1. Sharing the Garden: OER in African Contexts Tessa Welch Learning Futures Festival Online 2010

2. The Selfish Giant

3. Creative Commons

4. South Africa: not very good at sharing Still suffering the effects of apartheid Growing inequality in society – ‘bimodal distribution of achievement ’ While a small minority of primary schoolchildren attending privileged schools are achieving a curriculum benchmarked ‘grade level’, which is comparable to countries such as Germany and the United States, the vast majority of children attending disadvantaged schools do not acquire a basic level of mastery in reading, writing and mathematics. It is these South African children who struggle to read for meaning and to perform simple numerical operations – whose learning remains context-bound and non-generalisable. (Fleisch 2008: 30)

5. Obstacles to use of digital content in Africa 1.Affordability of technology – ICT price basket 41% of the region’s monthy average income cf 1 or 2% in Europe 2.Connectivity – Africa 1 in every 1000; Europe 200 in every 1000; in China 6.2 per 100 But it is not only about technology

6. Obstacles to use of digital content in Africa 3.Relevance – Most OER not African; absence of local language digital material 4.Culture – Expense and lack of availability of reading material; culture of reading in decline 5.Capacity – Educators do not have the time to look for or create educational material, particularly digital material

7. Experience from the IADP project Attempt to obtain common 20 – 40 titles to negotiate discounted e-books for large numbers, but only 14 obtained: Associated with workload demands and limited scholarship activity in some faculties there might be an absence of serious monitoring of what is on the market. This could explain why titles submitted were of what is currently in use rather than what might really be needed. Ironically, it might be the very need for high quality standard text books that makes it difficult for faculties to identify the titles that are really needed. Because they’ve not been able to afford books, other practices may have become fairly widespread. One dean who did not supply titles wrote: “As far as I know, most of our lecturers do not use textbooks as such, but extracts from different sources. I shudder when I think about the copyright implications.“

8. SAIDE’s work through OER Africa All of this evidence underlines the urgency not only of making more educational resources more freely available to African educators but also of supporting teachers in their core work of designing and delivering programmes that encourage active fully literate learning

9. Sharing our own garden 1.Releasing all new materials under a Creative Commons licence 2.Digitising and re-licensing our own conventionally published materials as OER, starting with he SAIDE Teacher Education Series, developed between 1998 – 2002 with: 36 core writers 11 development writers 3 specialist writers 37 critical readers from 23 institutions 15 teachers involved in the reference group 60 teachers involved in the production of video and audio material

10. The SAIDE Teacher Education Series

11. Learning about publishing contracts What we did right in our 1998 contract with the publisher – We retained the copyright – Consultation with us before pulping – When out of print, film to be made available to us at cost What we would do now … because we want to make the materials OER and need – files of easily downloadable size – in formats that can be adapted easily by teachers ….

12. Learning about digitization We can’t use the publishing film for digitised learning material to be released as OER for reuse and adaptation, so We should have stated in the contract that we need the open files – To make PDFs in renderable text – Without a cumbersome, time-consuming and costly OCR process

13. Encouraging others to share their gardens 1.Sourcing out of date but high quality published materials in areas of particular need, and – approaching authors and publishers to release these out of print or almost out of print materials in digital format on OER Africa – under a Creative Commons licence Our argument: Since the materials have been in publication for 10 years, the substantive revenue that will be earned has already been earned. Release as OER would give the material new life.

14. Encouraging others to share their gardens Sourcing high quality distance education material from educational providers see SAIDE’s ACEMaths module based on core materials from UNISA: UNISA hereby grants to the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE), the non-exclusive, non-transferable, perpetual right, worldwide and free of charge, to make adaptations and to create derivative works, and to reproduce and publish said works, or parts thereof, in any format whatsoever. The permission granted by not be transferred, ceded or sub-licensed to another person, without the written authorization of UNISA. The parties agree however, that derivative and adapted works may be sub-licensed.

15. Working together in the garden: Example 1 The SAIDE ACEMaths project : To pilot a process to enable institutions to respond quickly to departmental needs without having to resort either to recirculation of existing (often poor-quality) material, or to commissioning of new material in timeframes that make it impossible to achieve quality through identification of existing core material in the teaching and learning of mathematics, and with maths teacher educators from seven different teacher education organisations, adapting the materials and using them in variety of programmes

16. Working together in the garden: Example 1 ACEMaths Project: six months to produce six unit pilot module Timesaving on revised version through use of COL template (OER) Major advantage – community of practice – I think it is a brilliant idea that we finally got to this stage where some universities get together and work in a direction to try and get sort of a more generic message in this country. (Maths teacher educator at Site F) – We all have common understandings, but we don’t have shared understandings… We don’t communicate, we don’t have a collegial kind of thing, and this created that opportunity to be able to meet everyone … it was wonderful! (Maths teacher educator at Site C)

17. ACEMaths: some examples of adaptation Site A: ACE FET Maths Literacy 2nd year (mixed mode) Unit 6 (with appendices) Unit 4 with a section taken from Unit 3 Units combined into two separate stand-alone guides for two different modules in the ACE FET Maths Literacy programme. Site C: B Ed for GET 3rd year and 4th year (contact) Units 1, 2 and 6 (with appendices) No adaptation. Units used as resources for two GET programme modules. 3rd year – Units 1 and 2 4th year – Unit 6

18. ACEMaths: some examples of adaptation Site D: ACE LSEN 2nd year (mixed mode) Whole module (Units 1 – 6, with all appendices). All units used in full without adaptation in 2007. In a single guide with consecutive page numbering. In 2008/9, all units adapted to align presentation with that of the other courses in the LSEN ACE programme Site B: ACE GET Maths 1st year (mixed mode) Unit 3 and Unit 6 No adaptation. Units used as reference material to complement existing ACE GET programme materials.

19. Working together in the garden: Example 2 A problem based certificate course for midwives: Kamuzu Nursing College in Malawi Need: high maternal mortality rate, purely theoretical course, and shortage of available learning resources First hurdle: finding the resources Second hurdle: curriculum development as a basis for selecting resources Third hurdle: understanding problem-based learning

20. Working together in the garden: Example 2 Fourth hurdle: designing the problem-based learning pack, with relevant assessment http://www.ajmoore.co.za/kcn

21. Kamuzu: Lessons of experience Can produce high quality course in 9 months Strong in country champion, management support, and the motivation for new approach Time for sourcing suitable resources and establishing common understanding A lot of time needed to integrate non-OER Delays caused by outstanding permissions Time needed to internalise a new curriculum approach We look forward to delivery in 2010!

22. Working together in the garden: Contrasting approaches ACEMaths: One to many Kamuzu: Many to one

23. Creative commons: from all to one to all

24. Thank you!