Digital Educational Resources (BR0089)

Lead government institution Ministry of Education Civil servant in charge for implementing at lead government institution Marlucia Amaral Position - Department General Coordinator/ Media and Digital Content Coordination E-mail marlucia.amaral@mec.gov.br Telephone 55 61 2022 9490 Other involved actors Government Ministry of Education Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) Educational Development National Fund (FNDE) Educational Research National Institute(INEP) Secretary of Education of the State of Ceará Secretary of Education of the State of Acre Civil society, private sector, group of workers and multilateral actors Educational Action Innovation Center for Brazilian Education EducaDigital Veduca Status quo or problem/issue to be addressed Need to have a bigger structure for the digital educational resources Main objective To incorporate the potential of digital culture into the educational policy, in order to foster the autonomy for continuous utilization, and adaptation of digital educational resources, valuing the plurality and diversity of Brazilian education. Commitment short description A national mobilization for a network establishment, in order to have evaluation benchmarks andRED's decentralized curatorial process. OGP Challenge addressed by the Commitment More effective public resources management Improving Public Services Commitment relevance Relevant for the use of digital educational resourcesin a dynamic and objective way, which will value the plurality and diversity of Brazilian education Goal Overcome difficulties related to the lack of infrastructure, teachers´ training, content making and digital resources, with the goal of having a new RED model for evaluation, acquisition, development and distribution.

J 6. Digital Educational Resources

Commitment Text:

Establish a new model for assessing, purchasing, fostering and distributing Digital Educational Resources (RED), in the context of digital culture

The commitment seeks to incorporate the potential of digital culture into the educational policy, in order to foster the use of digital educational resources. In this context, the commitment built aims to overcome difficulties related to the lack of infrastructure, teachers´ training, content making and digital resources, with the goal of having a new RED model for evaluation, acquisition, development and distribution.

6.1 – National mobilization through regional meetings, for establishing a network with researchers, managers, teachers and entrepreneurs, in order to produce evaluation benchmarks and RED's decentralized curatorial process

6.2 – Network established

6.3 – Evaluation parameters and curatorship propositions are designed by the Network participants

6.4 – Evaluation platform and a set of plural and diverse digital educational resources release, prioritizing their continuous use and adaptation

6.5 – New acquisition model proposal submission for public consultation

Responsible institution: Ministry of Education

Supporting institutions: Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), Educational Development National Fund (FNDE), Educational Research National Institute(INEP), Secretary of Education of the State of Ceará, Secretary of Education of the State of Acre, Educational Action, Innovation Center for Brazilian Education, EducaDigital, Veduca

Start date: December 2016.. End date: June 2018

Editorial note: This commitment is a starred commitment because it is measurable, is clearly relevant to OGP values, has a transformative potential impact, and is substantially or completely implemented.

Context and Objectives

The Brazilian government spends significantly on educational resources and has fielded a growing demand for more diversity and inclusion in educational material production and consumption.[1] This commitment aims to foster the use of digital educational resources. This will be achieved by establishing a new model for assessing, purchasing, fostering, and distributing open educational resources (OER). This new model could address the current lack of infrastructure, training, content production, and digital material related to OER.

'OER' broadly refers to educational materials used for teaching, learning, and research in any medium, digital or otherwise. These materials reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits free access, use, adaptation, and redistribution with limited or no restrictions.[2] OER must be based on a copyright framework that incentivizes the shared use of, commenting on, editing of, and distribution of educational materials.[3] Thus, complying with the copyright framework of the country constitutes one of the many challenges in delivering such materials as a governmental policy.[4]

The commitment’s level of specificity is high. Few details exist about the expected characteristics of the new model for digital education resources. However, the government has outlined a clear process to finalize the details (e.g., the establishment of a collaborative network that will design the parameters).

The commitment is directly related to access to information and the use of technology and innovation, because OERs increase access to digital educational resources. The commitment is also relevant to civic participation because of the use of a participatory mechanism (including researchers, teachers, and entrepreneurs) to develop the model.

