Advisory Group Meeting Fairview Hotel, Nairobi 21 & 22nd May, 2009

OER AfricaOER AfricaInto the FutureInto the Future

Advisory Group MeetingFairview Hotel, Nairobi

21 & 22nd May, 2009

Problem / Theory of ActionProblem / Theory of Action

African higher education institutions seriously structurally under-funded for the core function they are expected to discharge.

Therefore, corresponding paucity of institutional and individual capacity to teach in many domains of higher education.

Existing faculty overtaxed in timetime and abilityability to teach, reducing time available for ongoing program and materials development.

Advisory Group Meeting, Nairobi 221/05/2009

Problem / Theory of Action (2)Problem / Theory of Action (2)

Many higher education programs on the continent have inadequate funds to run programmes and meet the educational needs of enrolled students as well as cover the costs of faculty time required both to design and run quality learning experiences.

Too few learning resources for learners and lecturers in African universities, and many of those available are too expensive to be purchased by universities or students.


Much existing content available to and within African universities based on weak and largely outmoded educational design principles.

Limited ICT infrastructure to gain access to up-to-date information available on the Internet and participate in inter-institutional, geographically dispersed collaborative activities.

4Advisory Group Meeting, Nairobi

Problem / Theory of Action (3)Problem / Theory of Action (3)

21/05/2009

Key AssumptionsKey AssumptionsOER holds potential:1. To increase availability of high quality, relevant and

need-targeted learning materials;

2. To reduce the cost of accessing educational materials;

3. To allow adaptation of materials and possibly contribute to enabling learners to be active participants in educational processes;

4. To achieve collaborative partnership of people working in communities of practice, preferably across/within institutions;


5. To build capacity in African higher education institutions by providing educators with access, at low or no cost, to the tools and content required to produce high quality educational materials.

6. To be successful and sustainable, development of OER cannot be a sideline activity within a university.

7. OER Africa seeks to facilitate the design of OER that can work immediately and add educational value within the current ICT infrastructure constraints of any participating institutions.


Key Assumptions (cont’d)Key Assumptions (cont’d)

21/05/2009

Why do we exist?Why do we exist?

OER Africa OER Africa believes that OER can positively support development and capacity of higher education systems and institutions across Africa.

OER Africa OER Africa is concerned that – if the concept and practice of OER evolves predominantly outside and for Africa – we will not be able to liberate its potential.


Why Open Educational Why Open Educational Resources?Resources?

ConceptConcept:

Educational resources for use by educators and learners, without an accompanying need to pay royalties or licence fees.

New licensing frameworks remove copying / adaptation restrictions.

OER hold potential for reducing the cost of accessing educational materials.


Dispelling Some MythsDispelling Some Myths

Content = education

Good content will overcome institutional capacity constraints

OER should be a process of voluntarism

OER will make education cheaper in the short-term

Openness automatically equates with quality

OER is about e-learning


ACTIVITY PLAN


To work systematically with partners to enhance institutional capacity institutional capacity in higher education to design, develop, and deliver quality higher education programs and materials;

To advocate the merits of collaboratively creating collaboratively creating and sharingsharing intellectual capital in higher education as a mechanism to improve quality and enhance long-term cost-effectiveness;

To help higher education institutions to establish supportive policy frameworks supportive policy frameworks that support openness in the development, adaptation, and use of educational resources, and convert this into sustainable business models;


Proposed Contribution (1)Proposed Contribution (1)

To establish an online platform that facilitates African collaboration in OER development and sharing, while inter-connecting this platform with the many OER communities emerging globally;

To facilitate the re-development and reinvention of African higher education program curricula and course materials of exceptional quality and direct contextual relevance, producing world class graduates.


Proposed Contribution (2)Proposed Contribution (2)

OER Africa Activities (1)OER Africa Activities (1)

Structured Institutional Engagement:

Initial OER Sensitization & Exploration;

Policy Reviews to support development supportive institutional environment;

Materials Audits;

Proof of Concept Pilots;

Regular & ongoing communication / relationship-communication / relationship-buildingbuilding.


OER Africa Activities (2)OER Africa Activities (2)

Expansion of collaborative networks via OER domain-focused approach

Application of similar strategies to other key domain areas, e.g. Agriculture, Engineering, Teacher Education and the Arts & Humanities as the need / opportunity arises.


OER Africa’s Activities (3)OER Africa’s Activities (3)Ongoing research into OER concepts and practice in Africa:

Aggregating Research Resources.

Coordinating OER Africa Research activities: Financially and educationally sustainable models for

development, adaptation and use of OER in African higher education institutions;

Online discussions leading to research papers on key topics (e.g. remuneration), and;

Research into possible differences in the uptake and effect of OER in different subject domain areas.

15Advisory Group Meeting, Nairobi21/05/2009

Management and growth of the OER Africa website at www.oerafrica.org

Meta-data federated with global OER repositories, thereby creating greater visibility for African-created OER.

Statistics managed???


OER Africa’s Activities (4)OER Africa’s Activities (4)

21/05/2009

Thank youThank youCatherine Ngugi Neil ButcherProject Director OER Strategist

[email protected] [email protected]