The OER Knowledge Cloud makes use of cookies. By continuing, you consent to this use. More information.
Open schooling with open educational resources: Opening doors, creating opportunities
Bagopi, Masego · Dailey, Margaret · Ferreira, Frances · Gauthier, Cindy · Habweza, Enid · Jules, Rosianna P C. · Kanwar, Asha · Karipi, Edwig · Nonyongo, Evelyn · Tladi, Lekopanye · Tyhali, Mcebisi

PublishedDecember 2013
Type of workMonograph
PeriodicalPages 1-148
PublisherCommonwealth of Learning
EditorsFerreira, Frances and Gauthier, Cindy
CountryZambia, Trinidad and Tobago, Seychelles, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Canada, Africa

ABSTRACT
Open educational resources (OER) offer a practical, workable solution to the challenges of educating outlying populations. Not being subject to traditional licensing restrictions, OER can be used, reused and adapted to suit the needs of a wide variety of learners and teachers in both conventional and open schools.

One of the priorities of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is to promote capacity-building in open schools in developing nations to bring educational opportunities to prospective learners, regardless of their circumstances. With this in mind, COL partnered with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to embark on the Open Educational Resources for Open Schools (OER4OS) Project.

Six countries — Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago and Zambia — participated in this ambitious, ground-breaking project to train educators to create a bank of OER that could be used in both conventional and open schools by both school-age children and adult learners. Each country based its OER on its country curricula, but built in enough cultural and pedagogical flexibility to allow the OER to be used and adapted by other countries — epitomising the essence of OER. In addition, the training equipped the participants with the knowledge and skills to train current and future colleagues, thus contributing to the sustainability of the OER.

The project presented many challenges — technical, personal and logistical — for the participants and these are discussed openly and honestly in the country reports. It also brought a real sense of professional and personal achievement, and those who participated can be proud of their contribution to the development of OER for open and distance education. If we can continue to develop and maintain OER, we can continue to educate and to open doors.

This book is an important landmark in how OER can be developed and embedded in local contexts, using indigenous capacities and available technologies. Most discussions have focused on OER in higher education, whereas this book provides us with valuable insights into how OER can be harnessed for the rapidly expanding secondary education sector.

Keywords K-12 · OER adaptation · OER and cultural adaptations · OER challenges · OER for outlying populations · open schools

Published atVancouver
ISBN978-1-894975-66-7
Rightsby-sa/3.0
URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/11599/487
Export optionsBibTex · EndNote · Tagged XML · Google Scholar



AVAILABLE FILES
pub_OpenSchooling_OER.pdf · 1.6MB290 downloads



Viewed by 139 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

Quality assurance toolkit for open schools
Ferreira, Frances; Walker, Carol; Mhlanga, Ephraim; Biswas, Gopa; et al.
Open schooling is becoming increasingly prevalent in many developing countries. Enrolment numbers are rising rapidly, particularly at the secondary school level. But quality assurance remains limited. Open schooling ...
Match: Ferreira, Frances; Namibia; Botswana; Canada; Africa

Open Educational Resources: An Asian perspective
Abeywardena, Ishan Sudeera; Alip, Alvie Simonette Q.; Arinto, Patricia B.; Balaji, Venkataraman; et al.
Higher education has experienced phenomenal growth in all parts of Asia over the last two decades — from the Korean peninsula in the east to the western borders of Central Asia. This expansion, coupled with a ...
Match: Kanwar, Asha; OER adaptation; OER challenges

A collaborative approach to OER policy and guidelines development in the Commonwealth: The case of Botswana, Cameroon, and Sri Lanka
Abeywardena, Ishan; Karunanayaka, Shironica; Nkwenti, Michael; Tladi, Lekopanye
Access to relevant learning resources is an important aspect in ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all as outlined in the sustainable development goal 4 (SDG4). ...
Match: Tladi, Lekopanye; Botswana

Building a community for developing OERs
Botes, Corne; Ferreira, Frances
The transition to lower secondary education is now at the centre of the Education for All agenda in many countries. As more children are progressing through primary school the demand for secondary school places is ...
Match: Ferreira, Frances; K-12

An OER implementation in Maskwacis Cultural College, an Indigenous College in Alberta, Canada
McGreal, Rory
Maskwacis Cultural College (MCC) is an Indigenous two-year college offering courses from basic literacy to university transfer programs. In 2015, the Campus Alberta Open Educational Resource (OER) Initiative made ...
Match: OER adaptation; OER challenges; Canada

Mind to MOOC
Kanwar, Asha
MESSAGE Open University of China & ICDE Seminar, Beijing, China, 21 October 2013 by Professor Asha Kanwar, Commonwealth of Learning // The Commonwealth of Learning is an intergovernmental organization which promotes ...
Match: Kanwar, Asha; Canada

A basic guide to open educational resources (OER)
Butcher, Neil; Kanwar, Asha; Uvalić-Trumbić, Stamenka
This Guide comprises three sections. The first – a summary of the key issues – is presented in the form of a set of Frequently Asked Questions. Its purpose is to provide readers with a quick and user-friendly ...
Match: Kanwar, Asha; Canada

Open universities in the time of MOOCs: Reaching the unreached?
Kanwar, Asha; Balasubramanian, K.
Transcript and presentation slides of the 19th Prof. G. Ram Reddy Memorial Lecture, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), India, 2 July 2014, Presented by Professor Asha Kanwar (co-written with Dr. K. ...
Match: Kanwar, Asha; Canada

Can the ugly duckling of ODL be transformed into a swan? The MOOC effect
Kanwar, Asha
Public Lecture, University of South Africa (Unisa), Johannesburg, South Africa, 4 October 2013 by Professor Asha Kanwar, Commonwealth of Learning // Or more pertinently for us,‘Can the ugly duckling of ODL be ...
Match: Kanwar, Asha; Canada

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: Kanwar, Asha; Canada