Ressources Éducatives Libres et éducation ouverte : l’écosystème RELIEFH pour l’égalité femme-homme

Abstract

In our modern and globalized society, open educational resources (OER) are taking advantage of the digital revolution and networking to become one of the main propellants to free knowledge access movement that is covering a wide range of domains through multiple services and products. As parts of a worldwide educational ecosystem, OER and open education can provide wide access to information and education resources despite the extreme inequalities reported in digital empowerment and significant technological barriers to digital participation mainly in developing countries. In this article, we argue that while technological barriers must certainly be removed, the potential of OER and open education in the “Quality education” (the fourth of UN Sustainable Development Goals), can only be fully optimized when societal and economic inducements would also be guaranteed to girls and women to elevate their intellectual and professional status. We therefore focus on OER as a catalyst for gender equality and quality education in the Francophone context. Our main objective is to present a French-speaking OER editorial policy led by the Institut de la Francophonie pour l'Ingénierie de la Connaissance et la Formation à distance (IFEF) around its OER portal RELIEFH. Although OER in the French-speaking countries are recent and their tools and products are limited, IFEF is proposing a prominent educational service based on an open and collaborative editorial OER policy.