The UNITWIN Network on Open Education (UNOE) is one of the initiatives by UNESCO with the aim to contribute to the Open Education Agenda. Launched in June 2024, this global network convenes UNESCO Chairs and partners, in all regions of the world, working on Open Education.
The UNOE values the importance of the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs programme – established 30+ years ago, with the aim to foster inter-university collaboration and enhance institutional capacities through knowledge sharing and collaborative research initiatives.
To help achieve its mission, UNOE is convinced of the necessity to share courses, resources, data and findings of the UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks openly.
UNESCO Chairs are entities where knowledge is created, collected and curated. In line with the 2019 Recommendation on Open Educational Resources and the 2021 Recommendation on Open Science, when UNESCO Chairs disseminate this knowledge, they have a specific responsibility: to make it available, openly and freely, to all.
On the first day of the third OER Congress in Dubai, we the UNOE Network, are proposing that dissemination of research articles and other written materials from the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme members are systematically released as Open Access, and educational materials as Open Educational Resources. We propose that UNESCO makes this a policy.
If UNESCO adopts this idea, UNOE, the Unitwin Network on Open Education, will provide its support by sharing material, running webinars and assisting all UNESCO chairs in transforming their practices.
The third OER World Congress was held in Dubai on 19 and 20 November 2024.
The first one took place in Paris in 2010 and enabled UNESCO to take a position on the issue of OER. In 2017, in Ljubljana, the Congress launched the process leading to the adoption of the UNESCO recommendation in 2019. Seven years on, the initial ambition is to analyze the current situation and come up with a declaration (known as the “Dubai Declaration”) strongly affirming the values of open education.
The first day of this type of event is very formal. The ministers have the floor at UNESCO (from 10:00), to present what has been achieved since 2019. I have been invited to moderate a session on the links between artificial intelligence and open educational resources, with particular reference to digital inclusion (from 2:30). Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is a former Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of South Africa. She talks to us about gender issues, noting how AI and OER, because they allow a degree of flexibility, are able to contribute to the educational issues of women and girls. Mr Seizo Onoe, from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), aimed at convincing us of the benefits of standardisation: the ITU plays an essential role in network access. Mr Kevin Chan is director for Global Policy Campaign Strategies at Meta. He spoke in favour of open LLMs: he believes that these are the models that should be favoured. This raises the question of “virtuous” chatbots and virtual assistants that are as open as possible.
As moderator of the round table, I was able to gauge the number of essential subjects that need to be addressed when looking at the issues of open education and artificial intelligence together. I was also able to use my ‘right to conclude’ to make a proposal on behalf of theUNITWIN UNOE network that we coordinate from Nantes.
Session on AI, OER and inequalities – photography under CC0 licence
Curiously enough, while UNESCO is asking Member States to apply the 2019 recommendation, and while it systematically publishes its own reports under a Creative Commons licence, there are no rules for the 1,000 or so UNESCO Chairs and 100 UNITWIN networks.
I have therefore proposed, on behalf of the UNOE network, that publishing openly should become the rule. The text of the proposal can be found here. Initial feedback from the major international OER players and UNESCO is already very positive. We will, of course, publish the results on this blog.
Participants from over 35 different countries logged on to attend the network launch and listen to the experts talk about open education.
Beyond the figures, this global perspective means that we can think globally rather than just (!) nationally. With this horizon (or rather absence of a horizon), perspectives necessarily change.
The University of tomorrow will be open and built with young people
This was the main message from François Taddei, our guest speaker: in order to take into account both the natural commons and the digital commons that we are creating, we need to involve young people in the thinking and co-construction of the University of the future.
Open education beyond Open Educational Resources
OER have long been the main instrument of open education. And thinking about OER has often revolved around the issue of licensing. In practice, a course on OER will always go through this. But the future of open education – particularly under the influence of artificial intelligence – depends on much more than this question of licences!
What we learned from the launch
The inauguration means that the network now exists. Its success shows that while reflection can take place locally, it must also take into account our histories, our differences and above all our common needs.
In UNOE, we are working along these lines. But we can do much better when it comes to including young people in our thinking. We’ll need to launch initiatives along these lines as early as September!
A few testimonials
“Greetings from Ministry of Higher Education and Research in France, which actually work on a national strategy about Open Education, with many experts and partners like Nantes University and Unesco Chair RELIA coordinated by Colin. Congratulation for this very interesting international initiative !”
“Grateful to be part of this important initiative. Excited for the rich collaborations ahead. A thank you from Notre Dame University Louaize – Lebanon.”
“Thank you for a really inspiring and interesting conversation. We really look forward to following the network from the ICDE network.”
“The great organisation effort is now evident with a wonderful session today. Congratulations, a lot of learning for all of us on a critical issue. Open solution. Thank you.”
“This Initiative allows for high level borderless commitment to configure open solutions as public goods. It will be important to set priority actions for us to undertake towards this common endeavor.”
“Today I had the great pleasure of attending the inauguration and launch of the UNITWIN Network Open Education_UNOE under the auspices of Nantes Université & Unesco. For me, this was one of the highlights of the year. Finally, someone who dares to change the OE Agenda and its narratives. Thanks also to Cheniti Lilia who was one of the panelists also to @Mpine one of our previous OERAC Ambassadors, now on ICDE Board for your contributions. Mr Taddei talked about Planetism and Planetlsts, a very interesting concept, and also about including all learners and diversity in the OE Agenda, and the new social contract.”
