Getting Granular with the Building Capacity Action Area

As part of the three days of focus November 30 - December 2, 2021 on the Building Capacity Action Area of the UNESCO Recommendation on OER perhaps it will help to break down the specific items into potential annotation anchor points.

You can find this in the Recommendation under Section i article 11 (see direct annotation link)

The general description is listed under article 11, and we have an opening prompt in a direct annotation link (which opens the Recommendation to this location)

Member States are recommended to strategically plan and support OER capacity building, awareness raising, use, creation and sharing at the institutional and national levels, targeting all education sectors and levels.

What does strategic planning and support for OER Capacity Building look like, require?

What are examples of it being done? Items that follow a-f describe these in more detail (and each has a granular prompt below).

Bu here ere in article 11 phrases perhaps worth annotating with examples of or challenges/issues with doing this at"institutional and national levels" or expanding on where it is focused on “all education sectors and levels”

See below for specific suggestions as points of annotation for the specific recommendations (a-f) that follow.

1 Like

Under Building Capacity Action area (i), article 11, section a…

building awareness among relevant stakeholder communities on how OER can increase access to educational and research resources, improve learning outcomes, maximize the impact of public funding, and empower educators and learners to become co-creators of knowledge;

We have a link available that opens this portion in context with the annotation tools enabled. Potential text to anchor notes might include:

  • building awareness - what encompasses building awareness? what are marks of success?
  • stakeholder communities - who might this be in your locale?
  • how OER can increase access to educational and research resources what are examples of this? Where has this been done?
  • improve learning outcomes where and how has OER been used to achieve this? What research has been done?
  • maximize the impact of public funding again what are examples where OER has been shown to make better use of public funding? what data is needed to support this?
  • to become co-creators of knowledge This would related to examples of open pedagogy, right? What are some examples you know of that demonstrate this?

Under Building Capacity Action area (i), article 11, section b…

providing systematic and continuous capacity building (in-service and pre-service) on how to create, access, make available, re-use, adapt, and redistribute OER as an integral part of training programmes at all levels of education, including assistance in initial training programmes for educators. This should include improving the capacity of public authorities, policy makers, as well as quality development and assurance professionals to understand OER and support their integration into learning, teaching, research and everyday life;

This section offers many specific points that notes might be attached- jump to our starting note to find this section of the Recommendation, ready for you to annotate.

  • in-service or pre-service Differentiate issues, challenges, examples of where capacity building is done, what might be of relevance for making this distinction?
  • how to create, access, make available, re-use, adapt, and redistribute OER This sounds like some “Rs” and many programs, annotation could be added to specific portions such as re-use or redistribute as provide examples or to raise questions
  • an integral part of training programmes where has OER capacity building been made integral to training programs? or…
  • specifically initial training programmes for educators ?
  • public authorities or policy makers provide examples or issues with providing this capacity building to these roles
  • attach specific examples of supporting integration into learning or teaching or research or everyday life

Under Building Capacity Action area (i), article 11, section c…

raising awareness concerning exceptions and limitations for the use of copyrighted works for educational and research purposes. This should be enacted to facilitate the integration of a wide range of works in OER, recognizing that the fulfilment of educational goals as well as the development of OER requires engagement with existing copyright protected works;

This item focuses on building capacity by better understanding of the relationship of OER and copyrighted works. We have a link to transport you right to this section, annotation tools open and ready.

Some possible words that could be places to attach annotations include:

  • What are specific examples of either a limitation or an exception of copyright? How is this awareness achieved?
  • Provide examples or issues that might be different or similar for educational and research purposes.
  • What are good examples of an integration a wide range of works in OER?
  • What is meant by or what are examples of engagement with existing copyright protected works? How does doing this support fulfilment of educational goals or development of OER?

Or find your own words to use as annotation points for this suggested action.

Under Building Capacity Action area (i), article 11, section d…

leveraging open licensed tools, platforms with interoperation of metadata, and standards (including national and international) to help ensure OER can be easily found, accessed, re-used, adapted and redistributed in a safe, secure and privacy protected mode. This could include free and open source authoring tools, libraries and other repositories and search engines, systems for long-term preservation and frontier technologies for automatic OER processing and translation of languages (where appropriate or needed), such as artificial intelligence methods and tools;

This should be a ripe area for annotation- what are the tools and technologies that support building capacity? You can find via this link the place to add annotations for item (d)

Possible launch points for annotations might include:

  • What are important examples of either tools or platforms that enabled the finding, accessing, reusing, adaptation, and re-distribution of OER?
  • How and where does interoperation of metadata support capacity building?
  • What are examples of national and international metadata standards?
  • What are issues, requirements, examples of OER use that address using it in safe, secure and privacy protected ways?
  • Add examples of free and open source authoring tools, libraries and other repositories and search engines, systems for long-term preservation and frontier technologies for automatic OER processing
  • What is being done (and how) to support translation of languages for OER?
  • How and where is artificial intelligence being used to achieve this capacity building with OER?

Or find any other words to attach notes that address the roles and capabilities of tools for OER capacity building.

Under Building Capacity Action area (i), article 11, section e…

making available easily accessible resources that provide information and assistance to all OER stakeholders on OER-related topics, including copyright and open licensing of educational material;

This item offers a place to provide examples of the resources that build the capacity for OER users and developers. Find the place to annotate this item.

Possible points to attach annotations include:

  • Add examples of easily accessible resources but also perhaps describe what easily accessible means?
  • What are other OER-related topics covered by resources (and what are examples of them) besides the mentioned ones that follow?
  • There should be many examples to add for resources that address copyright and open licensing of educational material- add ones that have been effective broadly or regionally for capacity building.

And finally, under Building Capacity Action area (i), article 11, section f…

promoting digital literacy skills in order to master technical use of software, codes and open licenses with a view to encouraging the development and use of OER

Possible places to add notes directly to this part of the Action Area include:

  • What are the key digital literacy skills for development and use of OER described here. What are the capacity building efforts that support them being learned?
  • Add examples of digital literacy development focused on specifically technical use of software, codes or open licenses.