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There is immense potential in open educational resources (OER) for encouraging systemic change within academic institutions toward increasing access and equity in education. The purpose of this paper is to propose an empirical framework and a checklist for mainstreaming OER in an academic institution.

The empirical framework and the mainstreaming checklist is formulated based on an extensive review of literature and case studies strengthened by the author’s personal experience as an academic, researcher, practitioner, policymaker and international development expert in the field of OER.

The proposed empirical framework and OER mainstreaming checklist identifies several processes to be completed by key stakeholders for successful mainstreaming of OER in an academic institution.

The proposed framework assumes that the institution which is undergoing mainstreaming of OER follows the principles of outcomes-based education and that it has an established mechanism for measuring the mastery of learning outcomes and the role of OER in accreditation.

One key feature of the framework is its horizontal structure where stakeholders take a team-based approach to completing the required tasks for mainstreaming OER. This, in turn, increases ownership of the mainstreaming process leading to higher success rates and sustainability. Second, the mainstreaming checklist breaks down each process into several achievable tasks and assigns them to the relevant team. Third, the framework supports continuous quality improvement which encourages institutions to periodically revisit the processes to make necessary course corrections and enhancements.

The purpose of this paper is to make an assessment of the challenges in disseminating higher education to the learners in tribal communities, and problems solving capacity of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) by strategically making use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) taking a case of Madhya Pradesh (MP), which is the most tribal dominated state of India. The paper offers valuable insight in to the usage of ICT as a strategy for the ODL system presenting an account of how it can be utilized effectively to disseminate higher education in tribal communities.

Exploratory and descriptive techniques were utilized in this paper adopting the research strategy of case study in terms of the strategic potentialities of ICT in disseminating higher education in tribal communities by ODL using it as a strategy for their empowerment and development.

The findings of the paper reveal that dissemination of higher education in tribal areas is a challenging task especially due to their socioeconomic conditions and ethno cultural settings in addition to numerous infrastructural and access related issues. In view of the need of integrating education with the Indigenous perspectives, ICT can be used as an effective strategy by ODL for disseminating higher education amongst learners in those communities by reaching out to them.

This paper concludes that ICT can help ODL immensely in developing countries such as India strategically in reaching the tribal learners surpassing financial and geographical constraints with a learner centric approach increasing the capacity, quality and cost effectiveness of education system bringing the concept of strategy to center stage, at a time when ICT has fundamentally changed the strategies of different sectors including education with the unprecedented growth in its use.

This paper concludes that ICT has fundamentally changed the strategies of different sectors including higher education with the unprecedented growth in its use. It also concludes that Indian higher educational sector faced with multitude of challenges is not insulated from the effect of ICT, and its emancipatory and transformative potentials in higher education can play a major substantive role by extending support to meet the increasing higher educational needs of the tribal communities by sufficiently embedding it so that their greater contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be ensured.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER) was a milestone when it was uniformly adopted by its member states on November 25, 2019. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to provide an overview of the OER Recommendation in relation to some of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The paper focuses on SDG 4 on education, but also on other SDGs that are directly linked to the relevant SDGs for the overall implementation of the UNESCO OER Recommendation. These SDGs are: SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), SDG 10 (reduce inequalities within and between countries), SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions), and SDG 17 (partnerships for the goals). All five areas of the OER recommendation are closely linked to the above SDGs. This paper also discusses how to advocate with stakeholders at all levels to implement and mainstream OER and the SDGs across all areas of the OER recommendation. In addition, this concept paper discusses accessibility for all (e.g. any type of impairment/disability, etc.) and addresses quality issues at OER and their implications.

This conceptual paper provides an overview of the UNESCO OER Recommendation and its relationship to some of the SDGs. The paper also addresses the role of stakeholders in implementing the OER Recommendation and the potential problems of its accessibility and quality. This paper has been designed as a literature review including mainly official reports from the organizations in the field, such as the UN UNESCO SDGs (UN, n.d; UNESCO, 2016) and the UNESCO OER Recommendation (UNESCO, 2019, 2021a). This conceptual paper is discursive in nature. It contains a discussion based on a literature review comparative studies, experiences, works, and reflections of the author, who has been working in this field since its beginnings in 2002. This contribution is also based on the experiences, works, and reflections of other authors on the OER movement.

