OER Community


This is an open invitation to all educators in Asia and those others who have an interest in Asian education to become a part of our community. The ideals of the community are enshrined within the context of the Cape Town Declaration on Open Education and that is “everyone should have the freedom to use, customize, improve and redistribute educational resources without constraint”.

This community is sector blind and welcomes participation of all those associated with education from basic and primary education to life long learning.

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OER Asia Publications

 

Open Educational Resources: An Asian Perspective



Tag: OER

2012.11.09 05:21:37
Ishan Abeywardena
SEARCHING AND LOCATING OER: BARRIERS TO THE WIDER ADOPTION OF OER FOR TEACHING IN ASIA

Abeywardena, I. S., Dhanarajan, G., & Chan, C.S. (2012). Searching and Locating OER: Barriers to the Wider Adoption of OER for Teaching in Asia. Proceedings of the Regional Symposium on Open Educational Resources: An Asian Perspective on Policies and Practice, 19-21 September 2012, Penang, Malaysia.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are fast becoming a global phenomenon which could potentially provide free access to knowledge for the masses. Since the inception of this concept, governmental and non-governmental grants alongside generous philanthropy have given rise to a vast array of OER repositories all over the world. With this movement gaining momentum, more and more of the learned community have started contributing resources to these OER repositories making them grow exponentially rich in knowledge. However, despite the availability of a large number of OER repositories, the use and re-use of OER are yet to become mainstream in many regions and institutions. One reason for this slow uptake is the inability to effectively search and locate desirable OER using the available search methodologies as it would be next to impossible to trawl through all the disconnected and disparate repositories manually. The findings discussed in this paper are part of a broader study into the OER landscape in the Asian region concentrating mainly on China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam where close to five hundred and eighty academics from public, private not-for-profit and private for-profit institutions participated. This research paper discusses how Asia fares with respect to searching and locating desirable OER and whether it is truly a barrier to the wider adoption of OER for teaching in the region.


  OERAsia | Desirability of OER | Open Educational Resources | OER | Searching and Locating OER | OER in Asia | Barriers to OER | OERScout | OER Symposium Penang
Comments 0Hits: 1175  

2012.10.30 01:53:14
Ishan Abeywardena
A world map of Open Educational Resources initiatives

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Susan D'Antoni < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Date: Tue, Oct 23, 2012 at 6:08 PM
Subject: New discussion: Mapping OER initiatives globally
To: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to invite you to take part in one more online conversation. As a group, you are former members of the UNESCO IIEP OER Community that interacted from 2005-2009, and new members who have joined us since then.

The objective of this conversation is to consider together whether the global OER community could design and build a world map of OER institutional initiatives.

Over the past decade, there have been more and more initiatives in more and more countries. It has become difficult to have a sense of the global OER landscape. As we seek to communicate with stakeholders, as we seek to connect with potential partners and as we seek to learn from the experience of others, we might find useful a picture of the OER world – a global map of institutional and perhaps national initiatives as a starting point. Over time, an “OER World Map” could be enhanced as the community wished and found feasible.

Maps can be effective in communicating a message visually. There are already several global maps that have been created for specific OER groups, such as, the Open CourseWare Consortium and the Open University OLnet project in the United Kingdom.

As many of you will remember, the former IIEP OER community showed enormous energy in its interaction. And importantly, the community showed a capacity to self-organize. A number of groups came together to translate the report of the group’s consensus on priorities to advance the OER movement. If mapping the OER world were seen to be useful, perhaps the worldwide OER community could self-organize to build and maintain an OER world map together.

Our conversation is scheduled to take place online over a three-week period from 12 – 30 November. At the conclusion of the discussion a draft report will be sent to everyone for review and comment.

In addition to this international discussion in English, some groups have already decided to hold similar interactions in their own languages for their own communities or networks. Their input will be shared with the international group, and incorporated into the final report of our collective deliberation and conclusions. We hope others may also wish to organize separate discussions.

A document is attached with the outline of the discussion The content of the document is also below in plain text. Please do share the information with your colleagues and networks.

