The two newly appointed UNESCO Chairs in OER jointly convened a meeting in New York in late June to begin formation of the OER Chairs network and discuss concrete actions of the network. Rory McGreal, Associate Vice President of Research and the UNESCO/COL OER Chair at Athabasca University in Canada, and Fred Mulder, Professor of Informatics Education, former Rector (2000-2010) and UNESCO OER Chair at the Open Universiteit in the Netherlands, led discussions, with stimulating presentations from global leaders in open education.

Four major plans of action were decided upon at the conclusion of this meeting. First, a Global OER Graduate School will serve as an umbrella for graduate level research establish research on OER linked to different disciplines, including joint supervision between the student’s home university and partner universities from the OER Chairs network. Through this effort, the OER Chairs hope to stimulate interest in and greatly expand the availability of OER research, which is an important evolution of the movement.

Second, to insure that research outcomes and other information on OER is freely available, an OER Knowledge Cloud will be established. The Cloud will bring together links to source materials, and will be continually updated and maintained. Extracts and derivatives from the Cloud will be presented through books and occasional papers series.

A global map of OER activities is being developed to offer a quick view of the scale and scope of the movement. Along with demonstrating the global reach of the movement, the map will also serve as a gateway to potential partnerships and collaborations between universities.

Finally, the network of UNESCO Chairs in OER should be expanded, with full global representation. The present Chairs and those present at the meeting indicated a desire to support universities from around the world that are interested in pursuing an application for a UNESCO OER Chair.

The UNESCO Chairs program aims to enhance the impact of education globally by “building university networks and encouraging inter-university cooperation through the transfer of knowledge across borders.” The OER Chairs network will focus on raising awareness of OER and its impact on global education through specific activities. The full report and presentations from the meeting can be downloaded here. There will be opportunities for further discussions with the OER Chairs throughout the year, such as at the Open Ed conference in Utah in October.