UNESCO Launches Project on Open Courseware for Higher Education
04-03-2003 (Paris)
While the digital educational divide broadens, UNESCO and its partners launch a new project to ease access to open educational knowledge by least developed countries (LDCs). The project is a follow-up to an UNESCO expert forum on the impact of open courseware for higher education in developing countries hold in July 2002.
The project consist in establishing an online repository of existing educational non-commercial resource - Open Educational Resources (OERs) and Open CourseWare (OCW) - available for free consultation, use and adaptation to any educational institution or individual learner, anywhere in the world, with a special focus on the LDCs and small island states.
The project is intended for educational experts to share and efficiently use teachers’ expertise and contributions by building on previous experience, thus establishing a continuing north-south dialog concerning the creation and use of open courseware. Support services such as specialized software and methodology, localization (including translation) and on-line assistance will also be available.
"The dynamic behind the project lies on participation and incentives of users through feedback, comments and translations " says UNESCO project manager Armelle Arrou. "The on-line assistance community will be the core of this interactivity and cooperation between providers and users. Priority will initially be given to higher education educational materials but the repository should be extended as soon as possible to other education fields, especially the one having a significant impact on development like basic and vocational education" Arrou adds.
In addition to offering experts from LDCs the opportunity to take part in the globalization of education , the project is designed to boost international cooperation in developing and using OERs and to encourage their development so as to improve efficiency, impact and to share innovation..
Together with UNESCO, the Commonwealth of Learning and an expert team including several international educational associations as well as universities and existing OERs are supporting the project.
The project is intended for educational experts to share and efficiently use teachers’ expertise and contributions by building on previous experience, thus establishing a continuing north-south dialog concerning the creation and use of open courseware. Support services such as specialized software and methodology, localization (including translation) and on-line assistance will also be available.
"The dynamic behind the project lies on participation and incentives of users through feedback, comments and translations " says UNESCO project manager Armelle Arrou. "The on-line assistance community will be the core of this interactivity and cooperation between providers and users. Priority will initially be given to higher education educational materials but the repository should be extended as soon as possible to other education fields, especially the one having a significant impact on development like basic and vocational education" Arrou adds.
In addition to offering experts from LDCs the opportunity to take part in the globalization of education , the project is designed to boost international cooperation in developing and using OERs and to encourage their development so as to improve efficiency, impact and to share innovation..
Together with UNESCO, the Commonwealth of Learning and an expert team including several international educational associations as well as universities and existing OERs are supporting the project.
Related themes/countries
· ICT in Education: News Archives 2003
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