I will be back in contact with further details before we begin. I am very much looking forward to being back together again.

My best,

Susan

--
Susan D'Antoni
Advisor to the President
International OER Initiatives
Athabasca University
Canada
skype iiepsusan



 

Athabasca University UNESCO/COL Chair in OER
Open Universiteit UNESCO Chair in OER

___________________________________________


A world map of Open Educational Resources initiatives:

Can the global OER community design and build it together?

 

First, an International discussion

12 – 30 November 2012

 

* Next, local discussions – organized locally

 

 

 

An international online conversation – The objective is to explore whether the OER community worldwide could work together to design and build an OER world map – starting with institutional initiatives and basic information.

 

 

A definition – Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. They may be full courses or course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge (William and Flora Hewlett Foundation).

 

 

Now a decade of development – a global movement with more and more OER initiatives, in more and more countries. The vision of increasing access to the world’s knowledge through making resources open and accessible is beginning to be realized.

 

 

But we still have a problem – we do not have a comprehensive overview of OER projects in the world – how do I know what is going on in my own country? And how do I find contacts in other countries, or contacts working in my own language?

 

 

An OER world map – A map would give us the big picture of the global OER movement. It would help us communicate the story of OER. Furthermore, it could be enhanced with information such as OER initiatives by language, and with links to other maps. And it would help us connect.

 

 

Community collaboration – Working together the OER community could design and build the map, and then regularly update it. With time, energy and collaboration, the map could become a door to the OER world, helping us communicate with stakeholders and connect with each other.


Outline of the international discussion

 

 

Week 1: What could an OER world map look like?

12- 16 November

 

Why map the OER landscape

Essential information and visual presentation

 

 

Week 2: Could a world map be built collaboratively?

19-23 November

 

Organizational approach for collaboration

Ensuring the quality of the information

 

 

Week 3: Reflection and next steps

26-30 November

 

Design of an “OER World Map”

Organization

Resources available/needed

Next steps


Join the international conversation

Send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and type subscribe in the subject line

Share this announcement with your colleagues and networks


* Plan a parallel or follow up discussion in your own language and network

Contact

Susan D’Antoni at oermappi This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it




  Open Educational Resources | OER | OER in Asia | COL | UNESCO | Athabasca University | International discussion
Comments 0Hits: 1201  

2012.10.01 07:22:07
Ishan Abeywardena
Open Educational Resources in Asia

Abeywardena, I. S., & Dhanarajan, G. (2012). Open Educational Resources in Asia. Proceedings of the Symposium on E-learning and Open Educational Resources: Practices and new initiatives organised by the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK), 18th April 2012, Hong Kong. Recording and slides available at http://oer.ouhk.edu.hk/2012.php


  Open Educational Resources | OER | OER in Asia
Comments 0Hits: 951  

2012.07.26 02:07:07
Ishan Abeywardena
4 million Creative Commons-licensed videos on YouTube

Four million creative commons videos on YouTube are just waiting to be reused, remixed, and reimagined—more videos than anywhere else in the world.

Full article at: http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2012/07/heres-your-invite-to-reuse-and-remix-4.html?m=1

from Cathy Casserly, CEO of Creative Commons (CC)


  Creative Commons | YouTube | OER | Open Educational Resources
Comments 0Hits: 999  

2012.07.19 01:04:53
Ishan Abeywardena
Winners Announced! – Why Open Education Matters Video Competition

Timothy Vollmer, July 18th, 2012

Creative Commons, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Open Society Foundations are pleased to announce the winners of the Why Open Education Matters video competition. The competition was launched in March 2012 to solicit creative videos that clearly communicate the use and potential of free, high-quality Open Educational Resources — or “OER” — and describe the benefits and opportunities these materials create for teachers, students, and schools everywhere. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the competition with a video on the Why Open Education Matters website. The competition received over 60 qualified entries. The winning videos are displayed below.

First Prize

Congratulations to Blinktower, an extremely talented creative agency based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Second Prize

Congratulations to Laura Rachfalski and her great team. Laura is an artist, videographer and photographer from Philadelphia.

