THE OER KNOWLEDGE CLOUD
A SURVEY AND REPOSITORY OF OER RESEARCH
The OER Knowledge Cloud is a curated database and repository to identify, collect, preserve and disseminate documents related to open educational resources. There are currently 2890 published records by 4901 authors from 1024 sources, with 1738 file archives.
LATEST EDITORIAL NOTES
DIAMOND DREAMS, UNEQUAL REALITIES: THE PROMISE AND PITFALLS OF NO-APC OPEN ACCESS
Dan Wilton · October 23, 2025
Maryam Sayab, Director of Communications at the Asian Council of Science Editors (ACSE), has written a blog post on the promises and pitfalls of publishing as a Diamond OA journal, launching a critical conversation for Open Access Week. She argues that:
"... the scholarly community risks embracing a 'utopian ideal' of free publishing without grappling with the structural realities that make it viable.... The result is a paradox: in regions where the promise of diamond OA is most urgently needed to break down paywalls and amplify underrepresented scholarship, the conditions for sustaining it are least available."
She asks, "... not how many journals are diamond, but how many can endure, and what we, as a global community, are willing to do to ensure they do."
Sayab's full blog post and accompanying discussion are available here.
International Open Access Week, Who Owns Our Knowledge, runs from October 20 to 26, 2025.
...
DECREE ON THE DEVELOPMENT, USE, AND MANAGEMENT OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES IN HIGHER EDUCATION: VIETNAM
Dan Wilton · August 28, 2025
The Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has issued a Decree on the development, use, and management of Open Educational Resources (OER) in higher education in Vietnam. An unofficial English translation (for academic and reference purposes only) is now available on the OER Knowledge Cloud.
From Article 1:
This Decree regulates the development, evaluation, publication, sharing, use, and management of Open Educational Resources (OER) in higher education in Vietnam. It establishes policies, mechanisms, and technical standards to ensure the quality of materials, openness, fair and long-term access, and effective use across the higher education system....
OE WEEK AT CIDER CELEBRATES 25 YEARS OF OA INNOVATION
Dan Wilton · March 08, 2025
During Open Education Week 2025, CIDER hosted a special series of sessions to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (IRRODL). Recordings of all three sessions are available.
March 3: Retrospective on Open Access Publishing
Rory McGreal
March 5: The Evolution of Open and Distributed Learning
Connie Blomgren and Terry Anderson
March 7: Emerging Technologies in International Education
Adnan Qayyum and Levina Yuen
Download the OE Week 2025 overview.
...ADD TO THE CLOUD
OERSI: OER DATABASE
The Cloud is a database of OER research. If you are looking for a search index for OER, visit OERSI.
PRESENTATION
September 2025 · UNESCO/ICDE Chair Professor Rory McGreal speaks to faculty at the University of Regina in Canada.
RECENT RECORDS
Textbook Affordability Matters: World Language Faculty Perspectives on Open Educational Resources (OER) Implementation and Challenges
Pak, Chin-Sook; Brunet, Marie-Line
Textbook affordability is a significant concern for college students facing the financial burdens of higher education in the United States. For World Language programs already grappling with enrollment challenges, ...
Posted October 23, 2025
Diamond Dreams, Unequal Realities: The Promise and Pitfalls of No-APC Open Access
Sayab, Maryam
When Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation announced it was being wound down in 2025, the decision stunned many in the open science community. In an editorial letter published that April, the journal’s founding ...
Posted October 23, 2025
Faculty barriers to using open educational resources
LeMire, Sarah
As open educational resources (OER) have become increasingly popular in higher education in the United States, OER advocates continue to encourage faculty to consider switching to open textbooks in their classes. ...
Posted October 21, 2025
Open learning design for using open educational practices in high school learning contexts and beyond
Roberts, Verena
Purpose — There is a need for research that examines how digital networks can support all learners in open access to people, resources and experiences that were previously inaccessible in K-12 learning contexts. This ...
Posted October 20, 2025
CCH and the evolution of fair dealing in higher education
Zerkee, Jennifer
CCH directly paved the way for post-secondary institutions in Canada to manage copyright in-house, providing a viable alternative to increasingly expensive yet less and less valuable institutional licences from Access ...
Posted October 18, 2025
Building trust in open educational resources for multiliteracies in English and Applied Linguistics
Hautemo, Aletta Mweneni; Iithindi, Sylvia
The paper examines the issue of trust in adopting open educational resources (OER) to develop multiliteracies in the field of English and Applied Linguistics. The goal is to intentionally integrate best practices in ...
Posted October 18, 2025
A National Advocacy Framework for Open Educational Resources in Canada
McNally, Michael; Ludbrook, Ann
Canada’s Open Educational Resource (OER) landscape has known many successes, but manifests one notable gap. While provincial initiatives such as BCcampus and eCampusOntario are world leaders, Canadian academics are ...
Posted October 18, 2025
