Reflections from the 3rd UNESCO World OER Congress

Last November, our Global Implementations Manager, Revanth Voothaluru, traveled to Dubai to share our approach to making Open Educational Resources more accessible, inclusive and relevant to underserved learners at the 3rd UNESCO World OER Congress. In this blog post, he recaps the event and shares his thoughts.

Opening address of the 3rd UNESCO World OER Congress 2024 by Her Highness Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority

At Learning Equality, we are deeply committed to the open education movement. An integral part of our mission is to support the creation and dissemination of quality Open Educational Resources (OERs), ensuring they are accessible in offline contexts. This commitment is embodied in Kolibri, our suite of open and adaptable products designed for teaching and learning with tech but without the internet. Kolibri is a demonstration of how to apply the principles of open educational resources — reuse, remix, and redistribution in practice. Its Library contains a vast collection of OERs in over 170 languages, with more than 200,000 resources publicly available for anyone to use. Its online curricular tool, Kolibri Studio, consolidates and allows users to organize OERs and/or their own content according to their needs while supporting easy access and reuse. It also prioritizes remixing through the efforts to align resources to local curricula, enabling meaningful integration into diverse educational contexts. Remixing and reuse further happen along with redistribution through the Kolibri Learning Platform, which allows teachers and learners to create customized lessons and quizzes to support differentiated learning. Through these efforts, we remain committed to making quality education accessible for all learners.

Our Participation at the 3rd UNESCO World OER Congress 2024

Revanth Voothaluru, Global Implementations Project Manager at Learning Equality presenting about Kolibri as a part of the breakout panel that focused on Inclusive Access to Quality OER: Low and No Connectivity

From November 19 to 20, 2024, the 3rd UNESCO World OER Congress — organized in collaboration with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Knowledge Foundation — convened in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Themed “Digital Public Goods: Open Solutions and AI for Inclusive Access to Knowledge,” the objectives of the Congress were:

1. Share best practices and innovations in the implementation of the UNESCO 2019 Recommendation on OER in the five years since its adoption;
2. Identify strategies for supporting the implementation of the UNESCO 2019 Recommendation on OER to meet emerging challenges;
3. Identify collaborative mechanisms to mobilize more stakeholders to implement the UNESCO 2019 Recommendation on OER, with a view to expand access to quality, free, accessible, openly licensed learning resources in support of the Global Digital Compact and the Transforming Education Summit 2023 Call for Action.

The Congress provided a vibrant platform for engaging with global leaders, researchers, and innovators dedicated to the open education movement. Discussions spanned various themes, including integrating OERs in classroom settings, the implications of emerging technologies on open education, and the development of supportive policies. These dialogues were enriched by insights from experts across diverse sectors, all contributing to a comprehensive exploration of strategies to enhance the accessibility and effectiveness of OERs worldwide.

While a vast array of OERs exist online, they remain inaccessible to the 33% of the world who lack internet connectivity. Since Learning Equality’s work focuses on underserved learners in low-resource, low-connectivity environments, our team was invited to participate in a breakout panel to discuss our approach towards making OERs accessible in low and no internet connectivity settings. As a part of the breakout panel, on behalf of Learning Equality, I presented the work we do, our approach to using OERs as mentioned above, and shared the following calls to action:

