5. Current Structure and Resources at UNIR

UNIR has implemented a number of tools and resources focused on Open Education: from digital repositories to video-casts, as well as social networks and blogs.

As digital OER repositories UNIR provides UNIR Library and Re-UNIR. UNIR Library works as a digital service that provides access to students, teachers and tutors to over twenty bibliographical data bases, e-books, science articles, and papers. Re-UNIR is an institutional repository where teachers, researchers, students can publish their work and search for Master`s theses, conference papers, etc. It also contains most of the research outcomes from the university.

Indeed, the media production at UNIR (http://tv.unir.net) provides video-cast resources, lectures, presentations and open classes. UNIR creates over 1,300 lessons per week that are made available through that very video repository: 20% of these are open with no registration, 20% are open but require registration, and 60% are available to UNIR students and faculty only. With the present policy, UNIR aims to provide a general framework to make all these open activities sustainable and cohesive over the long-term. Moreover, UNIR also includes scientific publications, video interviews with teachers and researchers and a variety of content that provides valuable information for students. UNIR students and faculty use these features as powerful tools to search for materials, clarify their doubts, and reinforce their knowledge, open new ways to creativity and to have a more direct relationship with the academic staff.

This digital resource is supported by the YouTube channel of UNIR Universidad and the UNIR Research Dissemination channel, with more than 20,000 subscribers. YouTube bridges the gap with students and the general public and supports a diversity of end-users and global recognition.

In addition, UNIR hosts an open access journal (International Journal of Interactive Multimedia and Artificial Intelligence), runs its own open publications like the proceedings of UNESCO-UNIR ICT and Education International Congress 2016, Social4All Methodology for making web applications accessible and has been contributing to NMC Horizon Report Higher Education since 2013 as experts to the report, also leading the Spanish version.

Furthermore, the presence in social networks is becoming a good opportunity to share events, information, resources and more. With over 14,500 followers, UNIR’s Twitter profile works along 1,300 followers of UNIR Research, and shows a really active profile on promoting open educational resources, open class, and conferences.

Finally, most of the faculty keep blogs about their research activities, their learning or teaching experiences in classes, their best practices and their presence in science congress and conferences. It means a way of sharing their knowledge and engaging the students by creating a discussion hub and a comprehensive repository of valuable educational content.

With these resources UNIR covers a wide range of materials to open up a good amount of knowledge to the society, general public, academic staff, and every potential learner worldwide.