UNESCO holds an Online Consultation on the OER Dynamic Coalition Roadmap
An online Consultation of the OER Dynamic Coalition was held from 22 to 24 July 2020 by the Communication and Information Sector of UNESCO to inform the focus of the launch of Dynamic Coalition activities.
The objective of this meeting was specifically to identify priority areas of action and identify user needs for an online tool to support collaboration and information exchange amongst stakeholders, further to the outcomes of the OER Dynamic Coalition Roadmap established in March 2020. This Roadmap is structured around the first four areas of action of the OER Recommendation, namely:
Building capacity of stakeholders to create, access, re-use, adapt and redistribute OER;
Developing supportive policy;
Encouraging inclusive and equitable quality OER; and
Nurturing the creation of sustainability models for OER.
Debates focused on modalities for cooperation on existing initiatives and the development of new initiatives. It’s important to note here that collaboration needs to be supported. Building active communities takes time, resources and opportunities to actually work together. Too often collaboration is an afterthought, and not a central part of strategies, policies and implementation’ stated Ms Lisa Petrides of the Institute for Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), and Dynamic OER Coalition Chair for the Working Group on Sustainability.
Discussions at the online Consultation built on the outcomes of an online survey held 10 to 20 July 2020 by UNESCO. The online consultation (22 to 27 July 2020) brought together some 70 stakeholders from governments, institutions, IGOs, NGOs and the private sector from all UNESCO world regions. It consisted of six working sessions held over three days in English and French, focussing on the four areas of action of the Roadmap, and transversal issues of the use of AI and emerging technologies, communications and monitoring.
The Advisory Group for the Dynamic Coalition, composed of experts from all UNESCO regions, representing government, IGOs, institutions, NGOs and IGOs chaired each of the sessions. OER Africa, which is responsible for Communications on the Advisory Group served as the Rapporteur for the event. Presentations and recordings of the event are available on the OER Africa website.
Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, as with previous OER Dynamic Coalition events, this consultation took place online. The online meeting formats, allowing simultaneous audio and text-based contributions generated rich feedback.
The outcomes of this event provided guidance for supporting ongoing activities of its partners through the development of tools for collaboration and information sharing, as well as for the launch of new activities to support priority areas of action.
The OER Dynamic Coalition was established further to the adoption of the UNESCO OER Recommendation by Member States at the 40th session of the UNESCO General Conference in November 2019. The objective of the Dynamic Coalition is to support governments in implementing the OER Recommendation by promoting and reinforcing international and regional cooperation among all stakeholders in the first four areas of the UNESCO OER Recommendation*.
For further information please contact Ms Zeynep Varoglu, Programme Specialist, Communication and Information Sector, UNESCO ([email protected]