The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) commissioned the OER Foundation (OERF) to deploy its open digital infrastructure to host a growing inventory of OER-enabled online courses for the Pacific Partnership for Open, Distance and Flexible Learning, thereby providing an innovative and low-cost solution to widening access to the professional development of thousands of teachers.
During 2022, the OER Foundation supported capacity development of staff at the Samoan Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture (MESC) to establish and maintain their own instance of the OER Foundation’s award winning Free and Open Source (FOSS) Digital Learning Ecosystem (FOSSDLE) which was showcased at the launch of the MESC innovative Lifelong Learning Lab (MiLLL), the Soifua A’oa’oina, on 30 June 2022 at the MESC Headquarters.
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The OER Foundation contributed to an initiative led by the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) in partnership with UNESCO and L’Université Numérique (The Digital University in France) to adapt the OERu’s Open education, copyright, and open licensing in a digital world (LiDA103) micro-course into French to support capacity development in OER for Francophone countries.
The OER Foundation implemented its digital learning ecosystem in the Pacific region using cloud hosting services which cost only US$46 per month for the Commonwealth of Learning. Data generated from the inaugural Digital skills for OER Sharing course offered to 1540 Pacific school teachers indicates that the same infrastructure can support 10,000 learners, thus demonstrating the cost efficiencies Pacific nations can achieve by adopting cloud-based, Free and Open Source Software solutions.
As a recipient of a 2021 Open Infrastructure Award for Excellence from Open Education Global, the OER Foundation has achieved international recognition for its Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) digital learning ecosystem.
The OER Foundation’s digital learning ecosystem was recognised for the Open Infrastructure Award because it is:
Case studies on the context-appropriate implementation of an award winning open digital ecosystem including:
March 2021 marks the 10th anniversary of an innovative approach to provide free, and open, media and information literacy education at the Open Education Resource Foundation (OERF).
The Managing Director of the OER Foundation has gained international recognition for significant long standing contributions to Open Education with the announcement of the 2020 Leadership Award from Open Education Global.
The New Zealand Centre for Open Education Practice is partnering with Otago Polytechnic to pilot a local version of the ‘Ontario Extend’ Professional Learning suite, before rolling it out nationally and internationally via the OERu. At December’s inaugural OER Symposium of the New Zealand Centre for Open Education Practice (COEP), Keynote Read more…
UNESCO will collaborate with the OERu and the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) to promote the delivery of five OER-based online micro-courses. Consistent with the UNESCO OER Recommendation, adopted by member states at the 40th General Conference in November 2019, these courses can be accessed for free. Read more…