This is the first public airing of the three EU-level policy clusters put together for universities, colleges (further education, VET) and schools

1. EU-level policies for OER Uptake
– for the three formal education sectors
Paul Bacsich – Sero Consulting
(co-authored with Giles Pepler & Barry Phillips)
EDEN Synergy Workshop,
19-21 October2013, Budapest

2. POERUP – Policies for OER uptake
POERUP is part funded by the European Commission’s Lifelong
Learning Programme. The overall aim of POERUP is to develop
policies to promote the uptake of OER, especially across the EU, in
all main educational sectors.
The project has already created an inventory of more than 400
OER initiatives worldwide which are documented on the project
wiki. POERUP put substantial effort into understanding the state of
play of OER in a range of countries, within the policy context and
as part of the wider development of online learning in these
countries. The project has already produced 11 country reports
and 15 mini-reports, each covering individual countries and an
overall report for the Gulf States. Each report provides an overview
of the educational system, internet policy and provision, state of elearning, copyright law, and major OER initiatives in that particular
country.

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. This presentation
• Summarises “rel 1” policy recommendations for
HE and VET (Paul and Giles)
• Draws some conclusions from research in OER in
K-12 (schools, ISCED 2 and 3) (Barry)
• Summarises “rel 1” policy recommendations for
schools (Barry)
• Begins on a synthesis of these, and with Opening
Up Education policy recommendations

5. Current final proposals for ISCED Levels 4, 5A & 5B
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
The first area is specific to higher education; the other nine areas are
applicable to ISCED Level 4 as well as Levels 5A and 5B

6. Innovation
•The Commission should set up a
competitive innovation fund to
develop one new “European”
university each year with a
commitment to low-cost online
education around a core proposition of
open content.

7. Accreditation of institutions – new accrediting
bodies and mutual recognition
• The Commission should foster the development of
transnational accrediting agencies and mutual
recognition of accreditations across the EU.
• The Commission should reduce the regulatory barriers
against new kinds of HE providers (e.g. for-profit, from
outside the country, consortial, etc).
• The Commission should establish a European quality
label for content produced in Europe.

8. Competence-based, not time-based assessment
• The Commission and related authorities developing the
European Higher Education Area should reduce the regulatory
barriers against new non-study-time-based modes of
provision: in particular by developing a successor to Bologna
based primarily on competences gained not duration of study.
• Vocational qualifications should be funded on competences
achieved, not learning hours amassed.

9. The European Qualifications Framework (EQF)
The Commission should drive forward
the development of the EQF through:
(a) Reviewing the current timetable,
which has fallen behind schedule;
(b) Establishing a revised timetable and
regularly monitoring progress

10. 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.

11. Innovation and research into the benefits of OER
• The Commission should create an innovation fund for
the development of online learning resources.
• The Commission should fund research into the
verifiable benefits of OER, with greater efforts to
integrate such analyses with its ongoing research on
distance learning, on-campus online learning, and
pedagogy; and recommend the same to member
states.
• The Commission should sponsor research into
sustainable business models for OER initiatives.

12. The state of play on OER in K-12
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It appears that there are “millions” of European OERs which are potentially
appropriate for K-12 education
The European Commission and national governments have invested significant
sums in these resources
The European Commission has subsequently financially supported the
development of Repositories, Federations, Portals and Tools to make it easier for
teachers, students and parents to use, re-use and share these resources
A significant proportion of resources emanate from the “cultural sector”
(museums, galleries, archives, national broadcasters)
OER have the potential to be a valuable element in policy responses to austerity
OER have the potential to improve the learner experience in the school sector

13. And now to schools….
Or K-12 as they say in the US

14. Policy aspects (K-12)
• OERs have been an important component of two of the Commission’s
most significant policy initiatives with regards to education (specifically
including K-12) Opening Up Education and Rethinking Education
• “OER” is not a phrase with common currency in the European K-12 sector
and few K-12 teachers are aware of OERs
• There are very few national OER policies explicitly targeting the schools
sector (e.g. Poland re textbooks)
• The various schemes for quality in OER are so far not widely recognised by
governments
• There appears to be some confusion surrounding the (Commission’s?)
message concerning the availability (or otherwise) of K-12 OER – is is a
definitional issue? (OER stricto sensu, OER lato sensu, OR?)
• Inequities of the ICT in education infrastructure across European Union
will severely hinder schools’ ability to exploit the potential of OER

15. Barriers and disincentives (K-12, only?)
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National and institutional strategies and initiatives are often oriented towards
infrastructure and seldom encourage the development of educational content
Lack of awareness of educators about the availability and opportunities
Confusion (and fear) concerning intellectual property rights
Confusion (and fear) concerning appropriate pedagogies
Quality assessment and assurance
Lack of reward and/or incentivisation by institutions
Lack of knowledge sharing culture and re-use
Infrastructure insufficient in some countries
Need for OER to be contextualised (particularly – but not solely – language issues)
Inability to engage with educational taxonomies (unfamiliarity with metadata and
vocabularies)

16. Recommendation – Communications
• The Commission should clarify its position
with regards to the abundance or scarcity of
appropriate resources currently available and
should communicate clearly this message –
including with the definitions it uses

17. Recommendations – Funding
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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.

18. Recommendations – Quality
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Where member states have Quality Assurance or materials approval processes
they should ensure that OER are allowed to be included on approved instructional
materials lists
The Commission and member states should require (within reasonable
expectation) OER to meet (disability) accessibility standards.
The Commission should ensure that accessibility is a central tenet of all its OER
programmes and initiatives
Member states should consider establishing and funding an OER evaluation and
adoption panel. This panel should include lead teachers, content experts and
accessibility experts
Member states could consider establishing a specialist OER function/post to
undertake an in-country cost-benefit analysis to asses the potential savings (or
otherwise) which might be achieved through implementing an OER strategy

19. Recommendations – Infrastructure
• The Commission should continue its focus on
improving the ICT in education infrastructure in
members states (and levelling out disparities of access)
so that they are able to exploit potential pedagogical
and financial advantages of OER
• Where nations (or institutions) are providing digital
devices they should ensure that all considerations have
been taken to maximise the effectiveness
(economically and pedagogically) of devices, support
and strategy with regards OER

20. Recommendations – Other
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Member states should establish (and adequately fund) a professional development
programmme 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
The Commission should fund research into the verifiable benefits of OER, with
greater efforts to integrate such analyses with its ongoing research on distance
learning, on-campus online learning, and pedagogy; and recommend the same to
member states. 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).

21. The integration is up to us
- and you!
Paul Bacsich
For the POERUP EU-level policy team
Policies in preparation for/with UK(x3), Ireland,
France, Netherlands, Spain, and Poland;
We want to work with other EU countries too