UNESCO OER Recommendation: Open for Comment. Deadline: 1 June

[Cable Green]

Greetings Open Education Friends,

 

UNESCO is drafting an Open Educational Resources (OER) Recommendation. This is an official UNESCO instrument that will both advise national governments on how to support open education in their countries and report on those efforts.

The draft Recommendation text has been prepared by a group of open education experts from UNESCO, researchers and practitioners from all world regions. The OER Recommendation builds on the Ljubljana OER Action Plan, a product of the 2nd World OER Congress.

 

The online consultation process is now open. This is an invitation to contribute to the draft. In addition to providing your own comments, please share this opportunity through your networks.

The text is available in English and French:

• https://www.oercongress.org/unesco-oer-recommendation
  
  
• https://www.oercongress.org/fr/recommandation-sur-les-rel
  

The deadline for submission of contributions is: 1 June, 2018. 

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Note: Some of us have discussed taking this opportunity to update the UNESCO OER definition. If you agree with this recommended edit, please include it in your comments. I have included detailed* rationale for the edits below.

• Existing UNESCO OER definition:
  
• Open Educational Resources (OERs) are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.
  
  
• Proposed updated UNESCO OER definition:
• Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others.

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With gratitude,

Cable

Cable Green, PhD
Director of Open Education
Creative Commons

@cgreen

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Join the CC Global Network. Get involved today.

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* Details re: suggested changes to the UNESCO OER definition:

(1) Change (OERs) to (OER)

• reason: OER is both singular and plural.
  

(2) remove: "– digital or otherwise –"

• reason: "digital or otherwise" is redundant with “in any medium”.  "Any medium" means: text, digital or other formats.

(3) remove: "with no or limited restrictions"

• reasons:
• Because all open licenses come with some kind of restriction (e.g., the requirement to provide attribution); "limited restrictions" is redundant with "open license." 
• OER in the public domain has no restrictions. Because the definition says "public domain" - it is redundant to say "no restrictions."
• In addition to being redundant, the phrase "limited restrictions" implies an author might add additional, custom license restrictions on her/his OER. This is not helpful messaging when the education community is best served by using standard, interoperable (not custom) open licenses.

[Wayne Mackintosh]

Hi Cable,

Thanks for sharing the announcement to provide feedback and comment on the UNESCO Recommendation on OER. I must compliment the drafting team on preparing an exemplary document.

With due respect, based on my experiences of more than two decades working in ICTs for development, I disagree with your suggestions in refining the definition in the UNESCO draft document. In many cases it is important to elaborate on a definition in an international agreement to be more inclusive:

• A categorical statement of "digital or otherwise" is of particular importance and significance for learners and decision makers in the developing world. I recommend and support are more inclusive definition which explicitly clarifies that OER includes "otherwise".
  
• I recommend retaining the phrase "with or no limited restrictions" - this is not redundant because it is possible for a copyright holder to have the freedom to express the permissions they wish to gift to the world. While Creative Commons is the de facto license I support and use, I don't want to deprive anyone from the freedom to use the licenses they choose even if it complicates interoperability. (Creative Commons is not the only open content licensing option and it is not UNESCO's role to promote one license brand above another and they should allow the freedom for custom OER licensing.)  

For the interests of full disclosure, could you please share openly who the "some of us" who have discussed refining the definition are, and why a Creative Commons representative is lobbying for "If you agree with this recommended edit, please include it in your comments" to an openly published consultation?

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Wayne Mackintosh
Director OER Foundation and OERu facilitator

UNESCO - ICDE Chair in OER

Skype: WGMNZ1
Twitter: Mackiwg

[Cable Green]

All good points. Thanks Wayne. 

Thank you for the history re: why certain language is used in particular international definitions. I shall considering your points before submitting my own comments. 

"Some of us" is simply a reference to the multiple conversations I've had with open advocates, around the world, who like the UNESCO OER definition, but think it might be improved with a few minor edits.  

In the end, of course, the UNESCO Secretariat and UNESCO member states will decide what language they want to use.

Good weekend to all,

Cable

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--

Wayne Mackintosh
Director OER Foundation and OERu facilitator

UNESCO - ICDE Chair in OER

Skype: WGMNZ1
Twitter: Mackiwg

--

Cable Green, PhD
Director of Open Education
Creative Commons

• Join: CC Open Education Platform
  

• Tw: @cgreen
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