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By Unesco

UNESCO OER Recommendation 2019

The relevance of Open Educational Resources

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On 25th of November 2019, the 40th General Conference of UNESCO adopted the UNESCO OER Recommendation. In this important Recommendation Unesco underlines that in the realization of Inclusive Knowledge Societies, Open Educational Resources (OER) support quality education that is equitable, inclusive, open and participatory.

Photo by Ryan Merkley CC BY 4.0

The OER definition of the UNESCO OER Recommendation says:

“Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others.”

And open license is defined as:

“Open license refers to a license that respects the intellectual property rights of the copyright owner and provides permissions granting the public the rights to access, re-use, re-purpose, adapt and redistribute educational materials.”

And connect Open education to SDG 4: 

Connecting education: “to the  achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), which calls for the international community to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. Further referring to the Education 2030 Framework for Action that lists a set of strategic approaches for the implementation of SDG 4, and which underlines that increasing access must be accompanied by measures that improve the quality and relevance of education and learning, and in particular that “education institutions and programmes should be adequately and equitably resourced with safe, environment-friendly and easily accessible facilities; sufficient numbers of teachers and educators of quality using learner-centred, active and collaborative pedagogical approaches; and books, other learning materials, open educational resources and technology that are non-discriminatory, learning conducive, learner friendly, context specific, cost effective and available to all learners – children, youth and adults” [...]

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