Open Educational Resources

Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others.

Open license refers to a license that respects the intellectual property rights of the copyright owner and provides permissions granting the public the rights to access, re-use, re-purpose, adapt and redistribute educational materials.

The Recommendation on OER, adopted by UNESCO’s General Conference at its 40th session on 25 November 2019, is the first international normative instrument to embrace the field of openly licensed educational materials and technologies in education.

To support Member States implementation of the 2019 Recommendation on OER, UNESCO established the OER Dynamic Coalition. The OER Dynamic Coalition aims to support networking and sharing of information to create synergies around the 5 areas of action of the recommendation: (i) building capacity of stakeholders to create, access, re-use, adapt and redistribute OER; (ii) developing supportive policy; (iii) encouraging inclusive and equitable quality OER; (iv) nurturing the creation of sustainability models for OER, and (v) facilitating international cooperation.

OER in action

Highlights

Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER)

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UNESCO OER Dynamic Coalition Membership Form

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Covid-19, a catalyst for greater OER use worldwide?

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Accessible Open Educational Resources (OER): briefing paper

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Contribution to the 2030 Agenda

SDG 4

UNESCO contributes to SDG 4 on quality education for all.

SDG 5

Gender equality, enshrined in SDG 5 and a key enabler to achieve all other SDGs.

SDG 9

SDG 9 calls for the enhancement of scientific research and innovation especially in developing countries.

SDG 10

SDG 10 calls for reducing inequalities.

SDG 16.10

UNESCO contributes to ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms.

SDG 17

SDG 17 calls for partnerships for the Goals.

OER and knowledge and skills acquisition: What is the UNESCO OER Recommendation?

This extract gives an overview of the different policy areas of the OER Recommendation and illustrates the potential of OER in building inclusive societies as well as the main stakeholders.