Open educational resources, and open education more generally, are considered to have huge potential to increase participation and educational opportunities at large and to promote widening participation and lifelong learning. At the same time, the past decade has shown that openness in itself is not enough to unfold this potential. It is important to shift the focus more to the actual open practice of using, reusing, or creating open educational opportunities: open educational practice.

Download the report   EFQUEL

The OEP Guidelines enable learners, educational practitioners, leaders of organisations, and policy makers to plot their trajectory on the path to open educational practices. This begins with assessing your current position, through the creation of a vision for openness and a strategy for open practices, and finally to implementing and promoting open educational practices.

Different stages are relevant for different contexts, and you can choose the stations on the metromap acording to your situation:

• Learners
• Educational practitioners
• Leaders of organisations
• Policy makers

(Tip: hold down the [ctrl] key and press ‘+’ a few times to increase the size. Repeat this with ‘-’ to reduce the size again)

Examples of best practice

Within each of the stages shown under the metromap, the main considerations are listed. Linked to these are example of best practice which have been submitted through the OEP Best Practice Clearing House.

Report on best practice

A report has also been compiled detailing the process of collecting examples of open educational practice through the OEP Best Practice Clearing House, and the OEP Maturity Self-Assessments which are stored in the OEP Register. This can downloaded from the OPAL website.

About the OPAL Initiative

The Open Educational Quality Initiative is a European Commission Lifelong Learning Programme supported project which has run through 2010 and 2011 to promote open educational practices. Partners include UNESCO, the International Council for Open and Distance Education, the European Foundation for Quality in e-Learning, and a number of leading European universities. The OPAL Initiative is coordinated by the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.

Metromap designed by Inger Richter, Bonn, Germany.

A grant was made available for each of the winning entries to make a video film describing their practices. A link to the films, the jury’s statements, and interviews with the recipients can be accessed through the links below.

Winners and highly commended entries

The Award for Bodies which Influence Policy

Winner: The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), USA   More

The Award for Institutions

Winner: University of California, Irvine, USA   More

Highly commended: Acharya Narendra Dev College, University of Delhi, India   More

The Award for Learning contexts

Winner: Open Science Resources, represented by Ellinogermaniki Agogi – Research and Development Department, Greece   More

Highly commended: The LORO Project, Department of Languages, The Open University UK   More

Interviews with recipients part 1   Interviews with recipients part 2

Awards Ceremony

The Awards ceremony began with a presentation of the results of the OPAL Initiative by Ulf-Daniel Ehlers, President of EFQUEL (left). He also demonstrated the newly published OPAL metromap, an interactive tool allowing policy makers, institutional leaders, teaching professionals and learners the opportunity to plot their trajectory on the road to open educational practices.

Gráinne Conole of the University of Leicester, UK (right) concluded the session with a presentation on the future of open educational practices. A panel discussion was also held with representatives of the winning and highly commended entries.

The OPAL Awards were run by project partner, the International Council for Open and Distance Education, together with UNESCO and EFQUEL The OPAL Initiative is coordinated by the University of Duisburg-Essen, and also includes The Open University UK, Aalto University and the Catholic University of Portugal

Media release

Photos and interviews by Chahira Nouira, United Nations University Vice Rectorate in Europe

The attached media release describes the winners and grounds for their selection.

Media Release – The OPAL Awards 2011