Over half a million to support doctoral researchers in Open Educational Resources

OU research into Open Educational Resources has been awarded £546,759 for a fourth phase of funding by The William Flora and Hewlett Foundation.

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials intentionally created and licensed to be free for the end user to own, share, and in most cases, modify.

Led by Professor Martin Weller, Professor of Educational Technology in the OU’s Institute of Educational Technology, the funding, which was first awarded in 2013 to the Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN), supports a global network of doctoral researchers in the field of OERs.

The new funding will continue this research and develop it in the following areas:

1. Expand the number of researchers who can participate, and the range of methods through which the OU supports them
2. Develop co-created resources for members and the broader open education community
3. Develop the open education community beyond the doctoral researchers
4. Further increase equity, diversity, and inclusion in the network

The GO-GN brings together doctoral researchers every year for an intensive seminar where the share research and network with each other. This is aligned to an annual Open Education conference (OEGlobal and/or the UK OER conference).

In the new phase of the project, which runs from 2023-2025, the researchers will continue these strands of work, with co-production ‘sprints’ being led by members around specific topics of interest relevant to open education (e.g. open education and AI).

The network will continue to expand with a focus on Global South participation and an additional £38,000 awarded to the project by the Hewlett Foundation to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the project at OEGlobal in Edmonton in October, will also have a particular Global South focus.

Professor Weller said:

“The continual funding over the past 10 years has allowed GO-GN to develop a community of researchers, many of whom have gone on to become influential figures in the field of open education.

“This phase of the grant and the additional 10^th anniversary funding allow us to bring together members past and present to develop resources and shape the direction of open education research going forward.”