Catherine Ngugi - OER in Africa use and re-use for Library Services
1. OER in Africa: Use & Re-use for
Library Services
IAU Validation Workshop
OER for Academic Librarians
Accra, Ghana
12 – 13 September 2013
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2. OER Africa is:
An innovative initiative of Saide
Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya
Established to play a leading role
in driving the development and
use of OER in Africa.
Funded by the William & Flora
Hewlett Foundation, the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation, and
a variety of projects and
partnerships across Africa.
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3. The OER Concept
• Educational resources freely available for use
by educators and learners, without an
accompanying need to pay royalties or licence
fees.
• OER is not synonymous with online learning or
e-learning;
• Within an African context, anticipated that many
resources produced – while shareable in a
digital format (both online and via offline formats
such as CD-ROM) – will be printable.
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4. Setting the Scene
• 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
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5. Why increase investment in T & L?
• Much existing content available to and within
African universities based on weak and largely
outmoded educational design principles.
• Limited ICT infrastructure to gain access to up-todate information or participate in inter-institutional,
geographically dispersed collaborative activities.
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6. Facilitating Learning v HE
Challenges
1. READ Course
Materials
2. EXPLORE within
the discipline
3. ENGAGE in
learning
conversations
Educators
want
students to:
5. PRODUCE /
PERFORM
APPROPRIATELY
4. PRACTICE new
skills
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9. 1. READ Course
Materials
Read Course Materials
… now we can also use…
Both commercial and
open education services
are available to help
students access top
quality academic
materials.
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18. OER & Short Course Repositories
•
•
•
•
Khan Academy
Saylor Foundation
UCT Open Content
Wikiversity
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19. Explore: Open Access
There is a wealth of
information available
as Open Access
Research, including
resources from many
of the world’s top
universities.
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21. 3. ENGAGE in
learning
conversations
Learning Conversations
• This used to mean a discussion in a tutorial
or lab session or individual consultations
• but now new technologies offer
a richer experience..
- Online discussions
- Online chats
- Blogging
- Text messages
- e-Mail
Social
Software
Networks
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26. Why institutionalize OER?
• Open licensing provides a cost-effective means to
increase investment in creating more effective
teaching and learning environments using resourcebased learning.
• To be effective and sustainable, such strategic
decisions will likely need to be accompanied by
review of institutional policies.
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27. New roles and ways of working
Role of Librarian
Yesterday’s
Librarian:
Used to be printbased:
Providing Content
Books
access to secure
resources
Space
library buildings:
used for work
for collection
for storage
Services
Skills
how to find those books Subject, customer and
leadership
Others?
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28. OER has the Potential
Role of Librarian
Providing Content
Today’s Information e-books, journals and
databases,
Professional
electronic format:
Overlap between
library and IT
services
Space
Services
physical digital space:
training and teaching
access to content people to use and
managing and
access information
preserving content
created by
institutions
preserving the
nation's cultural
heritage
Skills
Subject, customer and
leadership
Higher level IT skills,
e.g. digital preservation
Presenting relevant
digital information &
digital materials to
users in a customised
way
hybrid of both print and zoned study
digital resources
environments:
traditionally silent
areas
open access
multi-media
equipment
network services and
digitalised content
Teaching:
Information
Literacy
Appraisal skills
Digital content, remote
content, 24 hour
accessibility to content
up to date with latest
web-based technology
Marketing the library
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31. This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Thank you
Catherine Ngugi
OER Africa Project Director
catherine.ngugi@oerafrica.org
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What are some of the greatest needs for improved teaching and elarning?
