Universities and Knowledge Society Journal (RUSC)—an e-journal coedited by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Barcelona) and its eLearn Center, and the University of New England (Australia) and its DeHub—has opened a call for papers for a Special Section on OER initiatives in Oceania. From the announcement:
Broader Oceania is a region where few, if any, countries have been immune to this turmoil and where the weight of ever-increasing student demand coupled with declining resources is perhaps most heavily felt. In its broadest sense, Oceania includes the islands of the South Pacific scattered across Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia as well as Australasia and the countries of the Malay Peninsula (Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines). This region is sufficiently diverse to offer opportunities for comparison, but with similarities that allow for constructive exchange of ideas. It includes large and small nations, with differing operational contexts, advantages, opportunities, challenges and constraints. Distance education is a priority area of cooperation and collaboration among many of the countries in this region and, despite the lack of supportive infrastructure in the majority, increasingly technology and online learning are being considered as a solution to the burden of growing student numbers and changing, and often inadequate, funding models.
For similar reasons, there is also strong interest in OER across this region. Choosing OER as the overarching theme of this special issue allows educators to showcase how challenges and opportunities in the region are being met with innovation and/or collaboration. It also facilitates sharing of knowledge and exchange of varied perspectives and dialogue, not only between countries in the region, but hopefully also between Broader Oceania and Europe.
Thematic areas
We are interested in receiving research articles on this topic by authors from all educational sectors and across the world. We are particularly interested in OER initiatives that address different perspectives of the changing 21st-century educational environment in broader Oceania.
The specific thematic areas of the monographic issue are the following:
- Policies, frameworks and strategies for OER
- OER technological affairs
- Open learning design
- Open resources development
- Open learning and teaching practices
- Sustainability and business models for OER
- Quality assurance for OER
- Open practices in general
(via OER Forum)