Open Education Strategies

The aim of this course is to empower students for the development of OE deployment strategies and implementation plans that should fit to a particular context. This includes strategies at the international level, national OE strategies as well as organisation level strategies.

Students will be able to:

• develop or improve OE strategies for specific educational environments at international, national and organizational level;

• validate and critically assess OE strategies, OE implementation plans and corresponding outcomes;

• distinguish between good and bad OE strategies;

• relate strategies with the internal system requirements and external trends and factors affecting OE operation.

Students should have the basic understanding of the global or specific educational environments and the concept and approaches of open education. They should be able to use communication and collaboration tools, and should be prepared to work in interdisciplinary teams.

• During the course students will be learning
• about strategies to implement OE in a par-ticular environment – international, nation-al, organisational.
• Students will learn in more detail about the trends in education, policies, how they af-fect the current roles and processes in edu-cation in order to better understand suc-cessful OE strategies, implementation steps, opportunities and barriers to be taken into account when developing and imple-menting OE in a particular context.
• Students will study successful strategies hat usually differ from case to case, so the im-portant learning outcome will be student’s ability to create successful strategies, de-vise deployment steps, follow, assess and manage the OE deployment appropriate for a particular context.

The following topics will be explored in more detail:

1) Trends in education and organizations
2) Potential value added models
3) Open access policies
4) Changing roles, rules and organization
5) Motivation and added value models for stakeholders
6) Most common strategies
7) Path to implementation, organizational change, cultural change
8) Student centred learning

After completing this course, students will:

• Have deep insigt in the OE added value models, current trends in OE, necessary society and organisational changes, different cultural and legal environments, corresponding policies and in particular best practices;

• Master the preparation of effective OE deployment and development strategies;

• Master the development of the implementation plans for OE deployment;

• Be able to monitor, manage, evaluate, validate and critically assess the proposed activities and ongoing OE deployment process;

• Be able to reflect on personal performance in terms of innovating new OE models and their applications;

• Understand the main drivers and obstacles and their influences in OE strategy deployment;

• Be able to devise supporting activities needed for effective OE strategy implementation.

• Orr, D., Janssen, B. (2025): OER: From Tipping Point to Transformation – The state of open educational resources globally. Talk delivered as part of OERcamp.global 2025. Slides available at E-version
• Janssen, B., Schuwer, R., Orr, D. (2023): Key policy issues in open educational resources. Background paper prepared for the 2023 Global education monitoring report: Technology in education. UNESCO. E-version
• Kane, G. C., Palmer, D., Philips Nguyen, A., Kiron, D., & Buckley, N. (2015). Strategy, Not Technology, Drives Digital Transformation. MIT Sloan Management Review, (57181), 27. Available at E-version
• Amiel, T., ter Haar, E., Vieira, M.S., Soares, T.C. (2020). Who Benefits from the Public Good? How OER Is Contributing to the Private Appropriation of the Educational Commons. In: Burgos, D. (eds) Radical Solutions and Open Science. Lecture Notes in Educational Technology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4276-3_5 E-version

• (40%) Interim presentations • (60%). Exam, combining the theoretical part and a presentation of the practical work on defining OE strategy developed during the course.

Dr Dominic Orr is a leader in digital transformation and socio-technical innovation, specializing in leveraging technology, data and open education to address complex social and educational challenges. With a background in social science and long-standing experience as a policy advisor for international organizations, including the OECD, UNESCO and the World Bank, he offers a distinctive perspective at the intersection of technology, society and human development, particularly in the field of education.
Since 2020, he has been a team lead in German Development Cooperation (GIZ), where he led the development of GIZ’s atingi digital learning platform, successfully growing it to serve over 1.5 million users across emerging markets, and now supports the African Union in rolling out inclusive, safe and enabling data governance frameworks across the African continent. His work focuses on strengthening country-led digital and data governance, working closely with African Union institutions and member states.
Dr Orr also holds an adjunct professorship in open education at the University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia, where he teaches on the Master’s programme and supervises students in their research on digitalization, openness and education.

Izbrana bibliografija / Selected bibliography:
Orr, D. (2022). The Impact of International Organizations on the Field of Open, Distance, and Digital Education. In: Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0351-9_15-1

Janssen, B., Schuwer, R., Orr, D. (2023): Key policy issues in open educational resources. Background paper prepared for the 2023 Global education monitoring report: Technology in education. UNESCO. Available at https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000386083.locale=en
Orr, D., Rimini, M., van Damme, D. (2015). Open Educational Resources - A catalyst for innovation. Paris. OECD. Available at https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2015/12/open-educational-resources_g1g5f73c/9789264247543-en.pdf