Open Universities’ OERfest

The benefits of Open Educational Resources (OER) in enhancing access to learning resources is well acknowledged. As stated by the Consortium of Educational Communication, OERs play a crucial role in widening access, reducing the financial burden, enhancing the quality and enriching learning experiences of learners. The importance of OER has been felt world-over, so global organisations such as UNESCO and Commonwealth of Learning have been advocating for the spread of OER across all nations.

The Vice Chancellors (VCs) who met at the State Open Universities’ VCs Forum in August 2023 made commitments towards sharing OERs on a mutual basis and to also use up to 40% of OER content in course development. To realise the commitment, Dr B R Ambedkar Open University (Dr BRAOU) and the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) are jointly organizing an Open University Open Educational Resources Festival (OU OERfest) on 18-20 April 2024. The event will offer the Open Universities (OUs) in India a chance to review their respective institutional-level policies and practices while also celebrating the successes gained.

The main objectives of OU OERfest are to ensure that:
* All OUs are strategically equipped to apply OERs for institutional capacity building.
* All OUs can develop both infrastructure and human capacity to exploit OERs for course development and for creating micro-credentials.
* The benefits of OERs in terms of cost-saving, quality enhancement, academic freedom and autonomy and student engagement are well understood and practiced.

The envisaged outcomes of the OU OERfest will result in collaboration among the OUs in India towards sharing of OERs on a mutual basis and in the formation of an OU-led National OER interoperable repository. These would ensure enhanced learning outcomes of all learners in the Open Learning System in India.

Sponsors

Dr. BRAOU Location