Third Prize

Congratulations to Nadia Paola Mireles Torres and her collaborators from the design firm Funktionell. It’s also amazing to see that Nadia has made all the video assets available for download and reuse under CC BY!

The prize winners were decided by a panel of distinguished experts including Davis Guggenheim, Nina Paley, Liz Dwyer, Anya Kamenetz, James Franco, Angela Lin, and Mark Surman. Due to technical problems with the public voting on the Why Open Education Matters website which prevented some persons from submitting a vote, the third prize video has been awarded by the judging panel.

In addition to the winning videos, all of the qualifying videos are available for viewing on the competition website,http://whyopenedmatters.org. All of the videos are licensed CC BY, which means others may distribute, remix, and build upon them, even commercially, as long as they give credit to the creators.

Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to everyone who submitted a video for sharing their creativity, talents, and passion in helping explain and promote Open Educational Resources.


--
Timothy Vollmer
phone = +016086982403 | skype = timothyvollmer | tw = @tvol


  Open Education | OER | Open Educational Resources | Creative Commons
Comments 0Hits: 1091  

2012.06.19 05:12:27
Ishan Abeywardena
OER Based ODL Course Material - Web Database Application

Being one of the youngest Open Distance Learning (ODL) institutions in Asia, Wawasan Open University (WOU) recently embarked on the journey towards predominantly adopting and adapting Open Educational Resources (OER) as self directed course material for its adult learners pursuing their undergraduate degrees.

The School of Science and Technology (SST) along with the Institute for Research and Innovation (IRI) initiated a pilot project which would investigate the adaption of readily available OER material under the Creative Commons license to be used as course material for undergraduate learners in the Information Technology (IT) discipline. As a result, the middle level course TCC242/05 Web Database Application, which deals with the Open Source Linux, Apache, PHP and MySQL architecture, was developed completely re-using existing OER. The course has completed one full presentation cycle (beginning January and ending June 2012) with the students sitting the exam.


The complete course material released under CC BY-SA can be found at http://www.oerasia.org/OERResources/WebDatabaseApplication.pdf 
       


  Creative Commons License | OER reuse | ODL Course Material Development | Web Database Application | Open Educational Resources | OER
Comments 0Hits: 1014  

2012.06.04 09:17:32
Ishan Abeywardena
Copyright and licensing toolkit

This toolkit is aimed at higher education stakeholders who are working with Open Educational Resources (OER).
It explains the notion of copyright and describes the different licensing options available to the author/creator of a work.
Whether you are wanting to license your own work, or are tasked with clearing copyrighted documents, you will find comprehensive information about the basic concepts in copyright and licensing, the types of open licences that exist, and tools and techniques to provide support.


http://www.oerasia.org/OERResources/OER%20Copyright%20and%20Licensing%20Toolkit_WEB.pdf


  OER Licensing | Copyright | Creatice Commons | OER
Comments 0Hits: 734  

2012.06.04 06:24:48
Ishan Abeywardena
Regional Symposium on Open Educational Resources

Dear OER Enthusiasts,

WAWASAN OPEN UNIVERSITY, in association with local and international partners, is organising a symposium on “Open Educational Resources: An Asian Perspective on Policy and Practice” in Penang, Malaysia between the 19th and 21st of September 2012.

Please visit the symposium website at http://www.oerasia.org/oersymposium for more details.

Thanks
Ishan


  OER | Open Educational Resources | OER Symposium | OER Conference
Comments 0Hits: 878  

2012.05.02 06:39:25
Ishan Abeywardena
OERAsia Survey Results Released

The preliminary results of the OERAsia Survey: A study of the current state of play in the use of Open Educational Resources in the Asian Region are now available at  http://www.oerasia.org/oerasiasurvey
 


  OER | OERAsia | OER Survey | OERAsia Survey | OER Survey Results | OER in Asia
Comments 0Hits: 730  

2012.05.02 03:15:10
Ishan Abeywardena
OER Paris Declaration

An International Advisory and Liaison Group, which is composed of government representatives from each of UNESCO’s regions identified by its electoral group and selected representatives of IGOs (OECD) and NGOs (OER Africa, Creative Commons), is a vital part of the initiative. Its role is to be a formal link with UNESCO’s member states and, especially, to involve them in the process of drafting the Declaration that will be presented to the World OER Congress in June, 2012.

