OE4BW is an international online mentoring program supporting the development and implementation of freely accessible modules and resources for online education on topics with social impact according to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Proposals for the projects of OER development are collected with a global call. Accepted proposals are selected based on (1) their compatibility with SDGs, (2) social impact, (3) maturity of the idea, (4) capacity and commitment of the applicant to make the idea come true. In the continuation, selected applicants are supported on-line for six months by experts in OER design volunteering as mentors. Mentors are invited with a follow-up global call.
During the project development, the progress is being regularly followed and advice is given if needed. Developers and mentors communicate online on a weekly (or bi-weekly) basis. There are also two interim checkpoints planned to provide information about the progress to the organizers of the program. At the end of the program, the participants are obliged to prepare a presentation for the final event. They are invited and supported to come to the closing event to attend a workshop on OERdesign, exchange ideas, meet other OER developers and establish potential future cooperation.
The initiators (Tanja Urbančič, Mitja Jermol, Anja Polajnar) developed the international online mentoring programme Open Education for a Better World (OE4BW), which has been designed to unlock the potential of Open Education in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Initiators also manage the programme, which provides an innovative approach to building Open Educational Resources, connecting developers of educational materials with experts volunteering as mentors.
