Dear OER friends and colleagues,

We are happy to announce a pan-European initiative around MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) called OpenupEd.

A press release about this initiative was published on April 23 by the European Commission and is available in 22 languages at http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-349_en.htm.

This initiative will officially be launched by an international online press event on Thursday, April 25.

You can view the event online at www.ou.nl/moocs. Media wishing to participate in the chat discussion should register in advance on this site.

At the start OpenupEd will offer around 40 courses, covering a wide variety of subjects, will be available free of charge and in 12 different languages.

Currently, the portal http://www.openuped.eu/ is already approachable providing some background information. The list of courses and other information will be available on April 25.

Fred Mulder

Chair EADTU Task Force on Open Education                       

(UNESCO Chair in Open Educational Resources at the Open Universiteit in the Netherlands)