The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) is the second largest university in Africa with more than 180,000 students. The OER project at NOUN was initially motivated in response to the 2012 UNESCO/Commonwealth of Learning Paris Declaration on OER. Specifically, NOUN referred to the section that encouraged government-funded materials to be released under an open licence and made available and accessible as OER.

NOUN administrators and faculty recognized that, as it is a government-funded institution, all its course material is fully paid for by the government. Thus, selling their educational content through the use of restrictive licences was tantamount to forcing the tax payers to pay twice for materials already paid for. Moreover, the communal character of African culture makes OER a good fit and “naturally adaptable to the African worldview of sharing for the common good of all” (Agbu, 2015).

OER also have the potential of humanizing and democratizing teaching and learning. Open education provides immense opportunities for learners. This understanding, along with a grant from the European Union, was the basis of the decision at NOUN to release 50% of its content (more than 800 courses) as OER by 2017.

This article discusses the benefits, challenges and potential of implementing OER at this institution.

More articles can be found at Contact North/Contact Nord: https://teachonline.ca/tools-trends/open-education-resources-oer-applications-around-world/taxonomy-term

Keywords

democratization of teaching and learning · faculty adoption · MOOC · OER implementation · OER repository · open access journals