On the 27th of May, ENCORE+ team members Mark Brown (DCU) and Juliane Granly (ICDE) had the pleasure of joining the Silver Lining for Learning podcast. Armed with the podcast title: “Pondering the Future of OER and Open Education”, Mark and Juliane, together with the hosts, reflects on the broader, impactful mission of open education […]
Can Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT help create OERs in a more sustainable way?
Teachers are using ChatGPT for schools more than students, says a recent survey carried out by the Walton Family Foundation. They asked 1002 k-12 teachers and 1000 students (ages 12-17) if they are using ChatGPT: 51% of teachers replied they used it against 33% of students. Most of the teachers agreed that ChatGPT helped them […]
Foresight on the European OER Ecosystem 2030: Hybrid Delphi Study
Formulating a Positive Vision for the Future of OER in Europe In order to build an European OER ecosystem, the ENCORE+ project seeks the assessment of experts in the field of OER to map out a probable and positive vision for OER in Europe in 2030. To undertake this initiative, a hybrid Delphi study has […]
Your place in the open education ecosystem
This week the ENCORE+ team was present at Lillehammer Lifelong Learning where we ran a workshop exploring the relationship between open educational resources and lifelong learning. Here you can find a copy of the slides which are CC BY licensed and fully shareable! (The slides can also be found at https://www.slideshare.net/robertfarrow/encore-your-place-in-the-open-ecosystem.)
Technology in OER: New Infrastructure and Business Adoption
ENCORE+ is envisioning a new infrastructure for open educational resources (OERs) in which technology plays an essential role. To support this goal, possible technological scenarios have been analysed by means of a literature review, interaction and discussion with identified stakeholders, and the evaluation of cutting-edge technologies available in the consortia. This work was conducted with […]
ENCORE+ meets the Open Education Italia network
Since 2016, an informal network has existed in Italy to promote open education: Open Education Italia is a grassroots initiative set up by researchers and advocates. The network acts as a meeting point for educators working in connection with national and international initiatives, that are also promoted through the website. Members of the network include university […]
OER Innovation Briefing n.3
Innovation, Quality, Success Welcome to the second ENCORE+ Innovation Briefing! The goal of this series is to provide an accessible introduction to the innovation potential of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Europe. These briefings are aimed at professionals and leaders in higher education and business. This issue provides updates on some interesting projects, reports and […]
ICDE Open Innovation Framework & Ecosystem ‘Clusters’
Earlier this year the International Council for Distance Education published a report which is relevant to the activities of the ENCORE+ project. The report – titled “Open Innovation Framework: Emerging Narratives from the ICDE OER Advocacy Committee” – was composed by the ICDE OER Advocacy Committee after a virtual workshop in October 2021. The focus […]
Mapping the European OER Ecosystem
A key part of the ENCORE+ project lies in taking up and sharing different stakeholder perspectives. Perhaps there is no single correct way to think about these groups as there are many ways to divide up a large base of stakeholders (and potential stakeholders). But I think it might be of interest to share how our models have shifted in response to interactions with ENCORE+ communities and elements of the wider OER ecosystem.
ENCORE+ OER Innovation Survey
Details about the ENCORE+ OER Innovation Survey and excellence showcase
Elements of an ENCORE+ Workshop
When the important restrictions on travel and face-to-face contact which were introduced to alleviate the Covid-19 pandemic began to be relaxed it became possible for the ENCORE+ team here to meet with our stakeholders at various in-person events. These included OER22 in London, UK and Open Education Global in-person congress in Nantes, France. Over the […]
Credentialing learning in the European OER Ecosystem
New report from the ENCORE+ project, focused on Quality in OER. This report titled “Credentialing learning in the European OER Ecosystem“, based on expert interviews, has been produced by the ENCORE+ project to examine credentialing methodologies in the European OER ecosystem. It is intended to provide impetus to discussion, and so to move forward both […]
ENCORE+ Innovation Events in 2022
This (hot) summer has seen the first opportunities for the ENCORE+ project to meet with members of our stakeholder communities face-to-face! The first conference came in April at OER22 in London, UK. OER22 is the foremost open education conference in the UK and Ireland and was run as a hybrid event with one day in […]
Does your organisation have an Open Educational Resources Policy or Strategy?
