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 2905 published records by 4926 authors from 1030 sources, with 1747 file archives.
LATEST EDITORIAL NOTES
WHO OWNS AI-GENERATED CONTENT?
Dan Wilton · March 23, 2026
As a contribution to the "Sharing is a Challenge" series for OEWeek 2026 from the Unitwin Network on Open Education, the web article, Who Owns AI-Generated Content? by Rory McGreal, UNESCO/ICDE Chair in Open Educational Resources, addresses two "paralyzing concerns" regarding the use of AI-generated learning materials: the paralysis of legal uncertainty, and the crisis of trust in shared content.
"This article confronts these intertwined problems directly. We move beyond generic advice to address the specific apprehensions that hinder creators. Our goal is to demystify the legal landscape, provide current information on using shared material, and rebuild the confidence needed to engage with the digital commons—not recklessly, but with informed and empowered knowledge.
"Presently, a clear legal trend is emerging that strongly supports openness in education. The evolving copyright landscape for GenAI, characterized by the denial of protection for purely AI-generated works, aligns with fair use/dealing doctrines and statutory exceptions for education. This creates a novel and powerful foundation for a new class of fully accessible Open Educational Resources (OER), democratizing content creation and freeing it from traditional copyright restrictions."
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KILLED, NOT STARVED: DELIBERATE NEGLECT OF THE OERF A FAILURE OF INSTITUTIONAL DUTY TO OPEN EDUCATION
Dan Wilton · January 10, 2026
In December 2025, Te Pūkenga (New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology), the sole shareholder of the Open Education Resource Foundation (OERF), made the decision to disestablish the non-profit and end its services. The roles of the New Zealand UNESCO Chair in Open Educational Resources and the Open Source Technologist supporting Open Education at Otago Polytechnic were terminated.
Wayne Mackintosh describes in a detailed blog post how poor stewardship and neglect forced the self-funding OERF, responsible for several successful and award-winning initiatives including WikiEducator and the OERu, into technical insolvency. "The actions taken by the shareholder resulted in the Foundation no longer being able to continue operating as a self-funded entity, notwithstanding that it had done so for 14 years."
As a result, its services, including the open online courses hosted by the OERF, are expected to wind down by mid-2026, breaking long-standing commitments to the UNESCO OER Recommendation.
In a related post, Paul Bacsich provides a conversation with ChatGPT about the factors leading to the closure of the ...
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.
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RECENT RECORDS
Who Owns AI-Generated Content?
McGreal, Rory
The rapid emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has ignited profound legal and ethical debates within open and online education. At the heart of these debates lies a critical question: who owns ...
Posted March 23, 2026
The Impact of an Interactive Open Education Textbook for an Undergraduate Introductory Chemistry Course for Nonmajors
Avram, Erin M. G.
Reading informational text is a critical skill across most professions. Unfortunately, students are less likely to purchase the required course materials now compared to 2010. A free, interactive text was developed for ...
Posted March 23, 2026
Offene Bildungsressourcen (OER) und Bildung für Nachhaltige Entwicklung (BNE) an österreichischen Hochschulen
Jakob, Jennifer; Schön, Sandra; Ebner, Martin; Gabriel, Sonja; Liebhart-Gundacker, Michaela; Ruffeis, Dominik
Die Technische Universität Graz (TU Graz) und die Kirchliche Pädagogische Hochschule (KPH) Wien/Niederösterreich positionieren sich klar im Bereich der Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung (BNE) und den Sustainable ...
Posted March 23, 2026
Cultivating DEIA Skills in Open Education Research: The Impact of Targeted Fellowship Support
Clinton-Lisell, Virginia; Roberts-Crews, Jasmine
In order to conduct effective research in open education, one needs skills in diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. To address this need, a DEIA expert provided consultation to the members and mentor of a ...
Posted March 23, 2026
Governing Open Educational Resources as Sustainable Knowledge Commons: A Policy and Institutional Framework for Higher Education
Alsuhaymi, Adeeb Obaid; Atallah, Fouad Ahmed
Open Educational Resources (OER) are widely promoted as mechanisms for expanding access to knowledge and supporting sustainability in higher education. Yet their long-term viability remains constrained by fragmented ...
Posted March 21, 2026
Experiences of Online Faculty Members Using Open Pedagogy to Support Social Justice
Ashman, Melissa
The COVID-19 pandemic was a pivotal, high impact period in the history of modern education. Seemingly overnight, institutions, programs, and classes around the world moved from being in-person to being online. The ...
Posted February 23, 2026
Beyond Open Access: Open Educational Resources for Legal Clarity, Sustainability, and Digital Sovereignty in European University Alliances
Schön, Sandra; Ebner, Martin
Open educational resources (OER) are widely recognized for improving access to education and enabling the sharing of knowledge. However, in the context of European university alliances such as Unite!, OER offer ...
Posted February 10, 2026
