Paris (FR), November 2011 - The Policy Forum on "Mainstreaming Open Educational Practices" at UNESCO headquarters takes place on 14 November 2011 from 09:30 to 18:00. The Forum addresses the mainstreaming of open educational practices into higher education and adult education. It is part of the UNESCO-supported Open Educational Quality Initiative OPAL.
The purpose of the Policy Forum is to establish guidelines for mainstreaming Open Educational Practice. OPAL promotes open educational practices - practices that support the production, use, and reuse of open educational resources (OER). Open educational practices help learners, educational professionals, organizational leaders, and policy makers improve quality in higher education and adult education and training. The Forum will be held in cooperation with the CONCEDE initiative, which focuses on the innovative topic of quality related to user-generated content with the intent of promoting concepts of quality in VET, higher education and adult learning.
The OPAL Initiative has been implemented through a consortium including the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE), the European Foundation for Quality in ELearning (EFQUEL), and a number of European universities and has been supported through the European Commission.
The November Policy Forum will examine the results of both initiatives (OPAL and CONCEDE) and their activities and will seek to strategize steps for the future. The Forum aims to bring together decision makers active in establishing a strategy in order to move forward with the results of these initiatives and will concentrate on how to best capitalize on the use of OEPs for the benefit of quality educational provision supported through ICT.
A small number of travel grants can be made available to selected attendees. Contact anthony.camilleri@efquel.org if you would like to be considered for eligibility.
