Open Education

What is Open Education and why does it matter? Open Education promotes more accessible, collaborative, and inclusive approaches to teaching and learning. It encourages educators and learners to create, share, and reuse knowledge through Open Educational Practices (OEP) and Open Educational Resources (OER).

According to the European Commission, Open Education is “a way of carrying out education, often using digital technologies. Its aim is to widen access and participation to everyone by removing barriers and making learning accessible, abundant and customisable for all. It offers multiple ways of teaching and learning, building and sharing knowledge, and connects formal and non-formal education”.

More broadly, the Cape Town Declaration  describes Open Education as a movement working towards “creating a world where each and every person on earth can access and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge [and plant] the seeds of a new pedagogy where educators and learners create, shape and evolve knowledge together, deepening their skills and understanding as they go”.

Open Educational Resources and Practices

Open Education is often implemented through Open Educational Practices (OEP). These are teaching and learning practices that promote openness, collaboration, and knowledge sharing. Examples include co-creating learning materials with students, adapting and reusing open resources, or collaborating with educators across institutions.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are freely accessible and openly licensed, meaning they can be used, adapted, and shared by educators and learners. OER can include a wide variety of materials, such as:

• Courses and teaching modules
• Lecture slides and learning activities
• Videos, podcasts, and multimedia materials
• Textbooks and guides

OER are strongly supported at the international level. In 2019, UNESCO adopted its Recommendation on Open Educational Resources, encouraging member states to promote the creation, sharing, and reuse of OER to support Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education.

EUniWell’s commitment to Open Education

As the European University for Well-Being, EUniWell has been committed to promoting inclusive, collaborative, and innovative educational practices since its earliest stages.

Open Education supports the Alliance’s mission by facilitating the circulation of knowledge, encouraging cooperation between member universities, and enabling educators and students to benefit from shared learning resources and innovative pedagogical practices across the Alliance.

This commitment was formalised in October 2022 with the signing of the EUniWell Declaration on Open Education. The declaration outlines the Alliance’s principles and ambitions for promoting openness in teaching and learning, and for supporting the creation, sharing, and reuse of Open Educational Resources across EUniWell universities.

The EUniWell Open Education ecosystem

EUniWell’s Open Education support group

To support the development of Open Education, EUniWell relies on a dedicated support group bringing together representatives from its member universities. Its activities include:

• Connecting open educators across EUniWell universities, facilitating collaboration on projects and the exchange of good practices;
• Supporting the elaboration and realisation of open educational projects, including training sessions, guidance, and feedback for educators who wish to create Open Educational Resources (OER) or develop open pedagogical initiatives;
• Proposing technical solutions and tools to facilitate the creation and sharing of OER across the alliance, including the development of an OER-sharing platform;
• Raising awareness of Open Education through workshops, webinars, and conferences, and by sharing resources on EUniWell's multilingual Open Education blog.

EUniWell’s Open Education tools and resources

These activities are supported by a growing ecosystem of tools and platforms that facilitate the sharing of Open Educational Resources and Practices:

• OER platform (coming soon): Explore and search for Open Educational Resources shared by EUniWell and its partners.
• OER showcase: Learn more about Open Educational Resources through a curated selection of resources developed across the Alliance.
• Open Education blog: Follow the latest developments and initiatives related to Open Education within EUniWell through its multilingual blog.

Open Education within the broader open knowledge landscape

Open Education is part of a wider movement that promotes openness in the creation and dissemination of knowledge. Within EUniWell, it complements initiatives such as the Open Lecture Series[EL(3]  and Open Science, which encourages open access to research outputs and transparent research practices. By linking education and research through open approaches, the Alliance contributes to building a more open and collaborative European knowledge ecosystem.

Join the Open Education community

Professors, researchers, administrative staff, and students are all encouraged to participate in EUniWell’s Open Education initiatives. You can:

• Use and share Open Educational Resources;
• Contribute to the development of open educational projects within the alliance;
• Share your experiences and insights through EUniWell’s Open Education blog.