NEWTON, Mass. – Feb. 21, 2017 – PRLog — The Open Education Consortium is pleased to recognize the 2017 Open Education Awards for Excellence OER and Project Award recipients. The Open Education Awards for Excellence provide annual recognition to outstanding contributions in the Open Education community. These awards recognize distinctive Open Educational Resources, Open Projects & Initiatives, as well as exemplary leaders in Open Education worldwide. The Open Education Awards Committee, populated by educators and open education advocates from around the world, reviews nominations and selects winners.

OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES AWARDS

The Open Educational Resources (OER) Awards is a new category in the Open Education Awards for Excellence this year.  This new category recognizes resources beyond courses and sites fostering the wide variety of innovative OER being developed around the world. The 2017 award recipients are:

OER Site: The Norwegian Digital Learning Arena (NDLA) / Norway

OER Collection: Observatorio de Innovación Educativa, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey / México

MOOC: OER101 – Using Open Educational Resources in Teaching, Servizio METID – Politecnico Di Milano / Italy

Open Tool: OEL Toolkit, Swinburne University of Technology and University of Tasmania / Australia

Open Book: Open Access Atlas of Otolaryngology, Head and neck Operative Surgery, University of Cape Town / South Africa

Open Faculty Development Program: The Agora: An open faculty development program in student centered and mobile learning, Justice Institute of British Columbia + Universidad de Guadalajara / Canada + Mexico

OER Library/Open Network: Curriki / United States

PROJECT AWARDS
Project awards recognize the efforts that support the production, use and/or promotion of Open Education in ways other than the creation and use of material resources.  Awards are granted in two categories: Creative Innovation & Open Research.

CREATIVE INNOVATION

The Creative Innovation Award recognizes new approaches to Open Education, ideas, or solutions that present a new way of thinking and substantially improve the discoverability, presentation, usability, accessibility or availability of openness in education.  The 2017 award recipients are:

IDEAS BOX, Bibliothèques Sans Frontières / Libraries Without Borders / France

Alicanto Cloud Social Learning Platform, OPEN Pediatrics Boston Children’s Hospital / United States

ENGAGE “Equipping the Next Generation for Responsible Research and Innovation,” The Open University / United Kingdom

Open Up Resources Middle School Math, Open Up Resources / United States

OPEN RESEARCH

The Open Research Award recognizes excellence in research studies about open education and/or related areas and studies that help advance our understanding and demonstrate effectiveness related to challenges in OER.  The 2017 award recipients are:

The Open Education Group, The Open Education Group at Brigham Young University / United States

openTEL, The Open University / United Kingdom

About the Open Education Awards for Excellence
The Open Education Awards for Excellence provide annual recognition to outstanding contributions in the Open Education Consortium community. These awards recognize distinctive open education sites, technological innovations, notable open courses, and exemplary leaders in Open Education worldwide.  http://www.oeconsortium.org/projects/open-education-award…

About the Open Education Consortium
The Open Education Consortium is  a global network of educational institutions, individuals and organizations that support an approach to education based on openness, including collaboration, innovation, collective development and use of open educational materials. The Open Education Consortium is a non-profit, social benefit organization registered in the United States and operating worldwide. http://www.oeconsortium.org/

Activities of the Open Education Consortium are supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, member dues, and contributions from sustaining members including: African Virtual University, Fundação Getulio Vargas – FGV Online, Japan OCW Consortium, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Korea OCW Consortium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, NetEase Open Courses, Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, Open University Netherlands, Taiwan Open Course Consortium, Tecnológico de Monterrey, TU Delft, Tufts University, UNIVERSIA, Universidad Politécnica Madrid, University of California, Irvine, University of Michigan.