Special Report on the Role of Open Educational Resources in Supporting the Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education Challenges and Opportunities

Quality Education: Role/Contribution of OEROpen Educational Resources (OER) and their offspring, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), are becoming important factors in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education (SDG4).This was recognised early on by UNESCO in 2004 when they first coined the term "Open Educational Resources" and in 2012 with the OER Paris Declaration.UNESCO is continuing its support of OER with the 2 nd OER Summit in September 2017.There is recognition that OER and MOOCs, while not being the solution to the world's educational crises, will play an important, if not essential, role.The OER movement is less than 15 years old and is growing rapidly as more and more nations and institutions adopt the view that publicly-funded research and educational content belongs to the people and should therefore be open and accessible to them.Canada can play an important role in supporting SDG4 by increasing its support for OER and open education in general, both in Canada and abroad.It is reasonable to argue that OER can greatly benefit developing countries, even more so than those that are considered developed.As such, they can play an important transformative role in supporting the SDG4 goal.OER can be used to increase access to learning for those living in unfavourable circumstances, and can also be used to address issues of cost, quality, and equity.They are free of licensing restrictions that inhibit quality improvements and because they are openly available, OER can facilitate both internal and external collaborations among instructors and institutions, both locally and internationally, while ensuring equitable access to knowledge and learning.OER are presently being actively used in all sectors of education including literacy, vocational, and adult education, as well as with immigrants and refugees (with prior learning assessment and recognition).OER can be instrumental in improving the quality of Special Report on the Role of Open Educational Resources in Supporting the Sustainable Development Goal 4 McGreal 293 education through open curriculum development.And, most importantly, OER are digital; the world economy is digital and students must learn how to work (and play) in digital environments.Because OER can be reproduced at virtually no cost, they can be effectively used to reach vast numbers of learners, while supporting quality enhancements.As well, since they can be reused, revised, remixed, redistributed, and retained, OER can be adapted to different learning environments (Wiley, 2014).It was UNESCO that first used the term open educational resources, defining them as "teaching, learning or research materials that are in the public domain or released with an intellectual property license that allows for free use, adaptation, and distribution" (UNESCO, 2002, par.2).The UNESCO Paris Declaration of 2012 followed, supporting OER for development and recommending that educational materials developed with public funds be made available under open licenses (UNESCO, 2012).Additionally, because OER are open, they can be translated into different languages and localised to meet the needs of different countries, regions, institutions, and learners (Butcher, Kanwar, & Uvalic-Trubic, 2015).OER, as content, are free of cost to learners and teachers.However, there are other costs that must be taken into account, including the salaries and time of the OER creators/adapters/assemblers.These costs can be significantly reduced by sharing OER with other institutions.For example, an institution, rather than creating its own course material, can choose to make use of OER that have been created by others, thus saving the cost of content creation; however, there still may be costs for searching/finding, assembling, and adapting the content.In addition, an appropriate technological infrastructure needs to be in place with access to adequate bandwidth and wifi, as well as trained support staff.(Please note that these costs are the same when using commercial content.)Furthermore, the cost of commercial textbooks is becoming a greater problem as the prices are all too often increasing beyond the ability of students to pay for them.As a result, there has been rapid growth in the number of learners internationally, who cannot afford the high cost of textbooks.The advantage of OER is that they are cost-free and can be adapted freely.The ability to adapt and modify content is an important advantage, especially when targeting specific populations such as those with disabilities or special needs. Indigenous KnowledgeOER can also be used to preserve and distribute Indigenous knowledge, which is being supported now in many countries.OER can be used to support the "participatory principle" that is common in many Indigenous communities, as well as preserving and distributing Indigenous knowledge that has traditionally been open.Indigenous knowledge is seen as belonging to the community as a whole and like OER, it can be continually enhanced and expressed in many forms such as in stories, dance, songs, and through the wisdom of elders.Sharing is conducted through personal interactions among the community/kinship or religious groups (Bertini, 2010). Maskwacis First Nation Cultural CollegeAs a Canadian example, in Alberta, the Chair has worked with this college to introduce them to OER.They received funding from the Ministry of Advanced Education for the development of Indigenous content

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