Current State of Open Educational Resources in the “Belt and Road” Countries

Ronghuai Huang is currently a Professor in Faculty of Education and Dean of Smart Learning Institute in Beijing Normal University, the Director of UNESCO International Rural Educational and Training Centre and the Director of National Engineering Lab for Cyberlearning and Intelligent Technology. He serves as Vice Chairman of China Association for Educational Technology; Vice Chairman of China Educational Equipment Industry Association; Deputy Director of Collaborative and Innovative Center for Educational Technology; Director of Digital Learning and Public Education Service Center; Director of Professional Teaching and Guiding Committee for Educational Technology; Director of Beijing Key Laboratory for Educational Technology.Dejian Liu is the founder of NetDragon Websoft Holding Ltd., one of the most successful online gaming companies in China. In 2015, he was awarded the Special Allowance Expert in China's State Council. In 2010, he founded Huayu Education, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NetDragon. Huayu integrates worldwide cutting-edge education resources with leading mobile internet technology. Huayu specializes in K-12 and life-long education for learners all over the world. Huayu Education recently earned a Smart Media Award from Academics' Choice for producing a top-quality product, 101 Education, which improves teachers' experience in preparing lessons. He is certified as a senior engineer by the China Association of Science and Technology, the highest level of proficiency awarded. He is co-dean and chair of the Council for the Smart Learning Institute, an academic department at Beijing Normal University. In this capacity, he teaches a course on Virtual Reality Applications in Education, and he co-teaches a doctoral-student seminar on virtual reality and Visualization in Education. Mr. Liu graduated with a B.S. from the University of Kansas in 1995.Ahmed Tlili is a former Assistant professor of educational technology at the University of Kairouan, Tunisia, where he has (co)supervised over 30 students and taught different subjects, including Human Computer Interaction (HCI), game development, web development and software engineering. Dr. Tlili is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University. He is currently leading teams in the fields of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Edutainment. Dr. Tlili is a member of IEEE, OER laboratory of Smart Learning Institute, China and the laboratory of Technologies of Information and Communication & Electrical Engineering (LaTICE), Tunisia. His current research interests include open learning, learning analytics, game-based learning, distance education, learner modeling, adaptive learning, artificial intelligence in education and educational psychology. Dr. Tlili has published several academic papers in international referred journals and conferences. He has served as a guest editor in the Smart Learning Environments journal, as a local organizing and program committee member in various international conferences, and as a reviewer in several refereed journals. Dr. Tlili is the co-chair of IEEE special interest group on Artificial Intelligence and Smart Learning Environments and APSCE's Special Interest Group on Educational Gamification and Game-based Learning (EGG). Dr. Tlili is also the editor of the Springer book entitled Data Analytics Approaches in Educational Games and Gamification Systems.Yuan Gao is the former director of Open Educational Resources Lab and senior researcher at the Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University. Her main research interests include development and implications of open educational resources, instructional design, teaching and learning in smart learning environments, educational technology, educational psychology, and foreign/second language learning and instruction. She has published widely in these disciplines, including inleading international journals such as the Journal of Educational Psychology. Since 2016, she attended and led a series of academic/research activities under the framework of ‘Belt and Road’ initiatives proposed by the Chinese Government. She has contributed to a number of publications related to open educational resources, and has been involved in establishing an international community of OER, which includes more than 60 organizations from 43 countries.Rob Koper is a distinguished (university) professor at the Open University of the Netherlands with a particular interest in the innovation of online education, including the use of learning analytics, learning designs, open education and big data. His research focuses on the social and cognitive aspects of human learning, the effective use of ICTs for human learning and the improvement of educational institutions to facilitate teaching and learning. He has written more than 400 contributions in scientific journalsand books, and has developed a number of different ICT systems to support learning and teaching.

• Forward.- Preface.- Part One: Introduction.- Chapter 1: The Belt and Road initiative and open educational resources.- Chapter 2: Framework for OER progression.- Chapter 3: Advancement of OER development in China.- Part Two: Case studies.- Chapter 4: Bulgaria (Krassen Stefenov).- Chapter 5: Lithuania (Airina Volungeviciene).- Chapter 6: Lebanon (Fawzi Baroud).- Chapter 7: Malaysia (Ramesh C. Sharma).- Chapter 8: New Zealand (Pending).- Chapter 9: Romania (Gabriela Grosseck).- Chapter 10: Russia (Irina Radchenko).- Chapter 11: Sri Lanka (Shironica P. Karunanayaka).- Chapter 12: Thailand (Thapanee Thammetar).- Chapter 13: South Africa (Brenda Mallinson).- Part Three: Conclusion and way forward.- Chapter 14: Conclusion.- Chapter 15: Future pathways.