As part of Open Education Week (OE Week), and in collaboration with our friends at the UNESCO RELIA Chair and the UNITWIN-UNOE network, we published one (sometimes two) article(s) per day throughout the month of March, each presenting a compelling reason to embrace Open Education (OE). The goal of this initiative was to give a voice to the international OE community and emphasize the global relevance of adopting OE, both on an individual and organizational level.
In total, 31 authors took part in the project, writing 26 articles – 23 reasons, an introduction, a conclusion, and an epilogue – in 8 original languages. We extend our heartfelt thanks to all of them for making this initiative a true success!
To read (or reread) these articles, we invite you to explore this recap, which lists all the contributions in order of publication. Enjoy your reading!
February 12, 2025
23 good reasons… to adopt open education
EUniWell, with the UNESCO Chair RELIA and the UNITWIN-UNOE network, participates to the Open Education Week 2025, (and even Month). Join us from March 3rd to discover every day a new reason to adopt open education…
February 12, 2025
March 3, 2025
Translation and localisation
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Glenda Cox discusses the important topic of localisation within the context of open education. The topic is particularly meaningful when you adopt a global perspective and look at education from a variety of points of vie
March 3, 2025
March 4, 2025
Promote quality
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for open education series, Magdalena Spaude gives us five good reasons for which OER improve quality: they serve as inspiration, they can be customized, they enable feedback, they promote cooperation and are sustainable. Magdalena works in the Prorectorate for Teaching and Studies…
March 4, 2025
March 4, 2025
Access to varied knowledge
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Sophie Depoterre and Yves Deville revisit the words “variety” and “wealth” in order to convince us that Open Education achieves just that. Sophie and Yves run the OER programs at UC Louvain, in Belgium, recognized as one of…
March 4, 2025
March 5, 2025
Respond fast to tech challenges
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Belén García-Manrubia tells us how and why Open Educational Practices are able to respond faster to the challenges of fast-changing technologies. As Belén puts it: “Only in this way can we move towards a more agile, inclusive…
March 5, 2025
March 6, 2025
Encouraging autonomy
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Paul Stacey discusses autonomy. Paul Stacey, from Canada, has taken several key roles in the promotion of Open Education over the years and is today an independent researcher and consultant. Paul’s main message could be “At a time…
March 6, 2025
March 7, 2025
Development of evaluative judgement
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Loubna Terhzaz discusses the question of evaluative judgement. It has become important with the advent of generative AI; Loubna argues that open education gives more opportunities to develop this skill. Loubna Terhzaz is a professor at Mohammed V…
March 7, 2025
March 10, 2025
Separate fake from truth
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Mitja Jermol discusses the crucial issue of truth and fake. Mitja is UNESCO Chair in Slovenia and very much involved in IRCAI. He is the promoter of the fantastic “Open Education for a Better World”, a hugely inspiring…
March 10, 2025
March 11, 2025
Favour equity
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Rob Farrow explores how equity issues can be tackled -at least in part- through open educational practices. “Equity is fundamentally about fairness, which requires recognizing that different students face different challenges.” Rob Farrow is both Senior Research Fellow…
March 11, 2025
March 11, 2025
Achieving sustainable education
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Marianne Dubé shows the path to have a more sustainable -or durable- education. She suggest four open pillars for this: 1) Access to quality content, 2) using OER, 3) an approach based on the learners and…
March 11, 2025
March 12, 2025
Contribute to the reputation of universities
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Katalin Monzéger lists a number of ways through which Universities can benefit from adopting OER. Katalin observes, for example, that “Regarding the reputation of the institution, OERs can attract further students who can take part in a course…
March 12, 2025
March 13, 2025
Diminish costs
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Matthieu Cisel relates the question of OER with the emergence of generative AI. Matthieu Cisel is an assistant professor at Cergy Paris University (France), and, after having written a remarkable -and remarked- PhD on MOOCs, is now engaged…
March 13, 2025
March 14, 2025
Incentivize collaboration
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Collaboration is the key word. Collaboration can take many forms. In this case we are fortunate that Darrion Letendre and Robert Lawson from NorQuest College (Canada) introduce the topic, with a very special perspective.
