The OPAL project is assisting eLearning papers in the next issue on Open Education: Changing Educational Practices. The extended deadline for submission of full papers is the 22 January 2011.

The presence of open education has spread to hundreds of educational institutions across the globe, in particular centres for higher education and adult learning. Starting with important initiatives demanding access to information and spreading quickly into the making available of educational resources, it has became clear that open access is not only an issue of accessibility or availability but also of institutional change and innovation in teaching, studying and learning.

Open educational resources (OER) fall high on the agenda of educational institutions and policy makers, and they are supported by many stakeholders of the educational sphere. However, their use has not yet reached the critical threshold. This poses an obstacle for developing a seamless provision of quality learning resources and practices for citizens’ lifelong learning biography, due to the fact that the current focus in OER is mainly put on building more access to digital content in the form of repositories and infrastructures. There is little consideration of whether this will support educational practices, open education, and promote quality and innovation in teaching and learning.

The purpose of the 23rd issue of eLearning Papers on Open Education is to further our understanding of the way in which open access and open educational resources impact educational practices in organizations, and for learners and other stakeholders, both today and in the future.

Find more at: http://www.elearningpapers.eu/index.php?page=fix&id=15