The OPAL Guidelines for institutions provide a matrix for organizations to assess their open educational practices (OEP) activities and develop an OEP strategy. The guidelines are based on research analyzing 60 open educational resources case studies and were validated with the open education community. They address the needs of organizations at developing their OER strategy and implementing and promoting open educational resources. The guidelines can help universities understand their current OEP activities, develop future open policies, and compare themselves to other institutions to improve the uptake and use of open educational resources.

1. OPAL Guidelines for
institutions
Gráinne Conole, The Open University, UK
OPAL Webinar, 25th May 2011

2. Positioning
• Guidelines provide:
• A matrix to enable organisations to
position themselves in terms of their
OEP activities
• Guidance on developing an OEP strategy
• Support for implementing and promoting
OEP

3. Benefits
• Builds on solid empirical research (analysis
of 60 OER case studies)
• Extensively validated with the OER
community
• Presented in a simple to use format
• Addresses the needs at an organisational
level

4. Need
• Organisations:
• Need help in developing their OER
strategy and implementing and promoting
the use of OER
• Are unaware of the work that has already
been done and the lessons that have
been learnt
• Should embrace the potential of OER
and encourage broader use

5. Use cases
• University A wants to know where they stand:
• They can use the guide to assess themselves
• They get a review/ feedback from OPAL
• University B wants to create a future open policy:
• They can see which elements would need to be
included into that from our guideline
• University C wants to compare themselves with
others:
• They can look up other completed matices

6. Impact
• Better uptake and use of OER
• A more systematic approach
• Growing database of stories
• An emergent community discussing
learning and teaching ideas and the use of
OER