Why OER? Tessa Welch, for CUEA, 25 November 2011

What are Open Educational Resources?

One definition OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge. (Atkins, Seely Brown & Hammond, 2007, p.4)

FREE? “Free use” Free as in no cost Free as in no permission required AND/OR Some can be “re-purposed” Adapted, translated, re-mixed It’s all in the LICENCE

Watch the KIWI Creative Commons DVD 1.Just because something is online, does it mean you’re free to share or reuse it? 2.What is Creative Commons? 3.What’s the difference between an open licence and conventional copyright? 4.What do the following restrictions mean? – Attribution – Non-commercial – No derivatives – Share alike? 5.What’s the point of going for Creative Commons licences?

OPEN LICENCES (such as Creative Commons) Without pay or permission, these licences allow you to copy and distribute the material. Authors retain copyright © …… but agree in advance to redistribution with attribution

But WHY OER? African universities are dealing with significant pressure to increase access to HE programmes Most institutions are having to increase enrolments despite structural under-funding to discharge this core function effectively Most programmes (including many at postgraduate level) rely heavily on lecturing as a primary mode of transmission of content Too few learning resources for learners and lecturers in African universities, or those available too expensive

Why OER? – the Value Proposition Increase the availability of relevant, need-targeted learning materials and support more productive learners and educators A Knowledge centre in Zambia

OER – the value proposition Save high quality out-of-print materials so that others can use and build on them For example – A 1998 set of in-service photostatted materials – Now a digital learning guide for the B Ed in two universities, and may be used in the training of 3000 Gauteng teachers

Five 200 page learning guides Four sets of readings to support learning guides 29 audio clips of interviews and classroom events 23 video clips - issues and debates from the modules and methods in action in classrooms

OER – the value proposition Reduce the cost of access to educational materials by removing copying restrictions R250 per copy R50 per copy (including courier costs) conventionally Print on demand (bound, colour cover) published

OER – the value proposition Encourage educator participation in relevant course design through adapting or developing materials for learning programmes that are pertinent to African contexts and learners

TESSA Project Activities   Ghana: Adapting TESSA for national Early Childhood Curriculum   Sudan: Writing new Teacher Practice Guides using TESSA OERs for both students and supervisors   Nigeria: Developing model TESSA demonstration school   Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia and Tanzania: create 15 study units in the science curriculum area (3 modules each of 5 study units), drawing on existing high quality OERs  Kenya: Developing dialogue with national and regional policymakers on TESSA and the national curriculum.  South Africa: Organising action research by B.Ed student-teachers using TESSA OERs.  Contributing to African Teacher Education OER Network

OER – the value proposition Encourage educator and learner participation in relevant course delivery through use of appropriate technologies and acquisition of the skills necessary to move away from lecture-based teaching Lecturers at Kamuzu Nursing College, Malawi, move to problem-based learning using OER

OER – the value proposition Build capacity for learning through collaborative partnerships and communities of practice, both within and across educational systems and organisations For example: – See the Technical Committee for Collaboration ACDE – asking for contributions of materials – But also smaller projects, such as the Saide’s ACEMaths project

Saide’s ACEMaths project

Saide ACEMaths project: varieties of use by seven different institutions since 2007 Existing distance material (UNISA module) with some adaptation Reuse (Site B): Single unit as a whole, un-adapted, used as reference material. Reuse (Site A and C): Single unit as a whole, un-adapted, used as course material. Reuse (Site D, E and F): Full set of units, un-adapted, used as course material. Remix (Site C): Combination of unit(s) (un-adapted) with other material, used as course material. Remix (Site A): Combination of unit(s) (adapted) with other material, used as course material. Rework (Site D): Full set of units, adapted, used as course material.

Versions shared back on OER Africa Learners with Special Educational Needs (LSEN) ACE module material (Six units) (University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, South Africa) Further Education and Training (FET) Maths Literacy ACE (Two units) (University of KwaZulu (UKZN) Natal, Pinetown, South Africa) Foundation Phase Wrap-around Guide to accompany the ACEMaths materials (Six units) (Wits, Johannesburg) But most important: Further Education and Training (FET) Mathematics Certificate Course (Six units) (University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria, South Africa) The institution that gave the core materials for the whole project, was able to make use of the improved materials in a new course

Thank you!