Summary

Conole’s editorial introduces the reader to the open educational resources (OER) discourse with an up-to-date overview of the research around OER, focusing on its relationship with social inclusion. In this introduction to the volume, the editorial team highlights the problems researchers are dealing with when trying to bridge the gap between OER theory and OER actual practices. 

By identifying social inclusion as a key challenge within digitality the editorial sets the tone for a special issue dedicated to the nexus of OER and social inclusion/exclusion Conole highlights the need to the research articles pubslished in this special issue of Distance Education, underlining the importance of the mentioned researchers aimint to close the gap between rhetoric and reality. This editorial provides a dense insight into the core problem regarding inclusive OER.