The European Network for Catalysing Open Resources in Education (ENCORE+) project (2021-2023) is an Erasmus+ funded initiative which aims to raise awareness of open education, coordinate stakeholder and support new strategies for the proliferation of OER (https://encoreproject.eu/). Although the Coronavirus pandemic and the resulting online ‘pivot’ increased opportunities for integrating OER into education and training, general awareness of open alternatives remains low. Many educators and learners have been in crisis mode, using whatever resources they can to fulfil their needs. While this can include OER, the demands put upon practitioners makes it hard to strategise and move systematically towards meeting the five action areas of the UNESCO OER resolution. ENCORE+ is a coordinated European approach to strengthening the value of OER as a catalyst and multiplier. The goal is to move from a series of individual OER initiatives into a European OER Ecosystem. This will be done through addressing and contributing to European and International policy priorities, stimulating innovation in businesses through learning and training, supporting the modernization and digitalization of higher education in Europe, as well as bridging non-formal & formal education by advancing recognition of open learning. ENCORE+ has established 4 thematic circle communities for OER in Europe on the thematic focus areas of OER Technology, Quality, Innovation & Business Models and Policies. The circle communities convenes and collaborate on issues related to the circle theme. The four communities will convene for its second round of circle events in the first week of May. This workshop aims to take the content and discussions held within the 4 thematic circle communities in ENCORE+ to the global stage. This workshop marks halfway through the project, and the ENCORE+ team will share and discuss experiences, issues and solutions found with the delegates at the conference. The stakeholders of ENCORE+ is truly global, connecting international stakeholders from academia and business together into a collaborative OER Ecosystem solving challenges of education through OER.

1. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission
cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license except where otherwise noted.
The future OER Ecosystem - On building a
community for OER in Europe
24th
May, 2022
Dr. Robert Farrow, The Open University (UK)
Anaïs Malbrand, ICDE (Norway)
Fiona Schmidbauer, Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg (Germany)

2. Welcome and Housekeeping
Purpose of this workshop
Inclusion in ENCORE+ research
Code of Conduct
https://connect.oeglobal.org/uploads/short-url/flBxQH52D8vb9

3. Introduction to ENCORE+
European Network for Catalysing
Open Resources in Education
https://encoreproject.eu/

4. ENCORE+
ENCORE+ is a Knowledge Alliance project funded by the European
Commission under Erasmus+
Supporting the uptake of open education resources (OER)
Catalysing and sharing innovative practice across education and business
Developing stakeholder communities for knowledge exchange
4

5. 5
Partners
● International Council for Distance Education (Norway)
● Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (Germany)
● The Open University (UK)
● Universidad Internacional De La Rioja (Spain)
● Knowledge 4 All Foundation (UK)
● Joubel (Norway)
● Fondazione Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
● Instructure Global (UK)
● Dublin City University (Ireland)

6. OER in Europe
6
http://oerworldmap.org

7. OER in Europe
● OER World Map includes details of 1400+ organisations, 900+ services, 500+
projects and 300+ policies in support of OER
● However, activity is typically uncoordinated, and happens in clusters
(national/regional, disciplinary, technological, etc.)
● Limited interactions between academia, public and private sectors
● Covid-19 has forced greater use of online learning and need for resources which
can be met by OER
7

8. ENCORE+ Background and Rationale
● The European Network for Catalysing Open Resources in Education (ENCORE+)
responds to the priorities of opening up and modernising the European
education and training sector through a coordinated European OER ecosystem
● ENCORE+ brings together meaningful and focused human networks;
technological solutions for sharing and discovering OER; policy reviews; quality
criteria; and will generate business models which draw on the affordances of
OER to support innovation
● ENCORE+ supports uptake of OER through business and academia by
formulating value propositions for using OER in education, training and business
8

9. 9
ENCORE+ Ecosystem
ENCORE+ will function as
a network catalyst for a
socio-technical ecosystem.
That means that ENCORE+’s
main mission will be to
amplify existing OER
initiatives, projects, platforms
and networks by integrating
them across the four
thematic Circle strands and
three crosscutting integration
events.

