The document proposes policy recommendations to promote open educational resources (OER) adoption across the European Union. It summarizes draft recommendations in 10 areas for higher education and vocational education. The recommendations aim to reduce barriers for new education providers and programs, increase quality assurance standards, move towards competence-based rather than time-based assessment, improve recognition of prior learning, mandate open licensing of publicly funded content, and increase research on OER benefits. The proposals are part of the POERUP project funded by the EU to develop policies supporting broader OER use.

1. Policies for OER Uptake
– Key statements on
practice and policy
Giles Pepler - Sero Consulting
EFQUEL Innovation Forum, 26 September 2013,
Open University of Catalunya, Barcelona

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 e-learning,
copyright law, and major OER initiatives in that particular
country.

3. This presentation
• Summarises our draft policy recommendations for HE and vocational education –
ISCED levels 4, 5A and 5B
• These two sets of policy recommendations will be elaborated via a “perpetual
beta” approach over the period September-December 2013. This first release has
already benefited from informal discussions of a draft set of recommendations at
the ALTC2013 conference (10-12 September 2013) and with colleagues. It will be
further refined via an online forum and via participation/presentation of the
authoring team at:
• Microlearning 7.0, Krems, Austria, 26-27 September 2013
• EFQUEL Innovation Forum, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain, 26-27 September 2013
• EDEN Synergy Workshop, Budapest, Hungary, 19-21 October 2013
• Online Educa Berlin, Germany, 4-6 December 2013
• Media & Learning, Brussels, Belgium, 12-13 December 2013, including at the final
meeting of the International Advisory Committee (for EU policy experts) on 12
December.
• For release 2 due input will be taken from the just-published BIS report The
Maturing of the MOOC.

4. 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).

5. Key documents
POERUP country reports: http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Countries
POERUP Progress Report: http://www.poerup.info/resources/2011_4021_PR_POERUP_pub__PDF.pdf
The Europe 2020 flagship initiative An agenda for new skills and jobs: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=958
Employment Package: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1039&langId=en
A Digital Agenda for Europe: http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/
Opening Up Education: http://ec.europa.eu/governance/impact/planned_ia/docs/2013_eac_003_opening_up_education_en.pdf
“Europe needs modernised universities” : http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-06-592_en.htm?locale=fr
UNESCO declaration: http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/Events/Paris%20OER%20Declaration_01.pdf
ENQA Workshop on quality assurance of e-Learning, 7-8 October 2009: http://www.enqa.eu/eventitem.lasso?id=249
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prior_learning_assessment_and_recognition
The EU policy document on VET: http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/vet_en.htm
Trends in VET policy in Europe 2010-12: http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/EN/Files/6116_en.pdf
European Qualifications Framework: http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/education_training_youth/vocational_training/c11104_en.htm
EQAVET: www.eqavet.eu/
The Business & Policy Case for OER (Cable Green): http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/19494
The Copenhagen Declaration: http://ec.europa.eu/education/pdf/doc125_en.pdf
On content in the Digital Single Market: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyright/docs/copyright-infso/121218_communication-online-content_
en.pdf
AND, VERY RECENTLY ....
http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/massive-open-online-courses-and-online-distance-learning-review

6. Initial proposals for HE
• Reducing the regulatory barriers against new kinds of HE providers (e.g. for-profit, from outside the country,
consortial, etc)
• Reducing the regulatory barriers against new modes of HE provision (distance, OER, MOOCs etc)
• Fostering the development of transnational accrediting agencies and mutual recognition of accreditations across
the EU
• Reducing the regulatory barriers against new languages of provision (e.g. English in Flanders)
• Reducing the regulatory barriers against new time durations of provision (i.e. developing a successor to Bologna
based on competences gained not duration of study)
• Fostering economies of scale by standardisation of syllabi, especially in subjects subject to professional recognition
(medicine, dentistry, engineering, etc)
• Increasing the requirements for monitoring and transparent reporting of costs and outcomes for universities
Europe-wide
• Setting up an innovation fund to support one new “European” university each year with a commitment to open
education
• Mandating that any course or content development with support or part-support from EU funds is open to the
percentage that the support represents
• Fostering research into the true benefits of OER
• Ensuring that lecturers are kept up to date in ICT-based pedagogies relevant to OER

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. Quality agencies
Quality agencies should:
• Develop their understanding of new modes of learning
(including online, distance, OER and MOOCs) and how they impact
quality assurance and recognition.
• Engage in debates on copyright
• Consider the effects of these new modes on quality assurance
and recognition
• Ensure that there is no implicit non-evidence-based bias against
these new modes when accrediting institutions both public and
private including for-profit (if relevant), accrediting programmes (if
relevant) and assessing/inspecting institutions/programmes.

11. 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.

12. Assessment and accreditation of modules
• The Commission should recommend to universities and VET
providers that they should work to improve and proceduralise
their activity on APL (Accreditation of Prior Learning) including the
ability to accredit knowledge and competences developed through
online study and informal learning, including but not restricted to
OER and MOOCs, with a focus on admitting students with such
accredited studies to the universities’ and training organisations’
own further courses of study.
• The Commission should recommend to the larger member states
that they should each set up an Open Accreditor to accredit a
range of studies which could lead to an undergraduate degree. In
the first instance the Accreditor should focus on qualifications in
the ISCED 5B area as this is most correlated with high-level skills
for business and industry.

13. Funding mechanisms for programmes,
institutions and content
• The Commission should foster work into standardised syllabi EU-wide for
undergraduate degrees in certain professions (e.g. medicine, nursing, mathematics,
IS/IT) where this is appropriate for EU-wide action, and in the light of a successful
outcome to such initiatives, foster the developments of common bases of OER
material to support these standards, including relevant open repositories and (ideally
jointly with publishers) open textbooks.
• The Commission should ensure that any public outputs from its programmes
(specifically including Erasmus for All and Framework) are made available as open
resources under an appropriate license.
• The Commission should encourage member states to do likewise for their national
research and teaching development programmes, including for the public funding
component of university teaching.
• The Commission should mandate that the content of any vocational training
programme supported or part-supported by EU funding is licensed under the least
restrictive CC framework.
•The Commission should encourage member states to increase their scrutiny of the
cost basis for university teaching and VET and consider the benefits of output-based
funding for qualifications.

14. 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

15. IPR issues
• The Commission should adopt and recommend a standard Creative
Commons license for all openly available educational material it is
involved in funding. It is suggested that this is Creative Commons 3.0 in
unported or relevant national versions, updated from time to time. The
Commission should recommend this license to all member states.
• The Commission should study the issues in the modern European HE and
range of VET systems round the “non commercial” restriction and make
appropriate recommendations for its own programmes and for member
states.
• The Commission should support the development of technological
methods to provide more and standardised information on IPR to the
users of digital educational content.
• The Commission should mount a campaign both centrally and via the
member states to educate university staff and VET staff on IPR issues.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. Links and contacts
• HE proposals, release 1:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/169430544/Policies-at-
EU-level-for-OER-uptake-in-universities
• Headline ISCED level 4 proposals, release 1:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/169380658/Proposed-EU-OER-
Policies-for-the-FE-Sector-Rel-1
• POERUP wiki: http://poerup.referata.com
• POERUP contacts: giles.pepler@sero.co.uk;
Paul.bacsich@sero.co.uk