4. Background

Open Education Resources (OER) are digital resources that are used in the context of teaching and learning (e.g., course material, images, video, multimedia resources, assessment items, etc.), which have been released by the copyright holder under an open licence (e.g., Creative Commons), permitting their use or re-purposing (re-use, revision, remixing, redistribution) by others.

The use, creation and publication of OER are consistent with the University’s Mission Statement, which includes “a special sensitivity to attend to those people that cannot attend presence lectures and to those who can, but prefer to utilize innovative resources to improve their education, supported by emergent technologies”. It is also in line with the University’s aims “to facilitate access to higher education degrees to any person with the proper qualifications, with no limitation on distance, time, place, culture or social context.”[1]

From an international view, the right to provide inclusive and quality education for all and promoting lifelong learning is the core of Sustainable Development Goal #4 by the United Nations, which is implemented through the global education agenda (Education 2030) signed as Incheon Declaration and Framework for action in 2015[2]. In this declaration, the access to OER is referred along the full text, such as in articles 22, 43, 45 and 79.

[1] Retrieved from http://www.unir.net/universidad-online/mision-valores/, February 23rd, 2017

[2] UNESCO (2015). Education 2030 Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action Towards inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/ED/ED_new/pdf/FFA-ENG-27Oct15.pdf, April, the 4th, 2017