The first meeting of the IALG took place at UNESCO HQ in Paris on December 19, 2011 co-chaired by the Project Director, Sir John Daniel and UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communications and Information (ADG/CI), Mr. Janis Karklins with the Senior Consultant as Secretary. All UNESCO regions were represented by at least one government and representatives of the IGOs and NGOs listed above were also present.

During the meeting the IALG has initialised the development of the Declaration for the OER Congress. In the ensuing discussion various elements for the Declaration were proposed, which guided the preparation of a first draft after the meeting. This document will be considered, discussed and finalised for adoption at the World OER Congress.

The Aisa-Pacific Regional OER Forum took place on 23-24 April 2012.  The delegates considered the content of the declaration and Draft Version 5 of the declaration is available for comments and inputs by delegates.

For more details

http://oercongress.weebly.com/paris-declaration.html


  OER | OER Policy | Open Educational Resources | Paris Declaration
Comments 0Hits: 840  

2012.04.17 08:20:46
Ishan Abeywardena
E-learning and Open Educational Resources: Practices and new initiatives


18 April 2012
Open University of Hong Kong

http://oer.ouhk.edu.hk/programme.html

 

Programme

Time
  
Speakers
  
Titles
2:30 – 2:35   Dr K C Li    Hosting and briefing the rundown
2:35 – 2:40   Prof. John C Y Leong    Welcoming speech
2:40 – 2:55   Prof. C M Leung   Overview of OER round the world
2:55 – 3:25   Mr Ishan Abeywardena   Report on OER projects in Asia
3:25 – 3:55   Prof. Gajaraj Dhanarajan   Open textbook projects in Asia
3:55– 4:00   Dr K C Li    Introduction to Friends of OER
4:00– 4:15   Break
(coffee and refreshments)		    
4:15 – 4:30   Mr Kenneth Chen   Government’s policy and plans for e-learning in schools
4:30 – 4:40   Dr Robert Fox   OER project at the University of Hong Kong
4:40 – 4:50   Dr K S Yuen   Open textbook project at the Open University of Hong Kong
4:50 – 5:40       OER Panelist (Chaired by Dr K C Li)

  OER | OER Symposium | Hong Kong | Open University of Hong Kong | OUHK
Comments 0Hits: 990  

2012.03.27 05:33:51
Ishan Abeywardena
OER Policy Registry: Request for Help

From: Cable Green
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 10:49 AM
To: OER Advocacy Coalition ; OER Forum ; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; oer course collaboratory ; Educause Openness Constituent Group ; WikiEducator
Subject: [OER] OER Policy Registry: Request for Help

Greetings Open Colleagues,

The open community shares a need for more information to help us with our work. We know, for example, there are many policies supporting open education at institutions and governments throughout the world.  Many of us know some of these policies, but it would be extremely helpful if we had a single database of open education policies, from around the world, that the entire community could access and update.

To meet this goal, Creative Commons (CC) has received a small grant to create an “OER Policy Registry.”  The Open Education Resources (OER) Policy Registry will be a place for policy makers and open advocates to easily share and update OER legislation, OER institutional policies and supporting OER policy resources.  We have begun to enter OER policies into the registry, but we need your help to make it a truly useful global resource.

The open movement is reaching a stage where we've had some real, concrete OER policy victories and there is the potential to achieve many more.  Sharing our collective knowledge of existing OER policies, in the same way we believe in sharing educational resources, will help advocates and policymakers worldwide be more successful.

Will you please:


  1.. Contribute any OER policies you know about on this form: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dE5GSHVONzBBX1lMa1dSZWR1UmtPOFE6MQ


    1.. We are collecting both legislative AND institutional (non-legislative) OER policies from around the world. Your form submissions will be added to this draft list of OER policies.


