On October 9th and 10th 2024, the Open Education for a Better World held its strategic meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia. This gathering of OE4BW hub coordinators focused on exploring the latest trends and practices in open education, with a special emphasis on the role of artificial intelligence tools in advancing innovation in the field.

The meeting’s core topic revolved around how AI can make education more innovative, accessible and equitable. Prof. Wayne Holmes from UCL and a researcher at IRCAI, highlighted the opportunities and challenges of integrating AI into educational settings, particularly its potential to improve open educational practices and broaden the access to educational resources. 

Mr. Joost Groot Kormelink from TU Delft discussed better integration of OER in higher education, particularly in underdeveloped African regions. Prof. Ajita Deshmukh from MIT ADT University shared how OERs are transforming education in India. Dr. Borut Stojilković from Slovenia’s Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation emphasized the growing importance of micro-credentials in Slovenia in promoting lifelong learning.

A standout moment of the second day was the presentation by the Green Button Journey project, a mobile app designed by young creators (Ana Neja Pfeifer, Hana Leben, Primož Dornik, Klemen Kavčič and Katarina Perman) to teach environmental awareness, developed under the mentorship of Suzana Leben as part of the Hub Youth, which is coordinated by Ervin Pfeifer.

Concluding the meeting, the OE4BW hub coordinators agreed on expanding the global network of OER developers and introducing more capacity-building workshops. They also expressed hope that the 3rd UNESCO World OER Congress in November 2024 will elevate the importance of open education worldwide.

In November 2024 we are preparing two key events:

• The OE4BW Open Call for new OER developers will be announced in the beginning of November 2024.
• The OE4BW Eduscope 2024, the final conference of the 2023/2024 season, where OER developers will showcase their projects.

The meeting was organized by the University of Nova Gorica and the UNESCO Chair on Open Technologies for Open Educational Resources and Open Education, which is managed by IRCAI, the International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence under the auspices of UNESCO at the Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI).