UNESCO Chair in OER: Building Higher-ed Networks
Athabasca (CA)/Heerlen (NL), May 2011 - ICDE member institutions Athabasca University, Canada, and Open Universiteit, the Netherlands, were recently awarded the UNESCO Chair in open educational resources (OER). The UNESCO Chair in OER is a network that focuses on capacity building on an institutional, national, and international level and undertakes research that will contribute to the growing investigation of the OER phenomenon.
The UNESCO Chairs Program was conceived as a way to advance research, training, and program development in all of UNESCO's fields of competence by building university networks and encouraging inter-university cooperation. Over 812 institutions in 128 countries are involved in the UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Network - a linked UNESCO program that is forward-thinking and impacts socio-economic development.
Among the focuses of these initiatives are
- the dual function of UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks as think tanks and "bridge builders" among the academic world, civil society, local communities, research, and policy making.
- readjust the geographic imbalance that is now in favour of the North
- stimulate triangular North-South-South cooperation
- create regional or sub-regional poles of innovation and excellence
- the UNESCO Chair in OER
With this in mind, the Open Universiteit has launched a "UNESCO Chair in OER" website to act as a platform to engage the entire network of UNESCO Chairs and share news items, activity reports, event announcements, and other activities related to OER.
