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US Government Increases its Committment to OER

The White House announced the United States’ commitments to the Open Governance Partnership yesterday, which includes explicit support to openly license more educational materials created with federal funding, and to publishing tools and resources for other agencies and governments interested in open education policies and projects. The section reads:

3. Expand Access to Educational Resources through Open Licensing and Technology
Open educational resources are an investment in sustainable human development; they have the potential to increase access to high-quality education and reduce the cost of educational opportunities around the world. Open educational resources can expand access to key educational materials, enabling the domestic and international communities to attain skills and more easily access meaningful learning opportunities. The United States has worked collaboratively with domestic and international civil society stakeholders to encourage open education initiatives. Building on that momentum, the United States will openly license more Federal grant-supported education materials and resources, making them widely and freely available. In addition to convening stakeholders to encourage further open education efforts, the United States will publish best practices and tools for agencies interested in developing grant-supported open licensing projects, detailing how they can integrate open licensing into projects from technical and legal perspectives.

The full US Open Government National Action Plan can be found here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/final_us_open_government_national_action_plan_3_0.pdf

Thank you to all the open education supporters in the US government who helped make this an important section of the US commitment.