What is a UNITWIN network ?
UNITWIN is UNESCO’s internal organisation responsible for its programme of Chairs (currently around a thousand) and Networks. A Unitwin Network is a 4-year project aiming to make a global contribution to the development of a given topic. The UNOE network was created with UNESCO to promote open education.
The UNOE network
The idea for our network was born in May 2022 during the Open Education Global congress. Then, a meeting of partners took place in Paris during the 2022 International Forum on Artificial Intelligence and Education.
The UNOE network was created with UNESCO to promote open education. Nantes University has been asked to coordinate it.
UNOE is built around the UNESCO Chairs already committed to the field of open education. It is a global network with partners in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Oceania and Europe.
The chairs in the network have common interests in particular sub-fields (such as the relationship between Open Educational Resources and AI, or links with Open Access) but also maintain a wide diversity of interests. The Chairs are regularly involved with multiple stakeholders, including government, civil society (such as NGOs), business, and the research and teaching communities. Due to the prestige usually associated with UNESCO Chairs, the UNOE Network is able to have an impact and influence not only at a regional level, but also at a global level.
Open Education
Open Education is directly connected to the goals of a more equitable, accessible and inclusive education for all. It encompasses the work achieved in the area of Open Educational Resources (boosted by UNESCO’s 2019 Recommendation). As highlighted by the UNESCO OER Recommendation (2019), Open Education and OER depend greatly on “promoting and stimulating cross-border collaboration and alliances”. To achieve the goal of making learning available to all is only possible if we are able to openly collaborate across borders to co-create, adapt, translate and share our resources, tools and practices. This network is an opportunity to model the sorts of practices we expect educators and other stakeholders to have if we are to achieve these goals. The network will also provide the means to better share research experience, teaching material and open software.
UNOE objectives
The network has set itself 10 objectives in 4 main target areas below. It also supports UNESCO’s medium-term strategies for 2022-2029. The Network is particularly committed to monitoring the UNESCO Recommendation on OER (2019), its promotion, implementation and evaluation of progress.
Community building & support
- Facilitate community building and training
- Support teams in countries with limited engagement with Open Education and OER
- Cooperate closely with UNESCO, existing Chairs and academic institutions by engaging in joint research on issues of common interest.
Research
- Generate and disseminate high-quality research documents in the field of open education
- Commit to shared research programmes
- Promote initiatives and research projects at the intersection of open science and open education
Education
- Share and cooperate on curricula, courses and educational materials related to open education
- Develop curricula and academic research that will help to raise awareness and increase adoption of the principles of open education.
Software
- To develop, promote and make available free and open tools (FLOSS) for education
- To study the roles that artificial intelligence and crowdsourcing can play in the design, dissemination and use of open education and OER.