The UNESCO OER Recommendation (UNESCO, 2019) clarifies that all five areas of the OER Recommendation for implementation are closely linked to the SDGs (UN, n.d; UNESCO, 2016), particularly SDG4, which targets to achieve education for all by 2030, and other SDGs, such as SDG5 (gender equality), SDG9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure), SDG10 (reducing inequalities within and between countries), SDG16 (peace, justice, and strong institutions), and SDG17 (partnerships for the goals). Since OER does not consist of a single goal but is linked to universal values, such as the common good, human rights (United Nations, 1948), equality, ethics, and social justice, this concept paper discusses how they are interconnected and how both the SDGs and the five domains of the UNESCO OER Recommendation (UNESCO, 2019) can be achieved. To date, however, there have been few studies on how they are interconnected. This paper proposes a model that highlights their relationships as two sides of the same coin, as they are interconnected and influence, facilitate, and reinforce each other.

The study presented in this concept paper may have limitations as it is mainly based on a review of the official relevant literature by UNESCOan OECD. A large-scale study relying on more comprehensive methods, such as focus groups, grounded theory, or even other qualitative and quantitative methods, could have validated the findings. However, since this is a first attempt, and there are few, if any studies in this area, it was decided to conduct the study in the form of a literature review and with a personal approach based on more than 20 years of research, experience, and consultation in the area of open education, OER, human rights (United Nations, 1948), social justice, ethics, and the common good.

The practical impact of the findings of this conceptual paper is that by breaking down the broad SDG goals to a practical level, it shows how the SDGs can be part of daily life and seamless daily education and learning throughout the lifespan of the learners.

The higher values of the SDGs relate to human rights United Nations (1948), social justice, and equity. Several of the SDGs, including SDG 4 and others addressed in the UNESCO OER Recommendation, such as the following: SDG5 (gender equality), SDG9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure), SDG10 (reduce inequalities within and between countries), SDG16 (peace, justice, and strong institutions), and SDG17 (partnerships for the goals) can be achieved through open education (Inamorato Dos Santos et al., 2016), Achieving these SDGs and implementing the OER Recommendation will benefit both individuals and the planet. Education for all will also help solv climate problems.

The OER Recommendation (UNESCO, 2019) clarifies that all five areas of its implementation are closely linked to the SDGs, particularly SDG4, which targets education for all by 2030 (OECD, 2009; UNESCO, 2016), as well as SDG5 (gender equality), SDG9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure), SDG10 (reducing inequalities within and between countries), SDG16 (peace, justice, and strong institutions), and SDG17 (partnerships for the goals). Since OER is not a stand-alone goal but is related to overarching values, such as human rights (United Nations (1948), equity, and social justice, this conceptual paper explores how these are interconnected and how both the SDGs and the five goals can be achieved. The proposed model is new and clearly needed in research on this topic.

A critical attribute of open educational practices (OEP) is the pursuit of open scholarship which comprises the release of educational resources under an open licence scheme that permits no-cost access, use, reuse, adaptation, retention and redistribution to others. The degree of openness in relation to this attribute will depend on the context and culture of the place and the people in it. When left to chance, the adoption and practice of open scholarship by educators is at best sketchy. For optimum impact, a design-based approach is essential. A central focus of such an approach will need to target educators’ belief systems and practices about their scholarship. Any such work will involve researchers collaborating with practitioners in real-life settings to improve educational practices through iterative analysis, design, development and implementation. The purpose of this paper is to report on how the development and use of such a design-based approach, implemented by the Open University of Sri Lanka, impacted the adoption and uptake of open scholarship among teachers in the Sri Lankan school system in terms of changes in their use of instructional resources, pedagogical thinking and pedagogical practices.

The study adopted a design-based research (DBR) approach (Reeves, 2006), which involved researchers collaboratively working with practitioners in real-life settings to improve their educational practices along three aspects – instructional resource use, pedagogical perspectives and pedagogical practices. Based on the four stages of the DBR approach – analysis, solution, testing and refinement, and reflection, a professional development intervention programme was designed and implemented to support teachers on the integration of open educational resources (OER) and adoption of OEP in their teaching-learning process. Data collected throughout the process using multiple strategies such as questionnaire surveys, concept mapping, lesson plans, focus group interviews, self-reflections and “stories”, were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods.

