Introduction

This textbook is structured around three interconnected thematic areas that reflect key dimensions of Open Education in higher education contexts: OER Policy, Support and Resources, and Open Educational Practices (OEP).

This textbook is designed to support different layers of reuse, recognising that readers will engage with its content in different ways depending on their needs and experience with Open Education.

• Level 1 – Some may simply read and explore the chapters to gain an understanding of OER policies and practices.
• Level 2 – Others may discover reusable sources by following the referenced toolkits, frameworks, case studies, and openly licensed materials included throughout the book.
• Level 3 – For practitioners ready to implement Open Education, many of these resources can be adapted and remixed to fit local institutional, disciplinary, or linguistic contexts.
• Level 4 – Finally, the textbook also provides editable templates, practical tools, and implementation examples that can be directly reused when developing policies, workshops, support services, or educational resources.

Chapter 1: Navigating the OER Policy landscape

Chapter 2: Support and resources for Open Education

Chapter 3: Practical tips for trustworthy OER reuse, adaptation and co-creation

Chapter 4: The role of domain specific communities

UNESCO OER RECOMMENDATION AREAS

The textbook is strongly informed by the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (2019), which provides an international framework for supporting the development and sustainability of Open Education.

The chapters engage with the five UNESCO OER Recommendation action areas:

• Building capacity of stakeholders to create, access, re-use, adapt, and redistribute OER
• Developing supportive policy
• Encouraging inclusive and equitable quality OER
• Nurturing the creation of sustainability models for OER
• Facilitating international cooperation

Throughout the textbook, these action areas are referenced to help situate practices, policies, and resources within broader international Open Education developments.