by the Second World OER Congress

“ OER 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. Open licensing is built within the framework of intellectual property rights as defined by relevant international conventions to respect the authorship of work. OER are a strategic opportunity to improve knowledge sharing, capacity building and universal access to quality learning and teaching resources. ”

“ OER also create opportunities for new providers to enter the education space with innovative models designed from the start to be open. There is a need to identify the full spectrum of possibilities for innovative sustainability models and the benefits they provide government, institutions, educators, librarians and learners. There is also a need to also develop innovative solutions and new sustainable value- added models to ensure that learners have access to high quality educational experiences and the resources and tools needed to support these experiences. ”

“ Educational stakeholders should further ensure that a set of indicators, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are in place to support these action areas. Wherever OER is well planned and executed, it can provide vast opportunities to improve learning outcomes, teaching quality and effective knowledge sharing. OER also provides opportunities to strengthen the democratization of knowledge by making learning and teaching materials available to learners and educators at a larger scale while at the same time providing affordable educational options. ”

“ Ensuring inclusive and equitable access to quality OER OER should be accessible to all learners who are both, in formal and non-formal education contexts irrespective of age, physical ability, socio-economic status, as well as those who live in remote areas (including nomadic populations) , internally displaced and refugees, in all instances under a framework that ensures gender equality. In addition, infrastructure such as electricity and connectivity and suitable devices / media to access OER remain challenges in many parts of the world, including within national contexts. ”

“ To bring OER into the mainstream, Member States will need to analyse their goals and needs in education to support the development, adoption, maintenance, distribution, and evaluation of OER. This may include mechanisms to support that work financially and revisiting structures for mainstreaming OER, possibly including adjusting procurement models or the way teachers are incentivised to work on OER. Support and action in particular from governments and educational institutions, is important for the realization of these actions. ”

“ The importance of digital literacy including issues related to the security and safety in the development and use of OER content should be underscored. These opportunities can have a direct impact on improving access to and the quality of education, if other preconditions for quality education are put in place: including well–resourced education institutions, with empowered, adequately recruited and remunerated, well-trained, qualified and motivated staff. ”

“ Provide capacity building for teachers, teacher trainers, learners, parents, educational policy makers, librarians and other stakeholders as needed to raise awareness on how OER can increase access to effective educational resources, improve learner outcomes and significantly reduce costs, and empower learners to become co-creators of knowledge. ”

“ Define value added models using OER by building community across institutions and countries where the focus is on participation, co-creation, generating value collectively, spurring innovation, and bringing people together for a common cause. This could include encouraging and facilitating peer collaboration for OER development ”

“ Modify professional assessment frameworks for educators and other educational stakeholders to include recognition and reward for using, modifying, creating and/or sharing OER that supports good educational practice, and staying active in OER networks ”

“ Increased online access to OER further promotes individualized study, which, when coupled with social networking and collaborative learning, fosters opportunities for pedagogical innovation and knowledge creation. ”

“ Ensure access to OER in media that most suitably meet both the needs and material circumstances of target learners and the educational objectives of the courses or subjects for which they are being provided. ”

“ Empower educators and learners to develop gender-sensitive, culturally and linguistically relevant OER appropriate to local cultures and to create local language OER, particularly languages which are less used, under-resourced and endangered as well as indigenous languages, This would include ensuring that those involved are given the support and training needed ”

“ Conclusion The Ljubljana OER Action Plan 2017 addresses concrete action in five strategic areas to support the mainstreaming of OER around the SDG4 goal of quality, lifelong learning. The continuously growing OER global community provides a strong foundation to collaborate, share knowledge and take action at local, national, regional and international levels. ”

“ Disseminate the findings of research on OER to support models of good practice with a focus on cost-effectiveness, sustainability, exploration of new tools and technologies for the creation and sharing of OER ”

“ The incorporation of policy positions into existing policies have proven to gain more meaningful traction than stand-alone policy positions. Furthermore, OER policies taken at the governmental level will benefit and support OER policies taken at the institutional level. ”

“ The regional consultations and the survey have raised awareness on the objectives of the 2nd World OER Congress and identified the status of national and regional implementation of the 2012 Paris OER Declaration. ”

“ Provide support for the collaborative development of OER, which would facilitate stakeholders joining efforts for the production of digital collections at multiple educational institutions located in different communities, cities or countries around the world ”