About the OER Foundation
The OER Foundation Limited (OER) is a non-profit company registered
on the 28th day of April 2009 under the New Zealand Companies Act of 1993. The establishment and objectives of the OER Foundation Limited were approved by resolution of the Council of Otago Polytechnic. The capacity of the company is restricted to the carrying on of business and other activities for the charitable purposes of:
- Education; and
- Other purposes beneficial to the community.
Section 3.4 of the constitution of the OER Foundation Limited requires that:
The activities of the Company shall be carried out exclusively for charitable purposes and not for the private pecuniary gain of any person.
Otago Polytechnic is currently the sole shareholder of the non-profit, with the capacity to issue and transfer shares to an organisation established exclusively for charitable purposes or a company in which the OER Foundation Limited is a shareholder provided that the company is established exclusively for charitable purposes.
The registered office of the Open Education Resource Foundation shall be at the Otago Polytechnic, 3rd floor, F Block, Forth Street, Dunedin, New Zealand. The Open Education Resource Foundation is registered with the New Zealand Charities Commission (No.CC40964)
Objectives and activities
Policy Statement 1 of 2009 specifies the intentions of the OER Foundation.
The objectives and activities of OER shall be strictly in accordance with the constitution, and carried out exclusively for charitable purposes. It is intended that the OER Foundation shall provide leadership in support of "Open Education" by carrying out the following activites in accordance with the constitution:
- Raise and administer funds for the purpose of supporting the adoption and implementation of open education resources for the benefit of education institutions and the learner communities they serve.
- Support and encourage innovative open education resource projects which show potential in reducing the cost of provision while widening access and improving quality of education.
- Establish and operate the International Centre for Open Education based at Otago Polytechnic through collaboration nationally and internationally.
- Manage and administer the domain names for
- wikieducator.org
- wikieducator.com
- wikieducator.net
- OERfoundation.org
- OERfoundation.com
- OERfoundation.net
- Maintain the technical and operational infrastructure of the WikiEducator community in accordance with the policies approved by the WikiEducator Community Council.
- Operate and maintain electronic technologies that support educators working on open education resources and related projects.
- Initiate activities that build capacity among educators in the design, development and use of open education resources.
- Assist education institutions in lowering the cost of provision, while widening access and improving the quality of their educational offerings through the implementation of open education resources.
- Provide advice and support to educational practitioners, policy makers, decision makers and institutions implementing open education resources.
- Provide financial assistance for collaborative projects working on the design development and delivery of education materials.
- Facilitate research, dissemination and sharing of knowledge and experiences regarding the sustainable implementation of open education resources.
- Promote and facilitate independent commercial services as a mechanism to achieve economic sustainability of open education resources.
- Develop and support quality assurance through peer review mechanisms to enhance the quality of OER materials on the supported wiki sites.
- Support the development of staff capability to produce open education resources.
- Community communique, Wednesday 24 September 2008, PST
- Community communique - May 10, 2009
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