The focus of the 2012 World OER Congress is to invite governments to view and discuss the merits of open educational resources and to adopt a declaration that calls on governments to support the sustainable development and dynamic use of OER.

To provide an opportunity to civil society organizations, academia, and individual experts to present on their open Educational Resources initiatives, UNESCO is organizing the parallel Open Seminar and Exhibition in full partnership with OER Africa, a initiative of ICDE associate member, the South African Institute of Distance Education - SAIDE.

ICDE at the World OER Congress

ICDE has had a good and wide-reaching dialogue with regional actors within open and distance learning since February 2012 on OER and on the content of the declaration to be adopted at the World OER Congress. These associations have given input to the organization of the Congress, to the declaration itself, and discussions lead to the formation of a panel which will examine the opportunities from OER and open and distance education. This panel session will be held at 11.15 (GMT+2) on Thursday, 21 June, and will be streamed online.

Participants in the panel are:

• Tian Belawati, Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia, and President of ICDE
• Gard Titlestad, Secretary General, ICDE
• Tony Mays, National Association for Distance Education and Open Learning - Nadeosa, South Africa
• Mona El Ayoubi, Hamdan Bin Mohammed e-University, United Arab Emirates
• Anthony Camilleri, European Foundation for Quality in E-learning - EFQUEL
• Jim Barber, University of New England, Australia

ICDE will also take part in the exhibition.

Live online streaming

Both the Congress and Open Seminar and Exhibition will be available to view online.

Day and time	Event and link	Selected highlights	Presentations
Wednesday, 20 June 14.30-18.00 (GMT+2)	OER Congress - Live webcast	14.30: Qian Tang, Assistant DG Education; Asha S Kanwar, Commonwealth of Learning, Janis Karklins, Assistant DG Communication and Information; Lawrence Lessig, Harvard University; 16.15: OER in the Caribbean and Africa
Thursday, 21 June 10.00-18.00 (GMT+2)	OER Congress - Live webcast	10.15: OER in Europe and Latin America; 11.35: OER in the Arab States and Asia and the Pacific; 14.30: Panel discussion on issues and challenges for OER including representatives of The Open University of China and Hamdan Bin Mohammed e-University, UAE
Thursday, 21 June 10.00-18.00 (GMT+2)	OER Open Exhibition and Seminar - Live webcast	09.00: UNESCO Chairs in OER; 09.30: Kathy Nicholson, The Hewlett Foundation; 10.00: Cable Green, Creative Commons; 11.15: ICDE panel on the opportunities from OER and open and distance education; 14.50: OER in Brazil; 16.20: OER in China	Browse
Friday, 22 June 10.00-13.00 (GMT+2)	OER Congress - Live webcast	10.15: Debate - idealists vs. realists on the future of OER
Friday, 22 June 10.00-18.00 (GMT+2)	OER Exhibition and Seminar - Live webcast	09.00: Open education at MIT; 09.30: OER in 27 African countries/ the African Virtual University; 10.55: Certification of OER learning; 12.25: OER for Africa/ Unisa 14.30: OER in non-English speaking countries 16.25: edX - MIT and Harvard University 16.55: The OER university network	Browse

 World Open Educational Resources Congress

20 June 2012