Policy handbook for OER (in Higher Education) with integrated OER World Map Data

[trugwaldsaenger]

UNESCO previously has published policy guidelines for Open Access:

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/resources/publications-and-communication-materials/publications/full-list/policy-guidelines-for-the-development-and-promotion-of-open-access/

Further more there are several papers available, which try to systemize OER in Higher Education:

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/resources/publications-and-communication-materials/publications/full-list/guidelines-for-open-educational-resources-oer-in-higher-education/

http://open-educational-resources.de/oer-whitepaper-hochschule/

UNESCO could provide a similar book for OER:

• The book should focus on OER ecosystems
• It should be available as an e-book
• It could be produced within an booksprint organized by the UNESCO OER Chairs

The really innovative aspect would be that it should include differnt infomation gadgets from the OER World Map:

• Maps which show the availability of policies
• Statistics on the availability of OER repositories
• Lists of innovative Open Educational practises
• Time lines of important projects
• ....

The cool thing about this would be that the information gadgets would be updated automatically. The book therefore would include always actual data.

Additionally the book could provide the conceptional backgound for the data collection in the OER World Map and provide examples of how to use the world map.

[drrobertfarrow]

I think this is the right direction to move in. It's certainly the kind of thing that a lot of people at the policymaker level are keen to see. Are you thinking about approaching UNESCO at some point to see if they are willing to put some funding in? Share data? It could be a good starting point for refining our approach to bringing in more partners.

One possible area of complexity with mapping policies, research, etc is how to curate and summarize the information. I would advise keeping things as simple as possible!

[tamielbr]

I think UNESCO would be amenable to thinking about a "state of OER" yearbook of sorts that would harvest data from the map. It would be like a "state of the Commons" that could have a set of texts and analyses updated periodically but with up-to-date date from the map. I also think this could easily be a "OER Chairs-Map Folks" collaborative and would be willing to help pitch it.