Purpose – In today’s globalized, networked and fast-changing environment, knowledge became invaluable asset for everyone – students, workers, and organizations. Life-long learning became crucial to the future of our society. In order to foster more effective and collaborative learning and knowledge exchange it is necessary to utilize modern information technologies and services. If used in the right way, information technology can transform and energize educational process, stimulate learning in anyplace and anytime, promote creative thinking, and make better use of existing individual and organizational resources. The rationale of this paper is to introduce the innovative open educational model and supporting software system which is capable to answer the major challenges of modern education. Design/methodology/approach – Although modern web technologies and open educational resources (OER) have great potential to bring new opportunities for learning and knowledge exchange, at the same time, developing successful OER systems is very challenging. Design of an innovative and open learning software environments needs a holistic approach, which comprises specific methodology, software architecture, and various services, applications and tools. This paper describes methodological approach, software architecture, services and features of the innovative software solution, which address important issues that face organizations when designing and implementing OER systems. The modular design and composite architecture enable flexibility in terms of the infrastructure and platform, available services, scalability, and integration. Originality/value – Traditional educational systems cannot completely meet current educational requirements. On the other hand, many of the existing OER and e-learning initiatives didn’t fulfil high expectations. The OER model proposed in this paper provides a novel approach to design and utilization of different cutting-edge technologies that are seamlessly combined to provide flexibility, scalability, personalization, collaboration, content management, searching, and social networking. The proposed OER model and software platform enables creation of agile and adaptable educational ecosystem that can transform the learning experience, and connect individuals, educational institutions and companies. Practical implications – The presented OER software architecture is multi-layered and seamlessly combines various services and technologies that enable creation of integrated and feature-rich open educational environments. It is a flexible, customizable, and extensible software environment that can support various OER scenarios. The new application model and software solution are architected and designed in such a way to provide the following advancements in terms of: alignment, agility, adaptivity, manageability, functionality, interoperability, performance, and security. This enables establishing flexible, adaptable, cost-effective and sustainable OER environment where individuals, educational institutions, companies and government collaborate, create, share and discover learning resources and knowledge.