• Invest in local OER creation to fill content gaps, particularly for underserved learners: There is a significant need for more high-quality, locally developed OERs, particularly to address the gaps in educational content for underserved learners. Resources created by content providers in the Global North don’t often meet the specific needs of learners in other parts of the world or do not incorporate their lived experiences. It is essential to invest in local content creators and encourage the development of openly licensed materials that are developed in the mother tongue, contextually relevant, and culturally appropriate. In addition to this, it is important that content creators are adequately compensated for their work and receive proper attribution — both of which can occur with an open license.
• Build OERs that consider realities when the Internet doesn’t exist: Many of the most disadvantaged learners face significant barriers to internet access and endure wide inequities in learning opportunities. To ensure OERs are truly inclusive, they should be designed with these realities in mind. Resources should not be intertwined with the need to use the Internet to best leverage them even if they are made accessible in offline formats, not reliant on tools that can be inaccessible or cost prohibitive, and tailored to meet the unique challenges faced by these learners, helping bridge the gap for those who need it the most.
• Work with curricular bodies to make curriculum documents openly available for digitization and use: While many OERs are available, educators and learners often prioritize resources that align closely with their curriculum. However, in many cases, curriculum documents are not accessible for use, and therefore can’t then be digitized which is a necessary component in the curriculum alignment process. Making these documents openly available would allow resources to be mapped to local standards, making it easier for educators to find and use relevant materials.
• Collaborate with us to more readily digitize and align OERs to national standards: At Learning Equality, we have been actively working for the last few years on aligning OERs with curricula to ensure they are both relevant and accessible for learners. Over the past year, we’ve had significant breakthroughs with leveraging AI to streamline the curriculum alignment process. We would love to collaborate with others interested in aligning OERs to national standards, making these resources more meaningful for educators and learners across various contexts.

Reflections and Takeaways from the Congress

The discussions at the OER Congress led to two primary reflections:

The role of emerging technologies, particularly generative AI, in the creation and use of OERs:

While AI has made it possible to create new resources in mere seconds, it also presents unique challenges. The sheer abundance of newly generated content will lead to duplication, overshadowing high-quality resources that might already exist. This undermines the purpose of open education, which is not just about creating resources but ensuring they are relevant, accessible, and used effectively. Licensing and attribution also emerged as critical topics. Multiple discussions focused on how we credit AI-generated content, and what implications this has for the open education movement. The discussions also focused on the dangers of unregulated OERs. One powerful example shared by Dr. Javeria Atenas at the Congress highlighted that when asked about the greatest researchers in education, AI produced a list dominated by white male names, excluding renowned women like Maria Montessori. This reflects the biases in the data sets informing AI, which tend to be skewed to systemic white-ism and primarily from populations that have consistent access to the Internet, while the learners who need OERs the most are from diverse contexts worldwide. In many of the sessions, the emphasis was on ensuring quality control and introducing frameworks to facilitate this at a systemic level. Addressing this disconnect between the capabilities of emerging technologies and the nuanced needs of global learners remains a pressing challenge.

The importance of collaboration in the open education movement: Many organizations and individuals are doing remarkable work in this space. However, there is a critical need for collaboration among OER creators, advocates and other key actors in the ecosystem to reduce duplication, foster shared learning, and ensure purposeful impact. The Congress provided opportunities for meaningful discussions, helping participants explore how to align efforts and work together effectively. At Learning Equality, we have always believed in the power of collaboration, and much of what we’ve achieved is thanks to partnerships with content providers and like-minded organizations. Collaboration ensures that the resources we create and curate meet the needs of the most underserved learners. We remain committed to fostering partnerships that align with our values and mission. If you share a similar vision for education, we would be delighted to connect and explore ways to collaborate further.

Conclusion:

The 3rd UNESCO World Open Educational Resources (OER) Congress in Dubai culminated with a panel that focused on the Dubai Declaration on OER. Building on the UNESCO 2019 Recommendation on OER, the Declaration highlights key areas such as capacity building, policy development, equitable access, sustainable models for OERs, and international cooperation. It emphasizes the pivotal role of emerging technologies — including artificial intelligence — in enhancing the creation, accessibility, and sustainability of OERs. Furthermore, it underscores the necessity for inclusive and equitable access to quality educational resources, advocating for collaborative efforts to harness digital public goods and optimize openly licensed content to address global challenges.

At Learning Equality, we are deeply committed to the principles outlined in both the Dubai Declaration and the UNESCO 2019 Recommendation on OER. Through our initiatives, we strive to provide barrier-free access to quality, openly licensed educational resources to underserved communities, ensuring that children everywhere have the opportunity to learn. We remain dedicated to collaborating with organizations worldwide to advance these shared goals and contribute meaningfully to the open education movement.