“Open educational resources” (OER) are educational resources that are available to anyone free of cost and under an open licence to allow others to retain, reuse, revise, remix and redistribute them with few or no restrictions.
In 2012, the World OER Congress saw the adoption of the Paris OER Declaration, which calls on governments worldwide to use open licences for publicly funded educational materials. In preparation for the 2nd World OER Congress, the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) organised six regional consultations in collaboration with UNESCO and the Government of Slovenia, with support from the Hewlett Foundation. The objective was to identify the status of OER, discuss challenges to mainstreaming OER, build awareness, and encourage governments to commit to adopting open licensing policies for educational materials developed with public funds.
In addition, two surveys were conducted: one for governments and the other for stakeholders around the world. This report presents the findings of the two surveys, and analyses the discussions in the regional consultations to understand the status of OER within the framework of the 2012 Paris Declaration.