The OER Knowledge Cloud makes use of cookies. By continuing, you consent to this use. More information.
Developing and deploying OERs in sub-Saharan Africa: Building on the present
Wright, Clayton R. and Reju, Sunday A.

PublishedJune 2012
JournalThe International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning
Volume 13, Issue 2, Pages 181-220
PublisherAthabasca University Press
CountryCanada

ABSTRACT
Open educational resources (OERs) have the potential to reduce costs, improve quality, and increase access to educational opportunities. OER development and deployment is one path that could contribute to achieving education for all. This article builds on existing information and communication technology (ICT) implementation plans in Africa and on the experiences of organizations and initiatives such as the African Virtual University (AVU), OER Africa, the South African Institute of Distance Education (SAIDE), and the Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) Project, to present one view of the benefits, challenges, and steps that could be taken to realize the potential of OERs in sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, the article focuses on the factors necessary for creating and sustaining a vision for OER development and deployment; developing and distributing resources with an open license; improving technology infrastructure and reducing the cost of Internet access; establishing communities of educational collaborators; sustaining involvement in the OER initiative; producing resources in interoperable and open formats; establishing and maintaining the quality of OERs; providing local context to address national and regional needs and conditions; informing the public about OERs; and taking the initiative to build on the knowledge, skills, and experiences of others. In order to assist educators and decision makers, links to a variety of resources are provided.

Keywords Africa · copyright · distance education · education · education for all · educational collaborators · ICT · ODL · OER · online learning · Open Educational Resources · open source · self-learning · sub-Saharan Africa

Published atAthabasca
Languageen
ISSN1492-3831
RefereedYes
Rightsby/3.0
URLhttp://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1185/2161
Export optionsBibTex · EndNote · Tagged XML · Google Scholar



AVAILABLE FILES
1185-9610-1-PB.pdf · 533.5KB99 downloads



Viewed by 199 distinct readers




CLOUD COMMUNITY REVIEWS

The evaluations below represent the judgements of our readers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cloud editors.

Click a star to be the first to rate this document


POST A COMMENT
SIMILAR RECORDS

MOOC makers: Professors’ experiences with developing and delivering MOOCs
Blackmon, Stephanie
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have been described as purposeful educational resources for teaching, open educational initiatives, competency-based learning, and the like. They have also been described as an agent ...
Match: developing; distance education; oer; online learning

Teacher professional learning communities: A collaborative OER adoption approach in Karnataka, India
Kasinathan, Gurumurthy; Ranganathan, Sriranjani; Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl; Arinto, Patricia B.
This chapter analyses collaborative Open Educational Resources (OER) adoption amongst Indian school teachers by examining the enabling and constraining techno-social, techno-pedagogical and sociocultural factors in an ...
Match: ict; oer; open educational resources; open source

OER: A developing world perspective
Kanwar, Asha
Harvard University Extension, Vancouver, Canada, April 7, 2011, Presented via teleconference, "OER: A Developing World Perspective" Prof. Asha Kanwar, Commonwealth of Learning
Match: developing; oer; canada

Alternate academy: Investigating the use of Open Educational Resources by students at the University of Lagos in Nigeria
Onaifo, Daniel; Quan-Haase, Anabel
Open educational resources (OER) are increasingly used to support pedagogical initiatives and learning needs at institutions of higher education across the globe. In this thesis, I examined key issues in the use of OER ...
Match: africa; oer; online learning; open educational resources; canada

Something for everyone? The different approaches of academic disciplines to Open Educational Resources and the effect on widening participation
Coughlan, Tony; Perryman, L -A.
This article explores the relationship between academic disciplines? representation in the United Kingdom Open University's (OU) OpenLearn open educational resources (OER) repository and in the OU's fee-paying ...
Match: distance education; education; online learning; open educational resources

Planning southern research on Open Educational Resources (OER)
Dhanarajan, Gajaraj; Ng, Maria
Planning Southern Research on Open Educational Resources (OER)' was presented to the IDRC on 21 November 2011. It was intended to address the lack of empricial research on existing and emerging OER initiatives in the ...
Match: oer; open educational resources; canada

School-based professional development in a developing context: Lessons learnt from a case study in Zambia
Haßler, Björn; Hennessy, Sara; Cross, Andrew; Chileshe, Eness; Machiko, Brian
This paper reports on the development and outcomes of the second phase of OER4Schools, a school-based professional development programme supporting interactive forms of subject teaching in conjunction with Open ...
Match: developing; africa; open educational resources; sub-saharan africa

An overview of the strategic OER positioning of the only dedicated ODL university in Southern Africa
de Hart, Kerry; Oosthuizen, Truida
The focus of this paper was to establish the current situation at the only dedicated ODL university in Southern Africa, theUniversity of South Africa (UNISA), regarding the use of and contribution to Open Educational ...
Match: africa; distance education; odl; oer

Developing a MOOC for communicative English: A battle of instructional designs
Rafiq, Karmila Rafiqah M.; Hashim, Harwati; Yunus, Melor Md; Pazilah, Fetylyana Nor
The Communicative English (CE) of workers is still worrying for employers. Many employers carry out face-to-face English forworkplace training to curb the problem, but it is outdated, time-consuming and expensive. One ...
Match: developing; education; online learning

Open educational resources for blended learning in high schools: Overcoming impediments in developing countries
Larson, Richard C.; Murray, Elizabeth M.
With today’s computer and telecommunications technologies, every young person can have a quality education regardless of his or her place of birth. This is the dream that Open Educational Resources (OERs), when viewed ...
Match: developing; open educational resources