By the end of the intervention, significant changes were observed in teachers’ use of instructional resources, their pedagogical thinking and pedagogical practices. While resource usage has shifted from no or low usage of OER to reuse, revise, remix and creation of OER, the pedagogical thinking and practices of teachers moved from a content-centric and individualized patterns to more constructivist, context centric and collaborative ways. The diffusion of OEP was prominent along two dimensions – enhancements in the individual practices in innovative OER use as well as collaborative practices of sharing of resources, knowledge and good practices.

The systematic and flexible methodology adopted based on the DBR approach via a framework designed as a contextualized, process oriented and a self-reflective enquiry has been very useful to support changes in OEP among practitioners over time.

This iterative process allowed the researchers to function as “designers”, while investigating real-life issues in collaboration with the practitioners through reflective enquiry to further refine innovative practices towards OEP. This provides valuable insights for improved design solutions for future interventions in similar contexts.

Open Courseware, in many ways, was the starting point towards mainstream discussion and adoption of open learning, particularly in higher education. In its first iteration, the concept specifically excluded assessment recognition, and credentialisation, which aims to ‘liberate’ knowledge without shattering the designing, teaching and awarding processes traditional education has relied upon for decades, if not centuries.

To encourage more just open educational practices, the purpose of this paper is to describe Jose Medina’s theory of epistemic justice and develop a framework applying this conception of epistemic justice to OEP through learning design. The authors hope this framework will help researchers and practitioners develop more equitable learning experiences in open educational contexts.

This paper is conceptual and design-oriented. This paper seeks to draw relationships between José Medina’s work in The Epistemology of Resistance, recent empirical studies in learning design and OEP. By analyzing relationships between these works, this paper lays out design principles that can empower educators seeking to create equitable open learning experiences.

This paper finds several generative intersections between the social justice centered epistemology presented by Medina, empirical learning design studies and OEP. This study finds that structured learning designs which integrate well-researched principles may provide guidance for further practice and research in ways not generally discussed in open education literature. This paper builds on these findings by describing practical ways these intersections can be implemented in OEP.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first theoretical analysis of the relationship between epistemic justice and OEP.

This paper aims to present key characteristics of educational design briefs for the circular economy (CE) through the analysis of 11 design briefs focussing on real-life challenges related to sustainability and the CE, developed with collaborating industry partners for four consecutive circular design internships conducted in Ireland, Catalunya, The Netherlands and Sweden.

These four internships were conducted between September 2017 and June 2019 and each internship lasted three to four months. The supervisors for each internship collaborated with local industry partners genuinely interested in adopting sustainable business practices to develop design briefs focussing on real-life challenges they face. The briefs for each internship were developed further according to the feedback of the interns, industry partners and supervisors of previous internships.

Five steps of brief making for circular design were identified as reviewing the existing resources, emphasizing the importance of systems thinking, emphasizing the importance of collaboration for the CE, focussing on circularity and communicating expectations. The paper outlines how design briefs changed throughout the consecutive internships according to the different curricula and the characteristics of an educational circular design brief.

For design educators and researchers, the value of this paper lies in presenting the steps for the brief making of educational circular design projects. Additionally, the characteristics of circular design briefs are outlined, discussing their focus and content to act as a guide for design educators.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

Information is provided about each source, and the paper discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology developed on the basis of the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) notion applied for the city of Cuenca in Ecuador. The identification of cultural values – among all the actors involved in the city – draws up a series of sustainable urban development strategies.

This methodology is based on the city analysis from the local community and multiple disciplines such as geomorphology, environment, urban planning, historic cartography, architecture, archaeology, anthropology, and economy. Further qualitative data collection methods included 16 workshops with 168 citizens, specific surveys, mapping, and on-site observations. The challenge of this methodology is not only its implementation in the world heritage city of Cuenca in Ecuador, but also the integration of the management of the historic centre within the overall city development plan.

The application of the HUL concept has allowed the identification of a series of strategies for the urban development where the points of view coming from different stakeholders were gathered. The project reveals the existence of values and attributes, so far overlooked in the actual heritage management system. In addition, a Geographic Information System database has been created with all the information related to Cuenca with the possibility of making it available for the community in the future.

The project has been developed within one year with scarce economic resources: that is the reason why the planned activities took longer than expected.

Social participation has played a key role in the development of the project.

This research process in Cuenca has led to its incorporation as a Latin-American pilot city for a programme developed by the World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for the Asia and the Pacific Region.