming)

Contact

Twitter: @OpeneducationEU

Project Leaders & Researcher

Christine Redecker, christine.redecker(at)ec.europa.eu;

Jonatan Castaño Muñoz jonatan.castano-munoz(at)ec.europa.eu

Action Leader on ICT for Learning and Inclusion

Yves Punie, yves.punie(at)ec.europa.eu