The creation of OpenCourseWare (OCW) by the MIT in 2001 can be considered as a milestone in the recent history of open educational resources (OER). Since then universities from around the world have adopted a set of associated open educational initiatives. After highlighting best practices in English speaking universities, this paper explores the current state of the OER movement in Latin American higher education (HE) institutions. Relevant open access initiatives are analyzed within this study in order to identify the strengths and opportunities of OER in Latin America.
An OER action research project, OportUnidad, founded by the European Commission is presented. This study, lead by a partnership of European and Latin American universities, aims to increase the awareness and institutional support of OER in Latin American HE. Based in this action-research project, this article analyses the impact of digital technologies in education, particularly regarding the generation, adoption and dissemination of educational content. The analysis also enquires whether recent open educational practices (OEP) promoted by universities such as Stanford, MIT or Harvard can leverage dynamics of innovation in HE. In addition, an overview is provided of the trends that are currently influencing the transformation in education in the Internet Era. The paper concludes by highlighting some of the challenges and conditions required to foster the adoption of OER in the Latin American region.