Results

Background

The OpenMed project, supported by the European Union under the Erasmus+ programme, has been working during the period 2015-2018 to raise awareness and to facilitate the adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Educational Practices (OEP) in the South-Mediterranean countries, with a particular focus on higher education in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Palestine.

The project involved an international consortium coordinated by UNIMED (Italy) with; Politecnico di Torino (Italy), Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (Spain), University of Seville (Spain), Coventry University (UK), Cairo University (Egypt), Alexandria University (Egypt), Cadi Ayyad University (Morocco), Université Ibn Zohr (Morocco), Birzeit University (Palestine), An-Najah National University (Palestine), AArU – Association of Arab Universities (Jordan), German Jordanian University (Jordan), and Princess Sumaya University for Technology (Jordan).

The rationale for initiating OpenMed, is that in the Arab Mediterranean countries the demand for Higher Education often exceeds capacity of  the HE systems, and therefore the use and OER and OEP are possible ways to expand access to learning opportunities, thus promoting equity, inclusion and democratisation of Higher Education. Widening participation to Higher Education by means of OER adoption is indeed a strategic priority for the higher education sector in general and for the OER movement.

Project Highlights and Achievements

OpenMed has contributed substantially to place open education on the regional educational agenda, by working with partner institutions and the open education movement worldwide.

OpenMed has been working at three different but connected levels:

  • policy level, addressing policy development through national dialogues with a wide range of stakeholders, and through setting multi-country strategic actions on the basis of such dialogues, aimed at maximising the benefits of Open Education to increase the access, the quality and the equity of Higher Education in the region;
  • institutional level, creating innovation Centers for Open Education at the premises of each partner university, and facilitating the development of institutional roadmaps and action plans for the implementation of open education at local and institutional levels;
  • educators level, building and strengthening educators’ capacities to incorporate OER and OEP into their daily teaching in order to bring learning processes and their outcomes closer to learners’ needs.

Main highlights and achievements over the 3 year period include:

  • Compendium publication and executive summaries in English, French, and Arabic with a review of Open Education globally and in particular the South-Mediterranean region, contextual information on countries and partners, webometric analysis, 11 case studies and a series of video interviews with experts in open education;
  • OER National Strategy Forums conducted in Egypt (November 2016), Morocco (December 2016), Jordan (February 2017), and Palestine (April 2017);
  • OER Regional Agenda for the South-Mediterranean Universities, as starting point for the development of both action plans and roadmaps at institutional level;
  • Institutional Roadmaps on Open Education, and a national declaration about Open Education in Morocco;
  • Innovation Centers for Open Education at eight South-Mediterranean partner universities where technical and networking infrastructure is available to university students, teachers and staff;
  • 74 academics trained face to face (Torino, 25-29 Sep-18) and online phase (Oct-17 Mar-18) to adopt Open Education approaches, run through nine learning circles in Egypt, Morocco, Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon facilitated by a network of 15 local facilitators, including a webinar series on different aspects of Open Education with international leaders in the field, and a variety of OER-related projects created by participants in the course;
  • OER Course on “Open Education: fundamentals and approaches” composed by 5 modules, activities and project works steps, openly available in multiple languages (English, French, Arabic) and formats;
  • A set of recommendations to institutional leaders and policy makers to strategically prioritise Open Education to further develop the education system in the South-Mediterranean;
  • An active network of global experts and educators interested in promoting open education.

Dissemination & Communication

Website visits-monitoring:

QA reports

(2017, May 25). OpenMed Mid-Term Evaluation Report

(2018, June 6). OpenMed Pilot Course External Evaluation Report

(2018, November). OpenMed External Evaluation Final Report