Open licences are critical for defining Open Educational Resources. The goal of this article is to explain the logic of open licensing to teachers, funders, and educational policy-makers--to explain the relatively simple but vital considerations that are necessary to build this global educational commons of free learning material. In particular,…

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…

The Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth (VUSSC) was conceived by ministers at their triennial Conference of Commonwealth Ministers of Education in 2000. The Commonwealth of Learning was asked to investigate possible models, and presented a proposal to ministers at their next conference in 2003. The concept of a virtual…