Special Report on the Role of Open Educational Resources in Supporting the Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education Challenges and Opportunities

Open Educational Resources (OER) and their offspring, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), are becoming important factors in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education (SDG4). This was recognised early on by UNESCO in 2004 when they first coined the term “Open Educational Resources” and in 2012 with the OER Paris Declaration. UNESCO is continuing its support of OER with the 2nd OER Summit in September 2017. There is recognition that OER and MOOCs, while not being the solution to the world's educational crises, will play an important, if not essential, role. The OER movement is less than 15 years old and is growing rapidly as more and more nations and institutions adopt the view that publicly-funded research and educational content belongs to the people and should therefore be open and accessible to them. Canada can play an important role in supporting SDG4 by increasing its support for OER and open education in general, both in Canada and abroad.

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