[Oer-community] UNESCO Chairs in OER

Susan D'Antoni susandantoni at gmail.com
Fri Feb 11 13:29:31 MST 2011


Dear Colleagues,

Two UNESCO Chairs in OER have been awarded - one at Athabasca University
headed by Dr Rory McGreal, and one at the Open University of the Netherlands
headed by Dr Fred Mulder.

Last week in freezing cold temperatures a very warm ceremony was held in
Edmonton to announce the joint UNESCO/COL Chair at Athabasca University.
This Chair will support the OER Community and we are most grateful for some
ongoing support from the Hewlett Foundation. Sustainability has been a
priority from the beginning, and a UNESCO Chair in OER provides an
appropriate base to promote strong networking. UNESCO Chairs are intended to
function as networks and bridge builders.  This approach is appropriate to
the collaborative manner of information sharing that has been the practice
of the OER Community.

Many of us have been together in this international group since the first
forum in late 2005.  At that time OER was becoming a presence, with a
growing number of institutional initiatives.  The focus of our interaction
while hosted at IIEP and UNESCO was to raise awareness of OER
internationally and to build capacity through the discussion of OER related
issues. But now there are many venues for such interaction.

Therefore, planning for the coming year will focus on action - the
development of a global map of the OER landscape, to be undertaken in a
collaborative manner.  The need for an overview of the field is being
expressed.  Our group has worked collaboratively before on creating and
sharing OER stories and on the priority setting exercise that resulted in
the publication, Open Educational Resources: The Way Forward. Helping to
create a map of OER initiatives worldwide would be another contribution to
the field.

You will be invited to participate in this exercise later in the year!

My best regards to all,

Susan
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