2nd WORLD OER CONGRESS

The second World OER Congress was held in Ljubljana 18-20 September 2017,  organized by UNESCO and the Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport in close collaboration with the Commonwealth of Learning, Creative Commons, the Slovenian National Commission for UNESCO and the UNESCO Chair on Open Technologies for OER and Open Learning (Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia) with the generous support of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

This event marked five years since the World OER Congress was held in Paris in June 2012, where the OER Paris Declaration was launched, and 15 years since the first OER was launched by MIT, and the term was coined by UNESCO.

The Congress followed the theme »OER for Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education: From Commitment to Action«, reflecting a strong focus on the role of OER in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4.

The Slovenian Minister for Education, Science and Sports, Maja Makovec Brencic stated her opening and welcome speech "In OER the team spirit is here" With her warm and enthusiastic engagement and action oriented approach during the entire congress, there were no doubts, neither about the spirit of "Opening up Slovenia, and it was perfect align with the Slovenian slogan for the conference: OER – your endless body of knowledge

After her opening speech followed an impressive panel, where education ministers of 20 different countries discussed challenges and possible solutions fro reach the SDG€ goals for inclusive and equitable education where OER is a main driver for digital transformation and increased quality and access to education. In the end of the Congress all the Minsters delivered their Ministerial Statement, recalling the UN Framework and the articles related to human rights and accessible learning possibilities and education for all. 

OER: “Moving towards the tipping point”

In preparation for this Congress, regional OER Consulations were conducted in Asia, Europe, Middle East, N Africa, Asia, Latin America and Caribbean Pacific.

This second World Open Educational Resources (OER) Congress gathered experts and national delegates from 111 countries and the congress adopted by acclamation the 2017 Ljubljana OER Action Plan.The 2017 Ljubljana OER Action Plan presents 41 recommended actions to mainstream open-licensed resources to help all Member States to build Knowledge Societies and achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 4 on “quality and lifelong education.”

The recommendations are promising, concrete and constructive. Five areas are covered:

1. Building the capacity of users to find, re-use, create and share OER
2. Language & Cultural issues
3. Ensuring inclusive and equitable access to quality OER
4. Developing sustainability models
5. Developing supportive policy environments

 The Action Plan concludes that: 

“Educational stakeholders should further ensure that a set of indicators, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are in place to support these action areas.”

The accompanying Ministerial Statement signed by all the Ministers called for a “dynamic coalition to expand and consolidate commitments to actions, strategies and legislation” in OER, with a “call on all educational stakeholders to implement the recommendations of the Ljubljana OER Action Plan 2017.”

Together the two documents are really promising for the world and to the people and citizens around the globe to meet the SDG 4 on access, equity, quality and lifelong learning.

Remaining questions and actions are now if and how stakeholders will take on this responsibility, and about monitoring.

Facts about the congress

111 Member States
30 ministers
550 congress participants
140 satellite participants
21 satellites
105 countries in the Consultations
257 participants an the Consultations
44,538 website views
Honorary Patronage by EU Commissioner for Education
Honorary Patronage by President of Slovenia
UNESCO Deputy Director General
UNESCO Assistant Director General for Education
Western Balkan ministers for "Opening up the Balkans"