Open Education 2014

With the initiation of a national open e-textbooks program in 2011, Poland gained the potential to be one of the leading countries with regard to open education at K-12 levels. After 3 years, with the launch of initial batch of e-textbook content in 2013, and start of another open textbooks program (a free, printed 1st grade textbook, to be distributed to all students but also made available under CC BY), Polish K-12 education system is poised towards a strong public OER production model.

In The Netherlands a national OER-platform was born in 2008. The platform called Wikiwijs was launched with strong support from the government. What can we say after more than six years of opportunity for teachers to share? What should we take-away from the Wikiwijs-model and what should we do differently in the future?  

This session will provide an overview of policy developments in the last several years in Europe, focussing on The Netherlands and Poland. A key focus will be given to an interplay of grassroots activities, initiated in 2008 by the Coalition for Open Education, and top-down policy developments. Ultimately, OER success is due to an open, public debate on the shape of educational resources for schools.