The complete background notes and session summaries for all three sessions of the UNESCO Virtual Conference on OERs are now available at the UNESCO forum web site. Taken together the notes and the summaries give an overview of major provider sites and of issues involved in the use of OERs. ________JH
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" Open initiatives in higher education have crystallized around three major areas of activity: the creation of open source software and development tools, the creation and provision of open course content, and the development of standards and licensing tools. The outputs of all three may be grouped together under the term Open Educational Resources (OER). This term has been adopted by UNESCO to refer to the open provision of educational resources, enabled by information and communication technologies, for consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes."
"Open course content, whether full course materials or course elements, constitutes an important resource to higher education institutions, teaching staff and learners. However, if there is little or no awareness of availability, open course content cannot be exploited, and even with awareness of availability, there are challenges and barriers to its effective use.
With support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the UNESCO IIEP initiative aims to increase awareness, and support capacity building and informed decision making on the part of current and potential users and providers of openly available course content. There will be two international discussion forums – one in 2005 and one in 2006 – with ongoing interaction during the period between the two forums in a Community of Interest.
The forum will take place over a six-week period in four sessions: one week to introduce the topic, two weeks each to consider provision and providers and use and users, and a final week to determine which issues the participants would like to explore further in the continuing Community of Interest."
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