OER adoption

More than ten years after the first UNESCO congress about open education on which term Open Educational Resources was coined, open resources can be found in almost every language, open policies pop up in tens of countries and companies start to recognize OER’s as great new opportunity and not only a mythical danger for their hitherto models. Open education projects like MIT OpencourseWare Consortium, Saylor.org or Khan Academy reached global popularity and inspired tens of other projects. We cannot even imagine a day without using Wikipedia, not only in education but in everyday life.

OER Impact Map spots at least 94 policies on implementing openness into public funding of educational resources around world. 48 of them were passed and are working like huge Department of Labor Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training grant program or national open e-textbooks program “Digital School” in Poland.

Global and multinational organisations like UNESCO, World Bank and European Commision not only declared support for OER but implemented their own policies opening resources they create or fund. Even more private institutions adapted OER as part of their workflow in grant programs, and publishing policies.

“Knowledge is power (…) Making our knowledge widely and readily available will empower others to come up with solutions to the world’s toughest problems.”

World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick

Want to know more?

OER Research Hub

Evidence Hub for Open Education Resources (OER)

OER Impact Map