Description
National governments can help accelerate the Open Education movement both directly through supportive policies and projects, and indirectly by promoting awareness and support within civil society. A recent report by Creative Commons found that 14 countries have already made national-level commitments to Open Education.[1]
Over the last year, an exciting new avenue for establishing and expanding such commitments has emerged through the Open Government Partnership (OGP). OGP is a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.[2] It formally launched in 2011, when 8 founding nations introduced their first two-year national action plans, and since then has grown to 65 participating countries. Following the popularity of Open Data as a topic in the first batch of plans, Open Education has been gaining popularity in the second action plan cycle, which is currently underway.
This presentation will explore OGP as a platform for promoting Open Education, including the general case for Open Education in the context of Open Government, and specific examples of how Open Education emerged in OGP national action plans in the Slovak Republic and the United States. The presentation also will provide concrete tips for advocates and officials in OGP member countries who may be collecting ideas for upcoming national action plans, including possible synergies with other areas of openness such as Open Access to scholarly publications, Open Data, and Free and Open Source Software.
References
[1] Creative Commons (2014). State of the Commons. https://stateof.creativecommons.org/report/
[2] Open Government Partnership. http://www.opengovpartnership.org/