1. Website: open.umich.edu/education/ | Email: open.michigan@umich.edu Copyright 2009 The University of Michigan. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit. Co-Developing Open Educational Resources to Train Healthcare Providers Ted Hanss, University of Michigan Medical School Our Partners: University of Ghana Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) University of Cape Town University of the Western Cape OER Africa Funded by: University of Michigan Hewlett Foundation Gates Foundation Research Questions Can open educational resources affordably and effectively contribute to the shortage of learning resources available in developing countries? Are students effective and productive facilitators of OER publishing? Recent Efforts Policy workshops and OER production workshops in Ghana, South Africa, and at U-M. Development of dScribe process, a low cost student-driven model for OER publishing. Development of OERca, a collaborative web tool that facilitates OER clearing and publishing. Methods Observation of students working as dScribes and measuring their productivity in comparison with staff-centric model. Interviews with participating universities to identify areas of curricular need and institutional capacity and readiness from a policy and support perspective to participate in OER-based collaborations. Results Students are effective facilitators of OER production as measured by faculty approval of content for publishing and labor costs that are 20% or less of staff- centric models. Some of our partner institutions in Africa have established policies for OER while others are receptive but need to update their policy frameworks (e.g., around copyright) in order to participate. Participants from the University of Ghana and KNUST attended OER Policy and Production Workshops, which took place in Ghana during February 2009. U-M students representing the School of Information, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, Medical School, and School of Dentistry were selected to participate in the Clinton Global Initiative University in February 2009. The student team presented their strategy for making comprehensive health curricula available as open educational resources (OER) to healthcare educators and students worldwide. Challenge The inadequate density and distribution of health care providers negatively affects health outcomes around the globe. In particular, Sub-Saharan Africa has too few healthcare professionals being trained to meet local needs. Approach Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning materials licensed by institutions and faculty members for free and open access, modification, and redistribution. They can be used by students for self-learning, by lecturers as teaching resources, and by practicing healthcare providers as continuing education materials. Health OER partners are co-creating learning materials and updating institutional policies to better enable the authoring and use of OER.