Open Licensing

Week 4: CC Open Education Platform: what it is, how to join, and why it’s important.

In early 2017, the Creative Commons Global Network (CCGN) completed a consultation process of renewing and reorganizing itself to support a strong and growing global movement. The year-long process resulted in the CCGN Global Network Strategy. Part of the new strategy is to establish defined areas of focus, or “platforms,” which will drive CC’s global activities. Platforms are how we organize areas of work for the CC community, where individuals and institutions organize and coordinate themselves across the CC Global Network.

In the spirit of openness and to effectively strategize, these platforms are open to all interested parties working in the platform area and adjacent spaces. That’s why Creative Commons invites you to join the CC Global Network Open Education Platform!

WHY join?

• Stay connected to global actions in open education resources, practice, and policy.
• Identify, plan and coordinate multi-national open education content, practices and policy projects to collaboratively solve education challenges with an amazing group of open education leaders from around the world.
• Secure funding (from Creative Commons and other funding sources) for the open education projects we collectively select.
• Contribute to global perspectives on open education to strengthen advocacy worldwide.
• Connect your country / region to global open education initiatives.
• Be on the forefront in implementing Creative Commons’ global network strategy.
• Meet annually, in-person, at the Creative Commons Summit with members of the CC Open Education Platform to celebrate successes, share best practices, and plan for the next year.
• Explore, practice, and share innovative methods for inclusive and open engagement with educators, learners and governments around the world..

WHO should join?

• Open education advocates working in the areas of open educational resources, open educational practices, and/or open education policy.

WHAT are we working on right now?

• Reaching the right people (you!) to build a strong open education platform.
• Developing decision making and engagement structures.
• Defining the goals and projects the CC Open Education Platform will pursue.

Joining the CC Open Education Platform is easy and free:

• Sign up for the email list: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/cc-openedu
• Sign up for IM (Slack or IRC):
  • Slack: sign up: (it will send an invitation email), then sign up to the #cc-openedu channel
  • IRC: to join the #creativecommons-openedu IRC channel, connect via Freenode.

• Review and contribute to the platform draft working doc.
• Attend and participate in the monthly meetings.

Final Thought

If we want OER to go mainstream; if we want a complete set of curated OER for all grade levels, in all subjects, in all languages, customized to meet local needs; if we want significant funding available for the creation, adoption and continuous updating of OER – then we need (1) universal awareness of and systematic support for open educational resources, and (2) broad adoption of open education licensing policies. When all educators are passionate about free and open access to their educational resources, when we change the rules on the money, when the default on all publicly funded educational resources is “open” and not “closed”, we will live in a world where everyone can attain all the education they desire.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.