Preface
Education for all is a bold, audacious statement. But that is the very goal of open education. Can you imagine a world where access to education materials is free? Where teachers and learners have the right to reuse, revise, remix, localize and translate those materials? Where copies of textbooks and course materials can be retained without cost? Can you imagine a world where teachers and learners co-create education together? A world where learners engage in assignments that generate global public goods benefiting everyone? You may say this isn’t possible, but open educators around the world have been doing this for years. Building on the work of luminaries such as those featured in this book, open education has grown into a global movement transforming education.
Open Education Global has acted as a steward and enabler of this global open education movement since 2008. In partnership with its hundreds of members worldwide and the global open education community, Open Education Global strives to ensure everyone, everywhere, has access to high-quality education.
Starting in 2011, as part of its stewarding role, Open Education Global has provided annual recognition to outstanding contributions in the global open education community, recognizing exemplary leaders, distinctive Open Educational Resources, and open projects and initiatives. As part of the 10th anniversary of these awards, OEGlobal is publishing this Education For All book collecting all ten years of award winners into a single volume. This book is a celebration of their achievements. We plan to update this book each year as a living document.
Each year Open Education Global opens up nominations for awards to the entire global open education community. Open Education Global’s Board of Directors selects individual award recipients. The other award categories are evaluated and set by a peer review committee comprised of past award winners and other open education leaders worldwide. Historically the awards are presented each year at Open Education Global’s annual conference. For this tenth anniversary year, we are organizing a special celebration of the awards separate from the conference. Open Education Global operates and maintains an Open Education Awards for Excellence website where information on awardees can be found, including links to their profiles, projects, and resources. The Award website is at https://awards.oeglobal.org/.
We hope Education For All inspires you. We hope you’ll reach out to award winners and thank them for their outstanding work. We hope you’ll explore and learn more about the many great resources, projects, and initiatives that have received awards over the years. And most of all we hope you will get involved with open education and help make education for all a reality.
