Supporting policies create increased impact for OER

The Open Educational Quality Initiative "Beyond OER" study report is now published. Among its conclusions it finds that OER are more widely used where programmes or inititatives for open resources exist at the institutional level. The lesser the fear, insecurity or discomfort towards Open Educational Resources (OER), the higher the frequency of OER use. The report thus advocates building trust in OER in order to increase their actual usage, and building open learning architectures to transform learning.


Institutional policies for OER are still a long way from impacting on educational institutions according to findings from the Open Educational Quality Initiative (OPAL) quantitative survey. The perception by respondents that OER lead to institutional innovation still does not translate into implementation at the organization level. This is further compounded on the one hand by the very modest levels of support to factors that induce or enable the implementation of Open Educational Practices (OEP) in educational institutions, and on the other hand by the level of importance attached by respondents to institutional policy barriers to the use of OER.

Here we present some of the key findings in relation to supporting factors for OER:

Policy support is needed for OER

  1. Educational professionals and policy makers see that support and recognition for OER projects and initiatives is necessary in institutional policy in higher education and adult education.
  2. Support for localization, adaptation and translation of existing OER and support for implementing appropriate licensing schemes are viewed as very important to facilitate the usage of OER in an institutional setting.
  3. Infrastructure, access and availability are seen as necessary conditions but not critical success factors within institutions.
  4. Promotion of quality assurance for OER is viewed as necessary, particularly in higher education.

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The study report (file size 6MB) is available to download from the DuEPublico open access platform or can be browsed by clicking on the image below.

The OPAL Initiative is a partnership between seven organizations including ICDE, UNESCO and ICDE member institution, The Open University, UK, and is part funded by the European Commission Education and Training Lifelong Learning Programme.

Open Educational Quality Initiative website

14 February 2011

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