This is a presentation for European Network of OpenEduction Librarians (SPARC). On the one hand, it shows the  actions taken by the European Commission: from the establishment of an European framework for open education to an overview of current educational policies. On the other hand, it informs about concrete experiences and a series of recommendations for the design of policies that favor the opening of education. In addition, the relationship of Open Education with Open Science is analized. Finally, it is considered whether support for open education is an opportunity for academic libraries and the influence of information professionals in the open educational context

Santos-Hermosa, Gema

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Universtiy of Barcelona
http://www.ub.edu/biblio
Open University of Catalonia (UOC)
http://www.biblioteca.uoc.edu/en
Open Education in Europe: 
Overview, integration with Open Science and the 
Library role. 
By Gema Santos-Hermosa (gsantos@ub.edu)
Presentation for the European Network of Open Education Librarians (SPARC) 4/04/2019
OPEN EDUCATION IN EUROPE 
Since Open Education (OE) was identified as a potential 
solution to some of the challenges in the EU educational 
systems, there has been a growing interest:
European Commission: 
• European (Open Edu) framework for OE: Opening up 
Education (2013)
• European Policy Cooperation in Education & Training
(ET2020)
OE community: 
not just a bureaucratic issue, but a topic of discussion from 
all over the world: OE Global Conference 2018, 2nd World 
OER Congress (2017) and future ones.
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OPEN EDUCATION IN EUROPE 
10 Core dimensions of OE for Higher Education Institutions 
(HEIs), in order to open up the education practices:
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•Basic (6): access, contents, 
pedagogy, recognition, 
collaboration and research 
→ most common practices about 
‘what’ opens (or can be opened)
•Transversal (4): strategy, 
technology, quality and leadership
→ The spine needed to get the 
first ones: the way to open them
Source: OpenEdu Dimensions (Inamorato et al, 2016 )
OPEN EDUCATION POLICIES
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OE Policies in the 28 EU states:
1. Policies oriented to the 
opening of education through 
the promotion of OER and 
OEP;
2. Policies related to ICT for 
learning with some 
component of open education;
3. Integral strategic 
educational policies with 
some component of open 
education;
4. Policies designed as national 
open government plans with 
some component of open 
education.
Source: Open Eductation Policies Inamorato Dos Santos; Punie; Scheller, 2017
OPEN EDUCATION POLICIES
Examples of OE Policies within each of the 4 categories:
1. Promotion of OER and OEP: the initiatives of the French Ministry of 
Higher Education, Fun MOOC (collaborative platform of online courses) 
and Opening Up Slovenia (research environment in OE by a group of partner 
institutions: industry, research, education, etc.)
2. ICT for learning: the Portuguese National Policy Conta-nos uma historia: 
application of ICT in learning, encouraging the use of media in schools 
through an open competition of stories published by students.
3. Integral strategic educational policies: in the Flanders region in 
Belgium, OE policies are not a political objective but are part of 
educational policies, as a tool that contributes to innovation in HE. 
4. National open government plans the third Greek national plan Greece
National Action Plan (2016-2018) integrates, from a macro-national level, 
the open dimensions: educational materials, collaboration, research, 
certification, data and open source.
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OPEN EDUCATION POLICIES
Examples of OE Institutional policies:
▪ 2015 - Glasgow Caledonian University OER Institutional Policy
→1st HEI in the UK and also Scotland
▪ 2016 - Open Educational Resources Policy of University of 
Edinburgh. 
→ Both report the institutional positioning of the OER and guidelines 
for their use in learning and teaching.
▪ 2017 - Open Education Policy of the International University of 
La Rioja (UNIR) 
→ 1st Spanish University with a specific Open Education Policy 
* 2006 - Open University of Catalonia (UOC) → an OE initial initiative: OA 
institutional policy that provided licensed open learning materials to its 
institutional repository.
6
OPEN EDUCATION AND 
OPEN SCIENCE
Open Science (OCS) is a new way to make science
“a new approach to the scientific process based on cooperative work and new ways 
of disseminating knowledge, improving accessibility to and re-usability of research 
outputs by using digital technologies and newcollaborative tools”. (Comissió Europea, 
2018)
Open Education (OE) is a new way of teaching and learning 
→ 1. both movements have a "kinship" or family 
relationship and also agree on important aspects as 
transparency, collaboration and social impact. 
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OPEN EDUCATION AND 
OPEN SCIENCE
2. OE is one of the elements of OSC, included in the great 
beehive of OCS and, generally, associated with OER
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Source: Open Science facets as a beehive (Foster, 2018)
OPEN EDUCATION AND 
OPEN SCIENCE
OE doesn’t appear in most* of current OSC Policies and 
strategies:
