In this paper, the authors identify and analyze public policy and the investment and expenditure that the governments of Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay and Uruguay commit to make in the development and procurement of textbooks, books and digital content for primary and secondary education (K-12). The aim is to identify and propose a roadmap…

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that is commonly used for guiding the construction and delivery of instruction intended to support all students. In this study, we used a related model to guide creation of a multimedia-based instructional tool called content acquisition podcasts (CAPs). CAPs delivered vocabulary instruction…

This second edition of the classic "Universal Design in Higher Education" is a comprehensive, up-to-the-minute guide for creating fully accessible college and university programs. The second edition has been thoroughly revised and expanded, and it addresses major recent changes in universities and colleges, the law, and technology. As…

Efficient lesson planning with universal design for learning (UDL) enables teachers to more effectively meet students' individual needs. In this study, a comparison of lesson plans by teacher candidates in a teacher preparation program before and after UDL training is presented. After training, teachers (n = 45) incorporated more differentiated…

An interdisciplinary partnership within an European Leonardo da Vinci project has developed a new approach aimed at educating secondary school students in the creation of built environments accessible to disabled people and at sensitizing them towards the inclusion of people with disabilities in all realms of social life. The AWARD (Accessible…

E-learning has long been celebrated as the solution to access in education. There seems to be a belief worldwide that by including e-learning technologies in learning packages, learners' success and economies of scale will be ensured in ODL (open and distance learning). New innovations like the internet and mobile technologies provide a great…

This article demonstrates an approach for teachers to use outcomes from activities using the universal design for learning expression principle to evaluate student knowledge in content areas. Based on the student's level of explanation using a variety of expression methods, teachers can determine whether students need additional support for…

In this paper we present a history of the idea of Open Educational Resources, overview the current state of the Open Educational Resources movement, report on critical issues facing the field in the immediate future, and present two new projects to watch in 2009.

The principle of equality states that it is bad for some people to be worse off than others. In the context of distance education, this principle is violated on those occasions where on-campus students have access, not only to all the resources available to distance education students, but also to face-to-face tutorials. This is because the…

Over the period 2006-2008, the Dutch Open Universiteit Nederland conducted an experiment in which Open Educational Resources (OER) were offered in an effort to bridge the gap between informal and formal learning and to establish a new style of entry portal to higher education with no barriers at all. OpenER received considerable attention both in…

A recent qualitative research study gathered the career reflections of the generation of distance education practitioners who developed more flexible higher education (via distance modes) in the second half of the twentieth century. Part of that study's results focus on the lessons the practitioners learned about what constitutes effective…

In this study, we introduce the digital backpack as a means for creating a rich learning experience for students of multiple ages. Development, design, and refinement of the digital backpack are grounded in the theoretical framework of Universal Design for Learning using a Design-Based Research (DBR) model. This article presents the design and…

This article traces the development of the OpenCourseWare movement, including the origin of the concept at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the implementation of the MIT OpenCourseWare project, and the idea's spread into the global educational community, ultimately resulting in the formation of the OpenCourseWare Consortium. The…

Free and Open Educational Resources at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) are deeply rooted in our institutional culture, stemming from the role we played in the struggle for political freedom in South Africa. The successful development of a strategy has been influenced by this history, as well as the role of a champion in the main…

Open online courses (OOC) with a massive number of students have represented an important development for online education in the past years. A course on artificial intelligence, CS221, at the University of Stanford was offered in the fall of 2011 free and online which attracted 160,000 registered students. It was one of three offered as an…