Awareness is important but action is essential: Asia-Pacific Regional Consultation on the Open Education Resources Recommendation

The concept of Open Educational Resources (OER) first coined by UNESCO in 2002, refers to learning, teaching and research materials in any format or medium that are in the public domain or are protected by copyright and have been released under an open license, allowing everyone free access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution.

Over 40 participants, mostly education experts and government officials from 19 Asia Pacific countries as well as 5 speakers from other regions,  attended a regional online consultation on the 2019 Open Education Resources (OER) Recommendation on 30 November 2022 to exchange good practices and to promote the use of OER at the national level.

Case studies demonstrated the value and application of OER during Covid-19, particularly in a region where half of teachers do not have access to a Learning Management System.

The University of the Philippines’ Open University (UPOU) has undertaken a number of initiatives, including:

• Documentation of best practices in open and distance e-learning
• Development of an online training portal for faculty members on the principles of online teaching and learning
• Development of massive open online courses (MOOC)
• Production of open educational resources in video format
• Launching of Universal Access Program in 2018. 

Universitas Terbuka (UT) in Indonesia began producing open content in 2002 and has had an OER Policy in place since 2012. All UT’s educational materials are distributed under an open license, with the goal protecting the creator and preventing unauthorized use of UT educational material. Furthermore, a national portal on OER,  SPADA (Indonesian Online Learning System) was established in 2014. With 702 self-pace MOOCs, SPADA has attracted over than 10 million participants so far.

“OER opens up the accessibility of the ample world of quality educational resources to the masses” added Dr Tian Belawati, Chair of Professor Council, Indonesia Open University. 

The OER Foundation, based in New Zealand has launched the Pacific open platform in collaboration with the Commonwealth of Learning. Not only are all resources openly licensed, but the platform itself is built with Free and Open Source Software.

 “One of the lessons learnt in our work, is to be patient. It is difficult and it takes time to change mindsets for making OER in action. We do not only need to educate educational professionals but most importantly decision makers to understand how open licensing works and how important it is” said Dr Rajni Chand, Director, Centre for Flexible Learning, University of the South Pacific.

Participants agreed that it is essential to continue working with the governments to raise awareness about the significance of OER.

A real-time poll during the meeting revealed additional challenges. Capacity building was cited by 53% of respondents as the most critical obstacle the region obstructing OER implementation in the region. It remains a challenge for all key education stakeholders to create, access, re-use, re-purpose, adapt, and redistribute OER in accordance with copyright legislation and international obligations. Other responses on challenges included 18% policy development, 6% inclusive OER, 18% sustainability and 6% international cooperation.  

Proposals to overcome these barriers included mandatory OER training for teachers’ professional development, as well as a network-community to support the application of OER policies at national and institutional levels. 

The participants were encouraged to join the OER Dynamic Coalition which was established following the adoption of the UNESCO OER Recommendation in 2019. Its goal is to help governments in implementing the OER Recommendation by encouraging and strengthening international and regional cooperation in the four areas of the Recommendation:  a) capacity building, b) supportive policy, c) inclusive and equitable OER and d) OER sustainability.

• UNESCO Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER)
• UNESCO OER Recommendation brochure
• OER Dynamic Coalition 
• From commitment to action: implementation of OER Recommendation in Eastern and Southern Africa 
• Dialogue and engagement for Open Educational Resources