Open Society Education Resources Online

ESP maintains an online resource of position papers, resource links, specialist contacts, case studies, distance training courses, modules for degree programs, and other materials on several topics. The resources are all available free of charge. For more information please visit www.espblackboard.org.

This effort aims to reach a wide range of policymakers, educators, and service providers in education. Resources include position papers, resource links, specialist contacts, case studies, distance training courses, modules for degree programs, and other materials. Current topics are:

• Anticorruption, Transparency and Accountability Resource Pack
  The Anti-Corruption, Transparency & Accountability Resource Pack provides a short overview of OSI supported anti-corruption initiatives in education, materials from the "2004 Transparency and Accountability in Education" study tour and presentations from different countries on issues of transparent governance and corruption related problems in education. Links to anti-corruption web sites can also be found here.
• Assessment in Education
  The Resource Pack on education assessment draws on international experiences in the introduction of assessment and examination reforms. It contains key resources on education assessment and examination, provides quick reference to international organizations and a network of experts involved in assessment, and has a collection of case studies and country matrixes on assessment practices and policy issues. Some of these resources are also available in Russian.
• Communicating Education Reform
  The Resource Pack on Communicating Education Reform draws from OSI experience in education and media development and is designed to assist agents of change in the education reform process. The Resource Pack is intended for communicators in governments and civil society and news reporters, with different products and tools developed for each audience. The products are offered online, as hard copies, as training modules and events, or as a combination of the three.
• Education Policy Resources
  The Education Policy Resource Pack consists of position paper, tutorials on Education Policy Reforms and Education Policy Analysis; directories of OSI-related networks of education policy centers; an education policy resource guide; inventory of education policy analysis; case studies of good practice, lessons learned from the OSI network; examples of syllabuses of education policy training; links to training organizations and other resources.
• Evaluation and Case Studies
  The Evaluation Resource Pack contains an extensive collection of study materials on the evaluation of education projects and examples of actual evaluation reports from the Soros Foundation Network. All learning modules on the evaluation of education projects are available in English and Russian. The modules focus around the issues of evaluation design, methodology, planning, managing and carrying out evaluations. Quick reference to organizations involved in evaluation work and a collection of links to evaluation resources is available in this pack.
• Managing Consultancy in Education
  The Resource Pack on Managing Consultants provides an overview of the main issues that need to be considered in engaging and managing consultants. This Resource Pack serves as an informational package for Consultants and Managers of Consultancy offering links to Consultant Referral Networks and is a good starting point in the process of obtaining relevant information on education reform in SEE Countries.
• Resource Pack on Roma Education
  These resources on the education of Roma children draws from OSI's and other NGOs' experience in the field of Roma education. In this Resource Pack you can find a collection of web-links, an electronic library which house documents and papers dealing with the education of Roma children, "Roma Education Resource Books" which are anthologies of articles relevant to the education of Roma children in areas such as language and culture, methods and practice, and overviews and policy issues. There are also conference proceedings, suggested reading list and details of professional networks and expertise. http://www.osi.hu/esp/rei/resources.html 
• Teaching and Learning Materials Resource Pack (coming soon)
  This Resource Pack will offer explanation of the complex set of Teaching and Learning Materials issues, including policy, financing, publishing, quality evaluation, provision system, content, and in particular the OSI perspective. The Resource Pack will include policy recommendations for countries with different levels of wealth, sizes of population, language issues, minority groups, existing publishing structures and so on. Examples of national documents related to textbooks which will be collected: tender documents and procedures, evaluation procedures and criteria, textbook rental schemes, distribution models.

Highlights of Open Society Education Resources Online