POERUP policy recommendations focussed on media resources

1. Policy recommendations for the use of
Open Educational (Media) Resources in
Europe
Giles Pepler – Sero Consulting
Media & Learning Conference,
12 December 2013, Brussels

2. Achievements
• Inventory of more than 400 OER initiatives worldwide
• 30 country reports (11 major)
• 7 case studies including Wikiwijs, ALISON (Ireland), OER U (global) and
FutureLearn (UK mostly)
• 3 EU-level policy documents for universities, VET and schools
• In progress: 9 policy documents for UK (x3), Ireland, France,
Netherlands, Spain, Poland – and Canada

3. Types of policy interventions
• interventions that link OER to open access to
research and to standards
• interventions that foster the phenomena (including
access, cost and quality; but also others such as
development and informed citizenry) that OER is said
to facilitate (even if so far without sufficient evidence).
• interventions that serve to reduce or dismantle the
barriers to creation of innovative institutions and
innovative practice (including OER, MOOCs and open
educational practices).

4. Current policy proposals
We are proposing recommendations in ten areas:
1. Innovation – new institutions
2. Accrediting of institutions – new accrediting bodies and mutual
recognition
3. Quality agencies
4. Competence-based, not time-based assessment
5. Assessment and accreditation of modules
6. Funding mechanisms for programmes, institutions and content
7. IPR issues
8. Developing the European Qualifications Framework (EQF)
9. Initial academic training and CPD
10. Research into the benefits of OER
This presentation focuses on the three areas highlighted in red

5. Recommendations – funding
• The Commission should ensure that any public outputs from its programmes are
made available as open resources under an appropriate license. (e.g. CC)
• The Commission should encourage member states to do likewise for their national
research and teaching development programmes.
• The Commission should encourage states to promote to publicly funded schools
and federations the benefits of making resources available under an open license.
• The Commission should continue to promote the availability and accessibility of
open resources created through its cultural sector programmes.
• The Commission should encourage member states to do likewise for their
domestic cultural sector programmes and to make these available across EU
• Member states should ensure that budgets for digital educational resources are
flexible to support the development/maintenance) of openly licensed materials.

6. Recommendations – open licensing (and research)
• Member states should establish (and adequately fund) a professional development
programme to help teachers and administrators understand the benefits and uses
of OER and open licensing.
• The Commission should continue to promote the OER related initiatives –
repositories, federations, portals and tools – it is currently funding (should also
encourage member states?) and through them to promote the creation, sharing,
use and reuse of high-quality OERs
• Future K-12 OER research should explicitly embrace Repositories, Federations,
Portals and Tools and should consider off-campus learning (both institutional –
virtual schools – and self-directed or home-tutor led).

7. Recommendations – IPR and copyright reform
The Commission should drive forward copyright and
licensing reform and encourage member states to review
the barriers to the re-use and repurposing of media
resources in their national policies.
For a UK view, see
http://bufvc.ac.uk/broadcast/presentations?dm_i=IAP,217HU,DL
OH14,7BQNU,1

8. Initial academic training and CPD
• The Commission should support the development of online
initial and continuous professional development
programmes for teachers and trainers, focussing on online
learning with specific coverage of distance learning, OER,
MOOCs and other forms of open educational practice, and
also IPR issues.
• The Commission should encourage member states to do
this also and recommend their use of incentive schemes for
teachers and trainers engaged in online professional
development of their pedagogic skills including online
learning.

9. Links and contacts
• HE proposals, release 1:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/169430544/Policies-at-EU-level-for-OER-uptake-
in-universities
• VET (ISCED level 4) proposals, release 2:
• http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/File:POERUP_D4_2C_v0.7.pdf
• Schools proposals, release 2:
• http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/File:POERUP_D4_2S_v0.7.pdf
• POERUP wiki: http://poerup.referata.com
• POERUP contacts: giles.pepler@sero.co.uk; paul.bacsich@sero.co.uk