- Not included in the priority ambitions of OSC according 
to the OSPP (Open Science Policy Platform), since they are: 
incentives, indicators and research metrics, academic communication, 
European Open Science Cloud, FAIR data, research integrity and 
competences and citizen science
- Not one of the acceleration areas of the Open Science 
Monitor. It has planned an initial acceleration of OSC based 
on 3 major areas: 
open access to publications, research data and assessment systems.
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* There are some excepcions (see next slide)
However, although the dominant scenario is concentrated in the 
process and results of the research, a certain component of 
open education is also evident:
• Some OSC Plans incorporate some specific component of 
OE. P.e: Action Plan on Open Science forTilburg University Strategy 
2018-2020
• OSC includes educational dimensions from 2 approaches:
– Open Skills that researchers need to achieve to become aware 
and facilitate OSC 
– Scientific education related to RRI (Responsible Research 
and Innovation), which involves the exchange of results and 
scientific practices with the general public and has an impact 
on education and the learning of science. 10
OPEN EDUCATION AND 
OPEN SCIENCE
In short, OSC is:
• a much broader concept than the acceleration areas 
marked in its initial phase. 
• a multimensional phenomenon that has yet to 
continue to develop. 
Therefore, open education and other non-explicit areas 
will be discussed later in a more mature later stage.
11
OPEN EDUCATION AND 
OPEN SCIENCE
LIBRARY ROLE IN OPEN 
EDUCATION
Some of the main influences of the libraries in the OE 
context have been:
- Support in the creation of materials with CC Licenses
- Librarian-teaching collaboration in the identification 
of open content to do serve in the curricula
- Participation in the collective production of OER and 
MOOCs
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LIBRARY ROLE IN OPEN 
EDUCATION
Some of the fist actions of the libraries in favor of the 
OER and OE have been:
- oriented to their preservation and open diffusion by OCW 
platforms and institutional repositories
- in charge of encouraging the deposit and creation of 
OER specific collections.
- as collaboration in the creation and use of open 
textbooks.
13
LIBRARY ROLE IN OPEN 
EDUCATION
Beyond the OERs and in relation to open science:
- the association of European Libraries of Research LIBER
has committed itself to align its activities with those of 
the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), the main 
actor in the process of implementing open science in 
Europe.
- In this sense, the LIBER Open Science Roadmap 2018-
2020, collects the specific actions that libraries can carry 
out to lead the OSC
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LIBRARY ROLE IN OPEN 
EDUCATION
In addition to support in the adoption and creation of 
OER, training in open competences and practices are 
others contributions of libraries to the integration of 
open education in open science.
Libraries play a key role and they have a potential 
opportunity to bring some OE fruits
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REFERENCES
Ayris, Paul; Bernal, Isabel; Cavalli, Valentino;  Dorch, Bertil; Frey, Jeannette; Hallik, Martin; Horstmann, Wolfram 
(2018). LIBER Open Science Roadmap. <http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1303002>
Braddlee, Dr.; Vanscoy, Amy (2018). Bridging the Chasm: Faculty Support Roles for Academic Librarians in the 
Adoption of Open Educational Resources. College & Research Libraries, 0 
<https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/17392>
European Comission (2013). Opening up Education: Innovative teaching and learning for all through new 
Technologies and Open Educational Resources.<https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/TXT/?qid=1389115469384&uri=CELEX:52013DC0654>
FOSTER (2017). What is Open Science.< https://www.fosteropenscience.eu/content/what-open-science-
introduction> 
Inamorato Dos Santos, Andreia; Punie, Yves; Castaño, Jonatan (2016). Opening up Education: A Suppot 
Framwork for Higher Educatiob Institutions. Luxembourg: Publications Offices of the European Union 
<https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/opening-education-support-
framework-higher-education-institutions>
Inamorato Dos Santos, Andreia; Punie, Yves; Scheller, Konstantin (2017). Going Open: Policiy Recommendations 
on Open Education in Europe (OpenEdu Policies). Luxembourg: Publications Offices of the European Union. 
<https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/going-open-policy-
recommendations-open-education-europe-openedu-policies>
Santos-Hermosa, Gema (2018b). “The Role of the Academic Libraries in MOOCs”. In: G. Ubachs; L. Konings 
(eds.). The 2nd Envisioning Report for Empowering Universities. Maastricht: EADTU, p. 48-51. 
<https://empower.eadtu.eu/images/report/The_Envisioning_Report_for_Empowering_Universities_2nd_edition_201
8.pdf >
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Open Education in Europe: Overview, integration with Open Science and the Library role

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Open Education in Europe: Overview, integration with Open Science and the Library role

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