Author: Brian Mulligan. This paper, originally published on the blog on Open Education 2030 of the Joint Research Centre, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, suggests Competency Based Assessment may be the key to unleashing a wave of innovation.
Although Open Educational Resources and Practices, and other innovations contain huge potential to transform lifelong learning, there are unnecessary regulatory barriers, and Competency Based Assessment may be the key to removing these barriers and unleashing a wave of innovation.
There are two things you need to innovate. Competition and the freedom to innovate. There is no shortage of innovation in teaching and learning in the world today and Open Education Resources and Practices are among the most significant of these. Read more...

Author: Dr. Juan Cristobal Cobo Romaní. URL: The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning.
Over the last decade, open educational resources (OER) initiatives have created new possibilities for knowledge-sharing practices. This research examines how, where, and when OER are attracting attention in the higher education sector and explores to what extent the OER discussion has moved beyond the English-speaking world. This study analysed English, Spanish, and Portuguese OER queries over a long-term period (2007-2011). The data retrieval was conducted using four online platforms: two academic journal databases (Web of Knowledge and Scopus), one video-sharing Web site (YouTube), and one document-sharing Web site (Scribd). The number (more than 32,860) of search results collected indicate an increasing interest in online OER discussion across languages, particularly outside academic journal databases. Additionally, a widening “language gap” between OER discussions in English and other languages was identified in several platforms. This research reports some of the cultural and language challenges caused by the expansion of the OER discussion and highlights relevant findings in this field. Read more...

Author: Paul Stacey. URL: Government support for open educational resources: Policy, Funding, and Strategies.
Foundations like Hewlett, Mellon, and Gates provided start-up funding and support that nurtured the field of open educational resources (OER) from infancy to a robust early adolescence characterized by energy and idealism (Casserly & Smith, 2008). However, foundation grants typically focus on establishing exemplars and cannot be relied on for sustaining ongoing operations or generating widespread adoption. One strategy for sustaining and expanding OER is for governments and public funding to take over from the early stage funding foundations provided (Stacey, 2010).