The commitment has a transformative potential impact, because it would create a formal framework to expand the adoption of OER materials in the country. OER is an active area of research[5] and is heavily promoted by civil society.[6] Still, the government has adopted it in ad hoc cases.[7] Among its benefits, OER incentivizes the production and collaboration of new formats of learning, such as the educational game platform REMAR.[8] OER also increases the availability of training opportunities for teachers,[9] allows linking educational materials through a community of content,[10] and is supported by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization as a solution to make universities more accessible.[11] Researchers have identified other positive consequences, such as significant cost savings and greater student enthusiasm, engagement, and confidence.[12]

By providing a legal framework for the government purchase and use of OER, the commitment has the potential to (1) address an important demand of civil society and government agencies and (2) reap the benefits of OER listed above. Namely, Brazil would benefit from the reduced cost of public services, increased reach of educational materials, and diversity of sources and points of views.[13]

Completion

The commitment has seen substantial completion.

The government has engaged in national mobilization around the establishment of a participatory network. This network would develop evaluation benchmarks and a decentralized curatorial process for digital educational resources (milestones 6.1 and 6.2). The Center for Innovation in Brazilian Education – a non-profit association that uses innovation and technology to promote greater equality, quality, and contemporaneity in Brazilian public education – led the mobilization process. That process included periodic meetings (mostly monthly), with participation from both government and civil society representatives.[14] Two interviews from the civil society representatives (one from Unicamp, one from University of São Paulo) confirmed that the commitment resulted in the engagement of several actors.

The government presented a draft version of the methodology to analyze and curate digital educational materials (milestone 6.3)[15] in April 2017 at the Ministry of Education. Academics and civil society representatives participated.[16] The government presented a new version in July 2017. That action led to the creation of a working group on the topic. The government also presented part of the material at the 2nd World OER Congress in Slovenia, which was organized by United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization and the Commonwealth of Learning.[17]

The government had undertaken the creation of a platform with digital educational resources (milestone 6.4) at the time of writing. The government presented a draft version of the platform to more than 30 specialists from government and civil society in April 2017.[18] The terms of use were being developed with the participation of the civil society organization Educadigital Institute.[19]

At the time of writing, the submission of a new acquisition model for these digital educational resources (milestone 6.5) had not been initiated. Nonetheless, according to the timeline for implementation in the commitment text, this commitment remains on schedule.

Early Results (if any)

The civil society representatives interviewed by the IRM researcher (Colab and NIED/Unicamp) expressed their support for this commitment. As the interviewees argued, the use of open education resources lowers costs by avoiding repurchases of educational materials.[20] They stated that the use of these resources also enables better oversight of government purchases with public resources.[21] The interviewees noted that the use of open education resources further reduces the incentives to misuse copyrighted material.[22]

As for concrete results, the high level of civil society participation in the early stages of the commitment constitutes an important step forward. However, the main impact of the commitment depends on the release of the portal with open education resources (https://portalmec.c3sl.ufpr.br/home). It also depends on the information on related social media channels, and the release and use of a new government acquisition model for digital education resources. The government had not completed these deliverables at the time of this evaluation. The full results of the commitment will therefore be assessed in the upcoming IRM end-of-term report.

Next Steps

Besides the full implementation of the commitment, possible next steps include evaluating the use of digital education resources to lower the cost of education[23] and fight corruption in the procurement of resources.[24] The new model of acquisition for digital education resources also represents an opportunity to promote active transparency more broadly and to adopt principles of open contracting in education.[25] The government should also map the impact of digital education resources on important outcomes such as inclusion and school attendance rates.

6. Digital Educational Resources

Commitment Text:

Establish a new model for assessing, purchasing, fostering and distributing Digital Educational Resources (RED), in the context of digital culture.

The commitment seeks to incorporate the potential of digital culture into the educational policy, in order to foster the use of digital educational resources. In this context, the commitment built aims to overcome difficulties related to the lack of infrastructure, teachers´ training, content making and digital resources, with the goal of having a new RED model for evaluation, acquisition, development and distribution.

