OER Brief for policy makers

Participating members

 * Dilip Barad
 * Phil Bartle
 * Steve Foerster
 * Nicholas Kimolo
 * Wayne Mackintosh
 * Anil Prasad
 * John Stampe
 * Teresa Torres Eca
 * Felix K Olakulehin
 * Nellie Deutsch
 * Gladys Gahona
 * Benjamin Stewart
 * Nadia El Borai
 * Nina Lyulkun
 * Kim Tucker
 * Trevor Storr
 * Add your user page here

Research the existence/availability of existing policy documents on OER

 * Initial search has not identified the existence of a policy briefing, if anyone can find examples - please list them here.
 * Otago Polytechnic Intellectual Property Policy
 * Draft Creative Commons Policy for New Zealand Schools

Identify relevant web resources and links to support the drafting of the policy briefing

 * Currently listing and adding relevant web links below as resource material for drafting the policy brief.

Brainstorm anticipated needs of policy makers appertaining to OER

 * What policy makers are we aiming to reach?
 * Government
 * Institutions
 * Sector (School, higher education, vocational training)
 * Do we need a separate policy briefs for different policy makers (eg Government, education instituions)?

Agree on tentative headings and sub-headings for the policy briefing
Possible headings or sections:


 * What is OER?
 * Why is OER important?
 * Brief summary of the OER landscape (projects, progress, resources available etc.)
 * What are the benefits?
 * What can policy makers do? -- action items
 * Who can policy makers approach for help and support?

Specify scope / or extent of the briefing

 * Short concise document / brochure?

Recruit volunteer reviewers to critique the draft
Suggest names of people we can approach to critique and review the policy briefing draft:


 * Susan D'Antoni, UNESCO

Resources and links

 * /Contributions from TCF list/ (Review for ideas issues that should be incorporated into the policy brief)
 * Cape Town Open Education Declaration (Note the call for participation at policy level and suggesting the signing of the declaration as an action step.)
 * Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). (Especially see the sections on access to information and knowledge)
 * Definitions/descriptions of OER:
 * OER on Wikipedia
 * Hewlett Foundation description
 * Definition in OER Handbook on WikiEducator
 * OCLOS definition on WikiEducator
 * Free_Culture_(book) on Wikipedia
 * Centre for Educational Research and Innovation -CERI description of OER
 * Judy Baker in her course : introduction to OER states some benefits and some disadvantages of OER
 * A Brief History of OER
 * Open Content Licencing (OCL) for Open Educational Resources by Professor Brian Fitzgerald, QUT, Australia
 * Check the discussion tab from time to time.
 * Policymaker mini-handbook - perhaps this could be an extended output of the above process?
 * CCLearn Productions -- good resources available under free content license and odt file formats :-)
 * Opening Access to Knowledge in Southern African Universities -- mostly on open access to research, but some good points on open knowledge and education written by university heads in SADC.