Encore+

ENCORE+: European Network for Catalysing Open Resources in Education

The following is taken from https://encoreproject.eu/about/

The project will:

• Engage business actors including SMEs, in the OER ecosystem by demonstrating the innovation potential of open content for Human Resources development in companies.
• Nurture the uptake of OER in Europe by stimulating the integration of organisational strategies for OER in business and academia, encouraging both sectors to co-learn from successful implementation practice.
• Contribute to the development of a sustained and well-mapped European OER innovation area by connecting and fostering knowledge exchange across HE and business.
• Organise and open cultures and communities to facilitate stakeholder collaboration and catalyse the spread of innovative practices built on OER across the European area.
• Realise a new vision for technological infrastructure which develops collaboration and connection among OER repositories into a European OER Ecosystem.
• Establish open, distributed and highly trusted community-based quality review strategies for the future European OER Ecosystem and involve businesses and higher education institutions in dialogues on quality and innovation through OER.

Challenges	ENCORE+ actions	Outcomes
Fragmentation of the OER stakeholder communities in Europe	Fragmentation of the OER stakeholder communities in Europe	ENCORE+ network, strengthening and connecting existing OER communities
Lack of collaboration and interoperability among European OER Repositories	Providing a centralised hub for OER content; new paradigms for repository technologies (interfaces; implementations; protocols; content creation & re-use; networking) authenticated by the relevant communities to support best practice	Integrated architecture of a European OER repositories infrastructure.
Low development of OER institutional strategies in European businesses and academia	Working with diverse stakeholder base to identify, synthesise and share strategies and business models across business and higher education.	European guidelines for developing effective OER strategies in business and academia.
Lack of an integrated European OER quality paradigm and quality assurance mechanism	Identifying the key quality concerns for future OER repositories, communities and users; piloting a new quality framework focused on harnessing and enabling OER innovation.	European open & community-led Quality Review Framework for OER.
Lack of entrepreneurial innovative approaches and business models based on OER	Supporting innovation through information exchange; appropriate software and services to enable pathways to innovation; understanding of the drivers of innovation; meaningful interactions between relevant stakeholders; providing a showcase for innovation.	European business and start-up community, empowered to innovate and improve operations by leveraging OER.

At the European level, the anticipated effect is a significant push for a European area for OER-based innovation as an integrated part of the European Education Area. This will contribute to making a reality the vision expressed several times by the EC on the need to use OER as a driver for both inclusion and innovation. A further important impact will be in terms of improved university-business cooperation.

At an international level, ENCORE+ will be a key mechanism for the implementation of the 2019 UNESCO OER Recommendation. We expect to bring about closer collaboration among quality OER repositories beyond Europe, mainly thanks to the international reach of the project coordinator; the prestige of the academics; and the presence of several UNESCO and ICDE Chairs among the project partners who will connect the work of ENCORE+ with international developments in OER.