Professional Development

Below are some official open education professional development (PD) opportunities for librarians engaged in or supporting open education.

Single Certificates


CC Certificate Program

Hosted by: Creative Commons

The Creative Commons Certificate program offers in-depth courses about CC licenses, open practices and the ethos of the Commons. Courses are composed of readings, quizzes, discussions, and practical exercises to develop learners’ open skills. They provide personalized engagement with expert facilitators and copyright lawyers in the field, and offer a 1:25 (max) ratio of facilitators to course participants.

Semester-Long Courses

Open Education Leadership Program

Hosted by: SPARC

The SPARC Open Education Leadership Program is an intensive professional development program to empower academic professionals with the knowledge, skills, and connections to lead successful open education initiatives that benefit students. Launched in 2017, the two-semester program blends online, peer-to-peer, and project-based learning to build a comprehensive understanding of the open education field coupled with practical know-how to take action on campus and beyond. Structured as a fellowship, each cohort becomes a vibrant community of practice that is further enhanced by expert instructors and mentorship support.


Program for Open Scholarship and Education (POSE)

Hosted by: UBC

The Program for Open Scholarship and Education (POSE) is an online three-month flexible and blended program that will help you develop foundational knowledge of Open Scholarship, Open Education, and Open Research.

In POSE, you’ll be exploring how open copyright licenses, collaborative practices, and networked technologies have the potential to lower barriers to knowledge by making the processes and products of scholarship more distributed, transparent, and accessible.

POSE is intended for faculty, staff, postdocs, and students with an interest in open research, open access, open data and open education. The program is open and free for UBCO, UBCV, and non-UBC faculty, staff, and students at the post-secondary level.

Year-long Programs

Professional Program in Open Education (PPOE)

Hosted by: KPU

This comprehensive and flexible online program is designed to develop expertise and capacity across a broad spectrum of open educational practices, including open educational resources and pedagogies, educational technologies, policy, advocacy, and scholarship. The program balances both theoretical and practical elements, always ensuring that critical perspectives and issues are foregrounded.

This program is the ideal professional development opportunity for educators, practitioners, technologists, librarians, leaders, policymakers, and others who endeavour to widen equitable access to education. This program is designed to provide a comprehensive foundation for new practitioners as well as to complement and significantly advance the expertise of those already working to support open education. Graduates of other formal open education training opportunities may be given the option for advanced placement in this comprehensive program in order to build on and complement their existing training. This program is open to all and does not require institutional membership or sponsorship.