Gema Santos Hermosa from the UOC's Library and Learning Resources department has been invited to take part in an intergovernmental meeting of experts regarding the launch of a UNESCO coalition on open educational resources (OER). The meeting will be divided into two working sessions over 2 and 3 March at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

This coalition aims to strengthen UNESCO member states' commitment to actions and strategies regarding OER, whilst bolstering international cooperation and fostering progress in the use of open educational resources around the world. As a member of SPARC Europe's European Network of Open Education Librarians, the UOC is actively involved in achieving this shared objective.

UNESCO OER Recommendation

The coalition aims to implement the Draft Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (full text), which was unanimously approved on 25 November 2019 by the 193 member states at the organization's 40th General Conference.

The new Recommendation supports the development and exchange of open access educational resources, which will greatly benefit students, teachers and researchers around the world. The five main objectives are:

i) Developing the capacity of all key education stakeholders to create, access, reuse, repurpose, adapt, and redistribute OER.

ii) Developing supportive policy.

iii) Supporting quality, inclusive and equitable education.

iv) Nurturing the creation of sustainability models for OER.

v) Fostering and facilitating international cooperation.

Building on the action plan devised at the Second World OER Congress (2017), promoting this kind of educational content can help build inclusive knowledge societies and further United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 4 (quality education), 5 (gender equality), 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), 10 (reducing inequality), 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) and 17 (partnerships for the Goals).

Gema Santos has a PhD in Information and Communication Sciences and is a research support librarian at the UOC Library. She leads the EMPOWER Knowledge Resources group of experts, part of the EADTU university network, and coordinates the open educational resources (OER) activities organized by the EBUIN university network's working group on repositories. She is also a member of SPARC Europe's European Network of Open Education Librarians. Her doctoral thesis looked at the development and reuse of open educational resources (OER) in higher education.

Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER)

Launch of the Dynamic Coalition for the UNESCO OER Recommendation