26.11.2025, 04:00–04:45 o'clock (Europe/Berlin), Stage One
Open Educational Policies and Practices in Bangladesh—OERcamp cOERrespondents from around the wOERld. Bangladesh’s open education landscape has evolved remarkably since the establishment of Bangladesh Open University in 1992. However, the open educational practices gained momentum between 2018 and 2025—from pioneering institutional OER policies to nationwide digital learning initiatives serving millions of learners. In this session, Professor Mostafa Azad Kamal from Bangladesh Open University will share how these policies were shaped, what it took to build capacity across 20 universities, and what lessons emerge from implementing OER at a national scale. Together, we’ll explore how Bangladesh’s experience — combining government vision, academic leadership, and community collaboration — can inspire other countries working toward more open and equitable education systems.
Mostafa Azad Kamal is employed with Bangladesh Open University (BOU) as a Grade 1 Professor. Prior to that, he was the Treasurer of Bangladesh Open University and the Dean of the School of Business at BOU. He has spent the last 27 years participating in open and distance learning. He serves as the Country Representative for the Creative Commons Bangladesh Chapter. He is one of the mentors in the Open Education for Better World (OE4BW) initiative of UNESCO. His recent works mostly focus on research, awareness building, and policy development relating to Open and Distance Learning (ODL), eLearning, Open Educational Resources (OER), Open Education, and and Open Access. Throughout his career, Professor Mostafa has coordinated, supported, and evaluated a number of national and international projects pertaining to quality assurance, OER, blended learning, and ODL in higher education. Under the auspices of the Commonwealth of Learning and Commonwealth Educational Media Center for Asia (CEMCA), he contributed to the creation of the Open Educational Resources (OER) policies for the following institutions: Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU), Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM), Tamil Nadu Open University (TNOU), Bangladesh Open University, and the National OER Policy for Bangladesh. Recently, he facilitated the OER Capacity Building workshops for 1000 faculty members and officials from 20 universities in Bangladesh. He also helped these 20 universities develop their institutional OER Policies with the support from CEMCA. He contributed to Bangladesh's National Blended Education Initiative as an open education expert. In a number of projects supported by Commonwealth Learning (COL), UNESCO, Creative Commons, OXFAM, DFID, Verité, PWIBLF, Women's Empowerment, CEFM, Technology-enabled Learning (TEL), ODL, OER, eLearning, and capacity building, Professor Mostafa offered consulting assistance. As a communication specialist, he is currently supporting the Empowering Women and Girls Project, which is being carried out by CMES & SSS and funded by COL.
More than forty-two research papers and chapters have been published by Prof. Mostafa in various national and international journals, research books, and conference proceedings. He is the author of seven training modules, two guidebooks, and four books. As a keynote speaker, presenter, panelist, or trainer, he has participated in numerous domestic and international conferences, seminars, and workshops. He has visited several countries including Singapore, Sri Lanka, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, France, UK, Canada, USA, South Africa, Thailand, Japan, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Pakistan, Mauritius, Nigeria, Slovenia, India, Portugal, and Mexico.
Tina serves as Head of Viva con Agua Austria, a purpose-driven movement that activates people through music, art, and sport to help make clean drinking water accessible worldwide. A lifelong learner and curious mind, she brings a cross-cultural background shaped by work in China, India, Germany, and Austria, and a passion for social innovation and open education. She has contributed to several European open and digital education projects. Alongside her work, she mentors young people through Austria-wide youth entrepreneurship programs.