OEC announces the 2017 winners of the Open Education Awards for Excellence, Individual Awards

NEWTON, Mass. - Jan. 31, 2017 - PRLog -- The Open Education Awards for Excellence provide annual recognition to outstanding contributions in the Open Education community. The awards are presented by the Open Education Consortium's Board of Directors to recognize truly exceptional work and dedication to Open Education. Individual awards recognize career achievements in the two categories of Leadership & Educator.

This year, the Leadership Award is presented to two individuals that have demonstrated strong leadership, longstanding involvement, and whose contributions have spanned regions or had global impact on Open Education.

Jet Bussemaker, Minister of Education, Culture and Science for the Netherlands positioned open education as an important strategy of her policy. She started a structural granting programme, supporting bottom-up initiatives for universities. During the EU Presidency of the Netherlands (first half of 2016), she placed open education on the agenda.

Dr. Bakary Diallo, Rector of the African Virtual University (AVU), a pan-African project with 35 partner universities, is being recognized for his lifelong commitment to the expansion of educational opportunities. Through Dr. Diallo's leadership, the AVU has developed OER-based courses and degrees in math and science teacher education and in computer science.

The Educator Award is presented to an individual who has shown exceptional dedication to high quality teaching and learning and a commitment to the ideals of Open Education, namely: access, equity and opportunity. This year, we are pleased to present the award to Carmen Sarabia, a nurse, Doctor of Psychology and professor at the University of Cantabria in Spain. She is highly committed to Open Educational Resources (OER) in the field of Health Sciences and personal development. Her involvement with OER began in 2013 when she joined the Miríada X MOOC platform coordinating several courses. She has taught a total of 28 editions, 7 different MOOCs in Miríada X with more than 230,000 enrollments. In 2014, she won second prize of the Miríada X-SEGIB Latin American Award, for her MOOC "Strengthen your mind."

About the Open Education Awards for Excellence

The Open Education Awards for Excellence provide annual recognition to outstanding contributions in the Open Education Consortium community. These awards recognize distinctive open education sites, technological innovations, notable open courses, and exemplary leaders in Open Education worldwide.

About the Open Education Consortium

The Open Education Consortium is  a global network of educational institutions, individuals and organizations that support an approach to education based on openness, including collaboration, innovation, collective development and use of open educational materials. The Open Education Consortium is a non-profit, social benefit organization registered in the United States and operating worldwide. http://www.oeconsortium.org/