OPAL is innovative in three regards:

1. It extends the model of OER with the concepts of quality and innovation into the concept of open educational practices (OEP) where OER are used in innovative educational scenarios to raise quality for higher education (HE) and adult education (AE). Research and experiences show that the uptake of OER demands for a culture of sharing, valuing innovative and social network based forms of learning, and encouraging novel pedagogical models. OPAL combines OER with the concept of quality and innovation into OEP – practices which support the (re)use and production of high quality OER through institutional policies, promote innovative pedagogical models, and learners’ empowerment.
2. It focuses on innovation and quality through OEP and thus aims at impact of OER use in the field of HE and AE. Existing approaches for fostering the use of OER have made achievements by focussing on building access to resources (e.g. MERLOT, MIT OCW, Stanford iTunes, Openlearn, Rice University, Opentrain UNESCO, OER WIKI UNESCO etc.) and licence models (e.g. creativecommons.org). However, a lack of trust, a lack of existing sharing cultures and acceptance from educators hinder OER use and better access. OPAL is building trust by establishing an environment for quality and innovation through OEP in the fields of HE and AE.
3. It is building a multi-stakeholder environment which is taking into consideration the OEP governance community in order to root quality and innovation in a deep consensus, concert activities and provide a European interface to international initiatives. While existing OER initiatives gather large provider institutions of high reputation mostly from outside the EU, OPAL proposes for the first time to create a multi-stakeholder group of organisations rooted in the EU, learners, policy makers and professionals to promote OEP sustainably.