  2.. Review the draft list of OER policies: https://docs.google.com/a/creativecommons.org/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aqx2YcmBjqvbdE5GSHVONzBBX1lMa1dSZWR1UmtPOFE#gid=0


    1.. If any entries need to be fixed, please email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it


  3.. Forward this message to your colleagues, to your lists, blogs, and other channels, to ensure that we get as much input as possible. As the OER movement is global, it is critical that we capture OER policies from around the world.


Everyone can add OER policies to the google form for the next month.  Beginning on May 1, the OER Policy Registry will move to the Creative Commons (CC) Wiki. Anyone will be able to edit the OER Policy Registry on the CC Wiki, and all wiki text will be licensed under CC BY.

We're starting with a google form because (a) it's easy and (b) wikis require you to create an account before editing, and that may be a barrier to participation.

CC is in contact with other projects that started to collect similar information, including UNESCO, CoL, the Florida Distance Learning Consortium, EU OCW and a project in New Zealand. We will add OER policy data they gather as it becomes available. If anyone knows of other efforts to gather OER policies, please send them to Anna Daniel: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we will reach out to them too.

If you have any suggestions or feedback on the content and/or framework, please let us know.

Warmest regards and thank you!

Cable

PS: CC Blog post: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/32072


Cable Green, PhD
Director of Global Learning
Creative Commons
http://creativecommons.org


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  OER | OER Policy | OER policy registry
Comments 0Hits: 828  

2012.02.08 01:12:51
Ishan Abeywardena
Dramatically Bringing Down the Cost of Education with OER

"We are in the midst of a revolution in education. For the first time in human history we have the tools to enable everyone to attain all the education they desire. And best of all this education is available at almost no cost."

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/02/open_education_resources.html


  OER | Open Educational Resources
Comments 1Hits: 755  

2012.01.05 08:40:00
S.C. Khoo
New announcement posted by Abel Caine via Open Educational Resources (OER)

Workshop on Open content licensing for educators

To all members of the OER Community on the WSIS KC,
On behalf of the OER Team at UNESCO, I'd like to wish everyone a very happy new year and look forward to making 2012 a stellar year for OER.
The 1st major OER event for 2012 is the Workshop on Open content licensing for educators. It is designed for educators and students who want to learn more about open education resources, copyright, and Creative Commons licenses and is scheduled for 23 - 27 January 2012.
Spread the news among your networks. Blog, tweet, post notes on identi.ca or Download and share this poster with your colleagues and share the gift of knowledge.
Cable Green, Jane Hornibrook, Alison Snieckus, Wayne Mackintosh

http://www.wsis-community.org/pg/announcements/view/464590/
 


  WSIS | Open Educational Resources | OER | UNESCO
Comments 0Hits: 611  

2011.10.12 02:45:48
Ishan Abeywardena
Opening Education event

As a prelude to Open Access Week, BCcampus and partners invite you to a special event exploring the ways in which Open Access and Open Educational Resources (OER) are opening up education.

Date: Monday, October 17, 2011

Time: 9:30 am to 3:30 pm. See your time zone here.

Location:

Simon Fraser University Woodward’s Campus
Goldcorp Centre for the Arts
149 West Hastings Street
Second Floor, Room 2555
Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Social Media:

Conference updates will be posted via Twitter: @bccampus, using the hashtag: #opening11

http://open.bccampus.ca/2011/09/22/40/


  BCcampus | Open Educational Resources | OER | Open Access
Comments 0Hits: 578  

2011.10.11 03:44:14
Gajaraj Dhanarajan
OER Community

This is an open invitation to all educators in Asia and those others who have an interest in Asian education to become a part of our community. The ideals of the community are enshrined within the context of the Cape Town Declaration on Open Education and that is “everyone should have the freedom to use, customize, improve and redistribute educational resources without constraint”.

This community is sector blind and welcomes participation of all those associated with education from basic and primary education to life long learning.


  Open Educational Resources | OER | Cape Town Declaration | Open Education
Comments 3Hits: 612  


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