Open Education Week 11-15 March 2013

Participation FAQ

What is Open Education Week? When and where is it?

Open Education Week will take place from 11-15 March 2013 online (www.openeducationweek.org) and in locally hosted events around the world. The objective is to raise awareness of the open education movement and of open educational resources. The OpenCourseWare Consortium is coordinating this community-run event. There is no cost to participate. Follow us on twitter at #openeducationwk and facebook at facebook.com/openeducationwk.

How can we contribute to Open Education Week?

Contribute a video showcasing your open education project, conduct a webinar, host a local event promoting open education, provide links to basic resources, organize a working group or propose something else. To participate, simply fill out the web form at www.openeducationweek.org and tell us how you would like to participate. We encourage submissions in any language.

What are the deadlines for contributions?

You must fill out the form telling us what you would like to contribute by 18 January 2013. This will allow the planning committees to schedule and plan accordingly. You should finalize your contribution and provide us with the information about and/or link to your contribution by 8 February 2013.

What topics will be covered during Open Education Week?

This week is dedicated to raising awareness about open educational resources, open educational practices, open policies, open access, open data – any topic related to open education. Open education refers to educational practices that increase access to high quality education and openly licensed educational materials that allow reuse and modification.

What is a project showcase? What are the requirements?

Provide a pre-recorded informational video of your project, work, or organization. This should be focused on the work you’re doing in open education and designed for a general audience. We recommend these videos be no longer than 10 minutes. Videos can be submitted in any language. Please upload your video to YouTube, Vimeo or a similar video sharing platform and provide us with the URL that we will link to from the Open Education Week website. Please be sure to use an open license for your video.

What are the guidelines for a webinar?

Webinars are well suited for topics of general interest, such as what’s happening in open education in a particular area or country, new projects, or topics that offer discussion possibilities. We also welcome webinars that offer training opportunities in areas such as open content licensing, online tools/open sources software applications for creating or repurposing OER, and more. Webinars will be scheduled for 50 minutes, and can be offered in any language, at any hour of the day. We recommend you present for no more than 20-30 minutes, leaving the remaining time for discussion with participants.

Open Education Week has a webinar platform you can use, or you can host your webinar on your own platform and provide us with the login details to publicize on the Open Education Week website. We will provide links to archived webinars once they are completed, so if you use your own platform, please be sure to record your webinar and send us the link to the archive. All webinars using the Open Education Week webinar platform will be recorded, and the archive will be available under an open license for a minimum of 6 months following Open Education Week 2013.

How do I contribute basic resources?

Create or share existing text- or video-based, downloadable information that’s helpful in understanding open education or in implementing open educational practices. This should be information on the open education movement, in any language, appropriate for introducing the movement and its important concepts to a variety of audiences. Specific information on your project can be linked to from the openeducationweek.org website.

What do you mean by a local event?

Sponsor or host an in-person event in your local area during the week of 11-15 March 2013. This could be a community discussion, a forum on open education, a challenge and/or a celebration. We invite you to get creative with planning events. The planning group is happy to work with you to to conceptualize your event and create bigger impact. Local events will be featured on the Open Education Week schedule, so be sure to give us a full description of your event and a link to the livecast if you are planning to offer this.

How do I organize a working group?

Invite your colleagues to gather in person or online to address a common problem or opportunity during the week of 11-15 March 2013. There may be some tool you want to create or a plan/procedure to develop—anything where several people working together can make a difference. Suggestions and support will be available on the open education week site and the planning group is happy to work with you to create bigger impact. The details of your working mode will be featured on the Open Education Week schedule, so be sure to give us information about how your group plans to proceed.

Who do I contact if I have more questions?

English FAQ