10. Theme: Innovation and Business Models
● What are the main enablers/barriers for innovation with OER?
● Should we focus on core provision or radically rethinking markets?
● What does an innovation focused OER culture look like?
● What do future business models look like? What do we need to consider?
○ Externally funded (philanthropy, sponsorship, governmental)
○ Internally funded (institutional programes, redirection of funding)
○ Community funded (services, membership model, platformisation)
○ Service models (data exploitation, dual-mode HEIs, freemium, segmentation)
10

11. 11

12. Theme: Technology
● How can we establish the right kind of interfacing and protocols?
● What can artificial intelligence approaches do for OER / OEP?
● How can technology support co-creation and sharing of content?
● Facilitating the sharing of content across platforms
● Open-source API infrastructures for sharing content, metadata,
multimedia, learning pathways, etc.
12

13. 13

14. Theme: Policies and Practices
● How is your organisation engaging with open educational practices?
● Why is your organisation engaging with open educational practices?
● Does your organisation have OER/Open Education policy? If yes give
some details, if no why do you think this is?
● What are the main barriers to large scale adoption of open educational
practices?
● What are the key enablers to large scale adoption of open educational
practices?
● What business models for open educational practices do you think will
evolve in the future?
14

15. 15

16. Theme: Quality
● How should we define OER quality? (content,‘openness’, user-friendliness, &c
● Harmonization / Developing a common European framework
● Establishing reliable and realistic systems of peer review / quality assurance
● Better user engagement by OER repositories
● Achieving an interoperable European metadata and search engine strategy
16

17. 17

18. Theme: Stakeholders & their needs
18
Education
HEI leaders, decision makers
Learners (formal/informal)
Educators
Libraries/Collections/Repositories
Instructional Designers /
Technologists
Copyright/Data Officers
Business
Course providers
Ed Tech companies
Service providers
Workers
Infrastructure providers
Publishers
Policymakers
Educational authorities
Ministries
Public bodies
Quality assurance agencies
Charities / NGOs (macro/micro)
Funders/Philanthropy

19. 19
ENCORE+ Ecosystem
ENCORE+ will function as
a network catalyst for a
socio-technical ecosystem.
That means that ENCORE+’s
main mission will be to
amplify existing OER
initiatives, projects, platforms
and networks by integrating
them across the four
thematic Circle strands and
three crosscutting integration
events.

20. ENCORE+ Ecosystem
Coordination
● Coordination of efforts in producing, sharing, using & reusing OER
● Improved collaboration, connection and user-friendliness among repositories
● Interconnected OER repositories, user communities, institutions, companies
● Sharing and development of quality OER across borders, languages and cultures
● Exchanging perspectives and information about effective innovation in practice
● Connecting and fostering knowledge exchange across HE and business
20

21. ENCORE+ Ecosystem
Provision
● Enhanced training opportunities in formal and informal learning settings
● Generalised access to quality OERs and better support for language and culture
adaptation
● Local companies (especially SMEs) access to high quality free training resources
21

22. ENCORE+ Ecosystem
Culture
● Promotion of open educational practices (using OER and participatory
technologies to facilitate collaboration, innovation and flexible learning)
● Promoting a culture of self-empowerment, innovation and entrepreneurship
● Increasing inclusiveness of higher education institutions through effective
strategies for open education
● Trust for OER in teacher and learner communities & institutional leaders
22

23. ENCORE+ Ecosystem
Catalysation
● Increased availability of quality OER
● Strengthened innovation around OER both in universities and enterprises
● Implementation of existing technical and quality standards for OER at scale
● Opportunities for local entrepreneurs, companies and Ed Tech companies to
innovate through OER
● Demonstrating the innovation potential of OER for HR development in
companies
● Stimulating innovation in learning and teaching through the uptake of quality
OER
23

24. 24
24
https://encoreproject.eu/event_listing_category/circles-events/

25. Project partners:
Thank You!

26. Supporting ENCORE+
● Invite 5 personal contacts to join ENCORE+ Circles
● Subscribe to project channels (newsletter, blog)
● Share your experiences and inspiration!
26

27. Project partners:
Contacts
Robert Farrow, The Open University (UK)
rob.farrow@open.ac.uk / @philosopher1978
Orna Farrell, Dublin City University (Ireland)
orna.farrell@dcu.ie / @orna_farrell
Website
For further and updated information
about this project please see:
www.encoreproject.eu
info@encoreproject.eu