The rapid emergence and expansion of digital distance learning tools such as Open Educational Resources and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) offers considerable opportunities: properly exploited, these new resources can broaden access to education by enabling teaching and learning to take place virtually anywhere, thus increasing cost-efficiency and, by their very nature, fostering innovation in education.
However, these developments also raise important issues at both national and European level, such as quality assurance, recognition and accreditation, the promotion of innovative teaching and learning alongside more traditional forms, infrastructure and technical requirements. At a broader level, the EU is in danger of lagging behind other regions of the world in this field. Already much of the supply of digital content comes from outside Europe.