Validación de los instrumentos de recolección de datos

In general terms, most of the policies are too new to have had much evidence-based impact. In addition, some countries like Germany and the Netherlands already had substantial activity before there was a relevant policy in place, and it is difficult to disentangle the effect of the policy from the general volume of activities already running. Also, several interviewees seemed rather vague about funding and timescales.

At an overall EU-wide level, data from many reports399 _{and also the findings from the} interviews show that in France, Slovenia, Spain and the UK there are several open educational initiatives, and that in all these countries this is mainly due to policy initiatives, though not exclusively to national/regional policies.400 _{Germany had developed a} reasonable level of MOOCs and a large amount of OER in advance of any policies, and with the recent investment in digital education and OER it is likely to become a leader in the EU. Spain and the Netherlands also had substantial amounts of open education activities prior

399 _{Such as http://www.dtransform.eu/business-models-for-opening-up-education-report-available}

400 _{Note in particular the effect of FutureLearn, a policy from a hegemonic provider, discreetly facilitated by a} Minister, but with no national funding or policy framework. The role of major non-state actors is out of scope for this study but needs to be considered in order to understand the overall situation in certain countries. Such actors include the Ufi Trust in UK and Folkbildningsrådet in Sweden. The role of international NGOs such as the Soros Foundation and Creative Commons also needs consideration.

to any policy. In contrast, the Scandinavian countries do not have policies specifically aiming to opening up education – probably due to their long tradition of distance and flexible learning401_{, while many of the new Member States so far have little open education} activity. Italy occupies an intermediate position with several MOOCs and OER initiatives, most of which predate any specific policies.

Below are some highlights of this research, and some issues that arose: Member States without policy-driven activity

Seven countries out of 28 – Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Latvia and

Sweden – appear to have no current active policies containing open education aspects (in

the meaning utilised in the present study – see the Introduction), or at least (such as the efit21 policy for Austria or the K-MOOC policy for Hungary) none that we could surface interviewees for.

Austria, Finland and Hungary are considering proposals on possible policies, as is Sweden, once the government there decides on its response to the MOOCs report.

Member States with policy-driven activity

Croatia includes the “development of Open Educational Resources” in its policy but there

are no details in the corresponding policy documents and in the interview it was not possible to gain an understanding of the detailed planning on OER.

Cyprus has a general ICT in education strategy but the interviews revealed only some

tactical interventions (one under an EU-funded project and one a collaboration largely driven by Greece), and no strategic open education activity. Yet in the field of distance education Cyprus is increasingly active, with its own Open University and also the private University of Nicosia having an active online learning programme (targeting Africa) delivered via a joint agreement with a Welsh university.

The Czech Republic also has a general ICT in education strategy as a subset of its overall education policy, but in contrast to Cyprus it appears to be taking forward existing open education activity (e.g. Metodicky) and making some decisions, e.g. on Creative Commons. However, the interview implied that progress was slow and constrained by capacity issues in the Ministry.

Estonia has a currently active Lifelong Learning Strategy that mentions Open Educational

Resources, continues support for platforms for sharing content (e.g. among teachers), and focuses on training teachers. However, there was no specific information on the impact of its five-year €60 million programme, except that “teachers are being trained in digital competences across the country and online platforms have been built to support the sharing and creation of resources, while guidance and support is being provided to teachers and students for the effective use of these platforms”.

Germany is highly active in OER and quite active in MOOCs, despite not having had any

national or regional policies specific to open education until very recently. There is now a

Mainstreaming OER programme, based on thorough prior research and consultation; and

also a continuation of their earlier Open universities initiative that has now branched into MOOCs.

401 _{The relatively close (but not perfect) correlation between the level of distance education activity (open} education in the traditional “Open University” or “Open and Distance Learning” sense) and open education activity in a given Member State is not in scope for this study.

Greece is one of the three countries using the Open Government Programme mechanism

to drive through its open education plans, via “Commitment 20”. This is building on a number of existing developments including Open Academic Lessons and the curriculum repository Photodentro.

Ireland has an active ICT in higher education policy and funding mechanism, which covers

OER but apparently with more emphasis on open access issues. The country was starting from a rather low level with regard to the use of ICT in higher education, but is catching up fast.

Italy has made a strong start with its “National Digital School Plan” but notes that long-

term effects cannot yet be demonstrated; in parallel a number of OER and MOOC-related activities have been started without any direct public policy support.

Lithuania has an ICT in education policy, which appears largely focused on schools and

VET. They identified a number of barriers including a need for greater EU support.

Luxembourg has an active programme for ICT in schools, which includes open education

and OER aspects.

The Netherlands has a new (2015) policy to modernise higher education with a strong

core of OER. However, some of the projects it references had commenced before the policy was implemented (TU Delft has been active in MOOCs for some years) so cannot be regarded as policy successes. Nevertheless it is expected that in terms of open education the policy will bring the Netherlands up to the level of nearby countries (France, UK, Germany) in a few years.

Poland has a digital schools programme but the policy chosen to focus upon was the

Programme for Knowledge Education Development, since this explicitly states that all resources funded by the European Structural Fund should be openly licensed. The programme is very thorough and impressively documented in its general forward-looking aspects but the specific open education aims and concrete returns are not clearly described, and much of the programme could be regarded as an effort to “catch up” in areas of education reform – much needed but not specific to open education.

Romania is the second of the three countries using the Open Government Programme

mechanism to drive through its open education plans. The aims of the Virtual Library are impressive but work on this project has only just started.

Slovakia is the third such country: a whole chapter of the OGP Action Plan is devoted to

OER. However, the country is starting from a very low base in terms of OER and notes that implementation is still in progress.

The UK does not have and cannot have a unified approach to education policy in any sector, although for ICT there are some “federal” agencies such as Jisc that are working to provide a level of uniformity for higher education at least. In Scotland the OEPS project cites benefits at two universities but there are 19 universities in Scotland and no large or high-ranking ones are mentioned as having changed as a consequence of the OEPS project (the University of Edinburgh has been active in MOOCs and OER for several years, as has the Open University in Scotland, the project lead). In England the HEFCE-funded OER programmes have left a strong legacy but there is no current policy fostering OER or MOOCs in higher education, or indeed in any other sector of education (the FutureLearn MOOCs consortium is purely an initiative of the UK Open University, with no government funding or support).