Open Consultation on the UNESCO Dubai Declaration on Open Educational Resources (OER)

"Emerging technologies, including AI, provide opportunities to advance the UNESCO 2019 OER Recommendation. Beyond the creation of new openly licensed content, potential applications include: facilitating the detection of existing openly licensed content online; developing techniques for effective OER curation; translating OER into multiple languages; and facilitating content indexing through the recommendation of descriptive metadata. Other emerging technologies, such as blockchain-based services and applications, could potentially ensure the provenance, integrity, and lawful use of OER.

Legal frameworks are then not up to date with technological advancements such as these. In the realm of intellectual property rights (IPR), the key to OER, this can lead to ambiguities on what constitutes legal use as well as issues regarding how exceptions and limitations to copyright law may be used even when a work is not openly licensed. Developing clear guidelines and policies that address these issues can help protect the rights of content creators, ensure proper attribution, and create innovative technology spaces for the public good.

The Global Digital Compact, and UNESCO’s ROAM-X principles, which are Rights-based, Open, Accessible, and promote Multi-stakeholder Participation based on cross-cutting principles, and in particular Gender Equity, can inform policies for OER by providing a comprehensive framework that ensures inclusivity, equity, and collaboration in the development and implementation of Open Educational Resource...."