Strategy paper: The European OER Ecosystem – Encore+ Project

Building the European Network for Catalysing open Resources in Education

Integration of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Europe remains nascent despite its accessibility and potential (Inamorato et al., 2018; UNESCO, 2019; Zawacki-Richter et al., 2020). While OER have been part of educational discourse for nearly thirty years, their adoption has been limited (Zawacki-Richter et al., 2020). Despite national and regional initiatives and the potential benefits for higher education, widespread use is lacking (Ehlers & Bonaudo, 2020).

Challenges to OER adoption in Europe include a lack of integration strategies in educational and corporate institutions (Farrell et al., 2022) and concerns about quality and repositories (Ehlers et al., 2014; Zawacki-Richter et al., 2022). Interaction between higher education and business regarding OER is sporadic due to incomplete integration into business models. To address these challenges, a sustainable network of OER stakeholders and best practices is needed.

To catalyze OER adoption, the ENCORE+ project aims to establish a European OER Ecosystem by connecting communities and providing policy recommendations (Ehlers, 2022). Through cross-data source analysis and a Hybrid Delphi Study (Ehlers & Schmidbauer, 2022), ENCORE+ seeks to inform policymakers and stakeholders about fostering an European OER area.

The UNESCO Recommendation on OER (2019) outlines objectives for capacity building, policy support, quality assurance, sustainability, and international cooperation. This article focuses on developing supportive policy to advance OER adoption in Europe.

Excerpt:

“It is important to recognize that there is a role for monitoring the impact of OER use on practice (particularly relating to innovation). Suggested actions in support of this include: Providing and using frameworks for the assessment and recognition of learning outcomes supported by OER, conducting regular impact assessment exercises on the impact of OER in supporting innovation processes within HEIs and funding research to improve OER discoverability, usability and accessibility.”

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