We need you! We are calling for participation of good practice examples of Open Educational Resources (OER) higher education policies and business strategies. The ENCORE+ Network aggregates stakeholders as well as existing networks around a community of practice with four thematic strands: technology, policy, innovation and quality. The aim of the Encore project is to […]
Strategic support for OER value proposition
Policy and strategy report no. 1 The aim of this report is to explore how stronger relationships between higher education and business can address barriers to mainstream adoption and development of innovative and sustainable models and policies for Open Educational Practices (OEP).In this report, we explore how educational institutions and business interests can work together […]
Proof of Concept (PoC) of key features of OER infrastructure
Roadmap towards building the POC of key features of OER infrastructure The aim of the activity within the ENCORE+ project that brought to this Proof of Concept is to investigate and identify success criteria for a robust, sustainable and quality assured OER repository.The investigation has taken into account not only EU examples, but also the […]
Debrief: Policy Circle 2
Reflection on Policy Circle 2 event: OER – what does it mean? What does it involve? and who is it for? Maeve O’ Regan On the 4th of May 2022, the ENCORE+ project team held an online circle event, to discuss OER policies and to present case examples of OER in practice with participants interested […]
ENCORE+ at UIIN Conference Amsterdam 2022
Reaching out beyond the OER bubble! by Fiona Schmidbauer, NextEducation Research Group, Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Karlsruhe, Germany In June 2022, the 10th Conference of the University Industry Innovation Network took place in Amsterdam. UIIN Conference aims to connect the university and industry sector, mixing science and practice and thus combining research and practical experience. […]
OER Technology Circle – Position Paper No. 2
Open Educational Resources and Repositories: the role of technology Whether you are a developer, a content creator, or simply a user of Open Educational Resources, technology plays a fundamental role as a tool for streamlining processes, improving outcomes, and thus driving adoption of open resources among an ever-widening audience. The second Position Paper for the […]
Quality – Position Paper No. 2
Open Educational Resources and Repositories: the role of quality Thematic Peer Group Workshops as a method for building a community-oriented quality framework Quality for OER, respectively quality for open education is viewed as the single most important factor determining the uptake of OER in institutions and training contexts. This is stated in Position Paper 1, […]
Innovation and Business Models – Position Paper No. 2
A European Ecosystem for Innovation in Learning: Harnessing the Power of OER This second Position Paper from the ENCORE+ Innovation and Business Models Circle is a continuation of the development of the ENCORE+ project as a whole and the discussion in the first ‘Circle’ event where the core concepts for a vision for a European […]
OER Policy and Strategy – Position Paper No. 2
OER Policy and Strategy: where next? This Position Paper comments on the current state of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Europe, in particular at the policy and strategy level. It challenges some of the altruistic, philanthropic and public good drivers underlying the OER movement by identifying the need to align new open solutions with the […]
Identifying Innovative Approaches using OER
For the latest post in our series on OER business models, we focus on ways in which we can focus on concrete examples of innovation using open educational resources. Burd et al. (2015) highlight several business opportunities for open education described by Moodys: New revenue opportunities through fees for certificates, courses, degrees, licensing, or advertisement […]
OER Sustainability Business Models
Konkol et al. (2021) recently wrote about OER business models and sustainability. They frame this in terms of what they call the paradox ‘“that generating revenue out of OER is not intended, but ignoring income can make OER unsustainable”. This does capture the basic tension inherent in the idea of reducing the cost of educational […]
Business Models for Open Educational Resources
One key strand of our work in the ENCORE+ project is to capture, crystalize and build consensus around the potential of open educational resources (OER) to support alternative and innovative business models. This blogpost summarises some of the existing work in this area and indicates some key areas for further exploration. This is the initial […]
Innovation Circle – round 2
No innovation without integration Building on the overview of services, repositories, business models, and policy innovation practices described in the 2nd Innovation Briefing and the discussions held in the first Circle event, the 2nd Circle event of the ENCORE + project, focusing on innovation and business models, will invite participants to engage in a critical […]
Technology Circle – round 2
Whether you are a developer, a content creator or simply a user of Open Educational Resources, technology plays a fundamental role as a tool for optimizing processes, improving results and therefore promoting the adoption of open resources in an ever wider audience. The 2nd circle event of the ENCORE+ project dedicated to Technology will be […]
Quality Circle – round 2
In our upcoming ENCORE+ Circle event, focused on Quality on European Open Educational Resources, we will present and discuss our findings so far. Since the first circle events we have not only started a survey where we have asked several experts about their statements, fears and hopes for OER in Europe, but have also organized […]
No such thing as a free lunch?
Free + open? If we truly want to create a European Open Education Resources (OER) ecosystem we must address the challenges of OER financial sustainability. Central to the open education movement are the principles of openness and freedom in order to democratise access to knowledge, “everyone should have the freedom to use, customize, improve and […]
Specific metrics and measures on resources usage
When talking about specific metrics and measures on resources usage, probably the first element to discuss is whether current metrics and measures are effective or whether they contribute only partially to validating, supporting and thus improving the organization and traceability of open educational resources. In parallel, we should clarify who should access these metrics, because they can obviously play […]
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