OER Brief for policy makers

Objectives

The aim of this page is to: Collaboratively develop a concise briefing on OER for policy makers Co-ordinate activities for the development of the OER briefing Determine strategies for distributing and promoting use of the policy briefing

Participating members

• Dilip Barad
• Phil Bartle
• Steve Foerster
• Nicholas Kimolo
• Wayne Mackintosh
• Anil Prasad
• John Stampe
• Teresa Torres Eca
• Felix K Olakulehin
• Nellie Deutsch
• Gladys Gahona
• Benjamin Stewart
• Nadia El Borai
• Nina Lyulkun
• Kim Tucker
• Trevor Storr
• Add your user page here

Proposed steps

Research the existence/availability of existing policy documents on OER

• Initial search has not identified the existence of a policy briefing, if anyone can find examples - please list them here.
• Otago Polytechnic Intellectual Property Policy
• Draft Creative Commons Policy for New Zealand Schools
• OER Policy Registry

Identify relevant web resources and links to support the drafting of the policy briefing

• Currently listing and adding relevant web links below as resource material for drafting the policy brief.

Brainstorm anticipated needs of policy makers appertaining to OER

• What policy makers are we aiming to reach?
  • Government
  • Institutions
  • Sector (School, higher education, vocational training)
• Do we need a separate policy briefs for different policy makers (e.g. Government, education institutions)?

Agree on tentative headings and sub-headings for the policy briefing

Possible headings or sections:

• What is OER?
• Why is OER important?
• Brief summary of the OER landscape (projects, progress, resources available etc.)
• What are the benefits?
• What can policy makers do? -- action items
• Who can policy makers approach for help and support?

Specify scope / or extent of the briefing

• Short concise document / brochure?

Recruit volunteer reviewers to critique the draft

Suggest names of people we can approach to critique and review the policy briefing draft:

• Susan D'Antoni, UNESCO

Resources and links

• Contributions from TCF list (Review for ideas issues that should be incorporated into the policy brief)
• Cape Town Open Education Declaration (Note the call for participation at policy level and suggesting the signing of the declaration as an action step.)
• Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). (Especially see the sections on access to information and knowledge)
• Definitions/descriptions of OER:
  • OER on Wikipedia
  • Hewlett Foundation description
  • Definition in OER Handbook on WikiEducator
  • OCLOS definition on WikiEducator
  • w:Free_Culture_(book) on Wikipedia
  • Centre for Educational Research and Innovation -CERI description of OER
  • Judy Baker in her course : introduction to OER states some benefits and some disadvantages of OER
  • A Brief History of OER
  • Open Content Licencing (OCL) for Open Educational Resources by Professor Brian Fitzgerald, QUT, Australia
• Check the discussion tab from time to time.
• Policymaker mini-handbook - perhaps this could be an extended output of the above process?
• CCLearn Productions -- good resources available under free content license and odt file formats :-)
• Opening Access to Knowledge in Southern African Universities -- mostly on open access to research, but some good points on open knowledge and education written by university heads in SADC.

Work in progress, expect frequent changes. Help and feedback is welcome. See discussion page.