More specifically, the commitment was set out to achieve the following milestones:

6.1 – National mobilization through regional meetings, for establishing a network with researchers, managers, teachers and entrepreneurs, in order to produce evaluation benchmarks and RED's decentralized curatorial process

6.2 – Network established

6.3 – Evaluation parameters and curatorship propositions are designed by the Network participants

6.4 – Evaluation platform and a set of plural and diverse digital educational resources release, prioritizing their continuous use and adaptation

6.5 – New acquisition model proposal submission for public consultation

Responsible institution: Ministry of Education

Supporting institutions: Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), Educational Development National Fund (FNDE), Educational Research National Institute (INEP), Secretary of Education of the State of Ceará, Secretary of Education of the State of Acre, Educational Action, Innovation Center for Brazilian Education, EducaDigital, Veduca

Start Date: December 2016...                                     End Date: June 2018

Commitment Aim:

This commitment aimed to foster the use of digital educational resources. This would be achieved by establishing a new model for assessing, purchasing, promoting, and distributing open educational resources (OER). “OER” broadly refers to educational materials used for teaching, learning, and research in any medium—digital or otherwise. This new model could address the current lack of infrastructure, training, content production, and digital material related to OER. These materials reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits free access, use, adaptation, and redistribution with limited or no restrictions. [29]

Status

Midterm: Substantial

The commitment saw substantial completion, and it was on schedule. The government completed Milestones 6.1–6.3. The government had engaged in national mobilization around the establishment of a participatory network. This network developed evaluation benchmarks and a decentralized selection process for producing, selecting, and evaluating digital educational resources (Milestones 6.1 and 6.2). The government also presented a draft version of the methodology to analyze and curate digital educational materials (Milestone 6.3). Milestone 6.4 was underway. The government had undertaken the creation of a platform with digital educational resources and was waiting to measure whether there was increased use . Milestone 6.5 had not been initiated.

End of term: Complete

The government completed all milestones by the end of the term.

Milestone 6.4 involves the delivery of an evaluation platform for open educational resources (OER) and the release of diverse digital educational resources. The digital platform [30] was started during the launch of a broad policy program to promote the use of connectivity and digital tools in schools (Presidential Decree 9.204/17). [31] The website allows users to search for OER materials, OER online courses, and collections created by government and/or citizens. There are 28,000 OER materials already on the platform. [32] Future plans include allowing users to upload their own OER materials and having their uploads curated by other educational experts.

Milestone 6.5 calls on the government to write a new acquisition model of OER materials and to submit this draft for public consultation. The material was created, and consultation took place in at least two public hearings. [33] Both hearings featured positive feedback from citizens. [34]

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Outstanding

Civic Participation: Major

The commitment aimed to transform the wide support for open educational resources (OER) into policy changes and to share OER materials. The OER community supported the project. This community includes not only government members, but also civil society groups that, since 2008, have hosted the REA.br network. The network represents one of the first initiatives in Brazil to foster open education and the use of open educational resources. [35]

The achievements of the commitment include not only a legal mandate that the government acquire OER materials in schools, but also evidence of the following key contributions to open government: (a) Government funds have been allocated to purchase OER. This purchase constitutes the largest purchase order for open educational resources in 2019. The purchase directly benefits more than 100,000 schools and 29 million students. [36] (b) Government funds have been allocated to invest further in the OER platform. This investment includes 4 million reais (around $1 million US) to allow users to upload content and have their material evaluated by educators and other experts. [37] (c) Partnerships have been established with more than 15 portals from the private sector and civil society organizations (CSOs) to deliver OER materials to their own networks of educators and students. [38] (d) The government promoted co-creation of deliverables and opportunities with CSOs. [39] This effort included hosting an active working group that met regularly. [40] (e) The government also promoted the Brazilian experience abroad and collected OER best practices in international forums. [41]

There was other evidence of the commitment’s results: The government drafted a policy provision to promote the use of creative common licenses in educational materials and research grants funded with public resources. [42] It created best practices and guidelines for educators and students to understand how to promote OER practices in their institutions. [43] The government also drafted a presidential decree that associates the use of OER with connectivity and internet use in schools. [44]

The progress on access to information can be coded as outstanding, considering that the advances in open data in the government involved a cultural change. That change included reducing the cost of making public service information available to citizens (e.g., educational materials are available online by default and can be reedited by educators as necessary). The change also involved making data in education open by default. The new status quo moves the transparency agenda one step further (e.g., open processes become the rule regarding how public service is delivered, rather than the exception). Evidence of the paradigm change includes the allocation of a budget to invest in OER rather than copyrighted (and not freely distributed online) materials. Evidence is also demonstrated by the use of civic mechanisms of participation and co-creation fora to promote the use of these resources.

Carried Forward?

This commitment did not carry over into the following action plan. The overall area of the commitment was not included as one of the top areas for consultation in the new action plan. This omission might indicate that the open government culture is well implemented in this case, as government and civil society actors have been working on OER since 2003. [45]