March 14, 2025
March 17, 2025
Recognize teachers’ work
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Anne-Catherine Baseilhac discusses the ways in which Open Educational Practices can contribute to teachers recognition. Anne-Catherine leads the Nantes Université (France) Fabrique REL (“OER Factory”), and is an enthusiastic promoter and disseminator of Open Educational Resources.
March 17, 2025
March 18, 2025
Sharing knowledge
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Benedetta Calonaci explores perhaps the most fundamental reason for which we open education: the desire to share knowledge. Sharing never is easy. But open educators believe it is the right goal. Benedetta is a librarian at Università di…
March 18, 2025
March 18, 2025
Contribute to public service
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Pierre-Antoine Gourraud defends the idea that open education is in the benefit of public service. He also remarks that open educators accept to lose control: and this is indeed an essential component of their success. Pierre-Antoine is a…
March 18, 2025
March 19, 2025
Incentivize original thinking
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Djaine Damiati, Débora Sebriam and Isabela Campos Menezes give us a historical background to creative thinking and argue that open education gives the right setting for this to happen. Djaine Damiati, Débora Sebriam and Isabela Campos Menezes are…
March 19, 2025
March 20, 2025
Build a sustainable education system
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Javiera Atenas reflects on what a sustainable educational system could be like. This leads her to take a holistic approach and Javiera covers here the entire spectrum of openness. Born in Chile and having worked in Spain and…
March 20, 2025
March 21, 2025
Deal with agency issues
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Dorothy Laubscher explains how open practices allow agency to be exercised. And Dorothy advocates that this is particularly important in the Global South. Dorothy holds the UNESCO Chair on Multimodal Learning and OER at North-West University, in South…
March 21, 2025
March 24, 2025
Assess fairly
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Lilia Cheniti argues in favour of open assessment. She has explored a variety of open schemes and explains here how to go open for assessment. Lilia teaches at Sousse University, Tunisia and represents her university in the UNOE…
March 24, 2025
March 25, 2025
Defend the author’s rights
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Jacques Dang talks about authorship and defending the author’s legitimate rights. Recognizing authorship matters and open educational resources offers a number of features which allow this. Jacques occupies several positions in the Francophone world relating to open education….
March 25, 2025
March 25, 2025
Support creativity
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Christian Lachapelle and Paul Lyonnaz investigate the relationship between openness and creativity. As they put it, “OER are all designated as tools for engaging students in their learning, due to their adaptability, openness and accessibility qualities”. Christian Lachapelle…
March 25, 2025
March 26, 2025
Control commercialization of education
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Catherine Lachaîne leads the charge against open washing. Catherine shows how, especially in the North American context, costs are strong and only OER propose a truly free model. Catherine Lachaîne works as a librarian at Ottawa University, Canada…
March 26, 2025
March 27, 2025
Defend freedom in teaching and learning
In today’s entry to the 23 good reasons for Open Education series, Jeremy Kidwell gives us an overview on how open education (OE) allows teachers and learners to ensure wide and democratic access to learning. OE can provide cultural and digital infrastructure to open up universal learning as a common…
March 27, 2025
March 28, 2025
Advancing Open Learning: The Dubai Declaration and UNESCO Open Education Chairs for Accessible, Adaptable, and Relevant Learning
In 2019, UNESCO enabled Open Educational Resources to become a shared goal of the international community, by having its Recommendation adopted. Among the authors of the twenty-three reasons, several participated in the work leading up to this essential document, and some hold UNESCO Chairs whose subject is open education. It…
March 28, 2025
March 31, 2025
Open Education for Well-Being
Epilogue – As the month of March is not over yet, we still have one more article to offer you. Open education is an important topic for the EUniWell European Alliance, which is sharing this operation. Beatrix Busse (University of Cologne, Germany) and Arnaud Guével (Nantes Université, France) have agreed…
March 31, 2025
