DEVELOPING POLICIES TO STIMULATE THE UPTAKE OF OER IN EUROPE
Authors: Pepler Giles 
Published: February 2023

The POERUP project
This paper presents research, analysis and policy recommendations from the POERUP (Policies for OER Up Take) project. The overall aim is to develop policies to promote the uptake of OER, especially across the EU, in all main educational sectors. The project has already created an inventory of more than 400 OER initiatives worldwide, documented on the project wiki. POERUP has produced 11 country reports and 19 mini-reports and is finalising seven case studies of notable OER initiatives.
Outcomes of our research
In the schools sector, it appears that there are very large numbers of European OERs which are potentially appropriate for K-12 education, a significant proportion of which emanate from museums, galleries, archives and national broadcasters. Although there appears to be some uncertainty concerning the availability of K-12 OER, they form potentially a valuable element in policy responses to austerity and to improve the learner experience in the school sector. However our research reports a range of barriers and disincentives to using OER.

Although the development of vocational training has been a subject of enhanced political cooperation at the European level during the past decade, only one of the notable OER initiatives we have catalogued is targeted towards the VET sector and there is little evidence of any national or regional policies on OER for VET.

In Universities the various schemes for quality in OER are so far ignored by national HE quality agencies or governments - not surprising when they mostly ignore similar schemes for quality in e-learning, even though e-learning (on- or off-campus) has far greater penetration than OER.
Types of policy interventions
Our research leads us to recommend three strands of policy interventions:
o Linking OER to open access to research and to standards.
o Fostering the phenomena that OER is said to facilitate.
o Reducing the barriers to creation of innovative institutions and innovative practices.
POERUP has produced three draft EU-level policy documents for universities, VET and schools. This paper integrates recommendations from the three sectors. POERUP is also producing policy documents for 5 Member States.
Policy recommendations for the Commission and Member States
OER is part of the broader fields of e-learning and distance learning and many of our recommendations are applicable in these broader contexts. They are grouped under seven headings and all are mapped against Opening Up Education; recommendations to Member States are specified.
Communication and awareness raising:
o Continue to promote the OER related initiatives currently being funded.
o Facilitate exchange of experiences from national programmes between Member States.
o Mount a campaign to educate university and school staff on IPR issues.
Funding mechanisms and licensing issues
o Ensure that any public outputs from EU programmes are available as open resources.
o Continue to promote the availability and accessibility of open resources created through its cultural sector programmes.
o Create an innovation fund for the development of online learning resources and assembling/ creating pathways to credentials.
o Use Erasmus+ and Horizon 2020 to encourage partnerships between creators of educational content to increase the supply of quality OER and other digital educational materials in different languages, to develop new business models and to develop technical solutions.
o Establish a European Hub of Digitally Innovative Education institutions, complemented by a specific European Award of Digital Excellence.
o Authorities developing the EHEA should reduce the regulatory barriers against new non-study-time-based modes of provision.
o Encourage Member States to increase their scrutiny of the cost basis for university teaching and consider the benefits of output-based funding for qualifications.
o Support the development of technological methods to provide more and standardised information on IPR to the users of digital educational content.
o Member States should ensure that budgets for digital educational resources are flexible enough to support the development (and maintenance) of openly licensed materials.
Quality issues
o Require OER to meet (disability) accessibility standards and should ensure that accessibility is a central tenet of all OER programmes and initiatives.
o Establish a European quality assurance standard for OER content produced in Europe.
o Member States should ensure that OER are allowed to be included on approved instructional materials lists.
o Member States should consider establishing and funding an OER evaluation and adoption panel.
Teacher training and continuous professional development
o Encourage Member States to establish incentive and award schemes for teachers engaged in online professional development of their pedagogic skills, including online learning.
o Member States should establish a professional development programme to support CPD on the creation, use and re-use of OER, with coverage of distance learning, MOOCs and IPR issues.
Certification and accreditation
o Drive forward the development of EQF and encourage Europe-wide validation of learning acquired online.
o Foster the development of transnational accrediting agencies and mutual recognition of accreditations across the EU.
o Explore and test digital competence frameworks and self-assessment tools for learners, teachers and organisations, including the tailoring of 'open badges' to the needs of learners.
Infrastructure issues
o Continue its focus on improving the ICT in education infrastructure in Members States to enable them to exploit potential pedagogical and financial advantages of OER.
Further research
o Develop its understanding of new modes of learning (including online, distance, OER and MOOCs) and how they impact quality assurance and recognition.
o Support research into the benefits of OER & sustainable business models.
o Launch a platform open to all stakeholders to record and benchmark the digital state of educational institutions.