The pervasive availability of digital video allows access to teaching resources by experts across the world and opportunities to share local expertise globally. These services work best with a broadband Internet connection and sometimes terms of use don’t allow educators to download and share files locally. Electronic Text Files: Downloaded to either an electronic reader or computer. E-books, PDFs or MS Word files Audio Files: Downloaded to either a computer, iPod or mobile phone.Podcasts or recorded lectures as MP3 files
http://web.knust.edu.gh/oer/pages/Rationale for Health OERAfrican health sector aware of the need to develop socially relevant and culturally appropriate training materials and experiences: Need to find new ways of delivering health education content in a format that will enable students to have increased access to the material, e.g.case based studies using video or print; recorded demonstrations by clinical experts of techniques in history taking, physical examination, and clinical procedures made available to students for review and practice in their own time. (Clinical Skills Demonstration)
Welcome to the African Veterinary Information Portal (AfriVIP)The African Veterinary Information Portal (AfriVIP) will be positioned as the authoritative, global online portal of information and credit-bearing, life-long learning opportunities, resources, discussion, and interaction about African veterinary and allied sciences matters. All the resources are Open Education Resources (OER) and therefore carry an open license (Creative Commons), allowing it to be freely copied, distributed, and adapted without asking copyright permission. The Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, and its partners, has recognized the need to provide high quality Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training for veterinarians and allied professions including para-veterinary professionals. This has initiated the development of the African Veterinary Information Portal (AfriVIP), for veterinary training and information and a training platform of the OIE Collaborating Centre for Training in Integrated Livestock and Wildlife Health and Management.
Teacher Education – customised by language, by country, etc.
Agriculture Education / OER Africa
Health OER – Asthma Conversations4. Practicing Skills: (Student-Content interaction)This used to mean mostly drill and practice of standard techniques , but now resource based learning and electronic tools can provide a richer experience ....Role Play, e.g. Malawi nursing and treating mental health patients – and the Asthma conversations
4. Practicing Skills: (Student-Content interaction)Electronic tools can provide a rich alternative experience .... And there are almost limitless opportunities to design high quality teaching and learning environments…Development and Use are growing in Africa and other similar contexts…
4. Practicing Skills: (Student-Content interaction)Games –Shongwe (Ann Githuku)Haki 2: Chaguo Ni LakoAfter the events in Haki 1 the heroes have foiled the Evil Entities attempts at violating peoples’ environmental rights. But the Evil Entity is not done. The Entity has sent Mboss, a diabolical mastermind, to destabilize the country by causing discontent, disunity, disharmony and civil unrest. Mboss has challenged the Underground (a group of heroes who strive for peace and tranquility) to stop his evil plans. The clues to stopping him are hidden in puzzle images and quizzes that he has sent the Underground.MorabaCreated with the support of UN Women Southern Africa, Moraba is a mobile game developed to address Gender Based Violence issues amongst youth audiences. A quiz based adaptation of Morabaraba, the traditional southern-African board game of strategy and wit, Morabaendeavors to highlight gender inequality, gender rights and establish a sense of advocacy amongst users around gender based violence issues.
5. Produce/ perform in a way that shows the development of graduate and professional skills ((Student-Content, Student-Student and Student-Educator interactions)Resource based learning facilitates improved performance
Need to keep up with the new roles and ways of working:Team-based curriculum design and materials development including studentsE-tutoring Saide Supporting distance learners.docxOngoing CPD, LLL: e.g. AfriVip
Keeping up means the role of librarians will – and has to – changeToday, possibly more opportunities for staff to display creativity in order to meet the needs of ever-growing student numbers, desiring more and more services (thoughts??)
This means the role of librarians will – and has to – changeTo increase availability of high quality, relevant and need-targeted learning materials; To reduce the cost of accessing educational materials;To allow adaptation of materials and possibly contribute to enabling learners to be active participants in educational processes;To achieve collaborative partnership of people working in communities of practice, preferably across/within institutions;To build capacity in African higher education institutions by providing educators with access, at low or no cost, to the tools and content required to produce high quality educational materials.Today, possibly more opportunities for staff to display creativity in order to meet the needs of ever-growing student numbers, desiring more and more services (thoughts??)
http://jellyfishcoolman.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/african-submarine-fibre-optic-cables.jpgA Vision for Higher Education in Africa:Vibrant, sustainable African higher education institutions that play a critical role in building and sustaining African societies and economies, by producing the continent’s future intellectual leaders through free and open development and sharing of common intellectual capital.
Engage in learning conversations including key debates used to mean primarily face to face interactions whereby students engaged with the content, with each other and with their librarians or professors.(Student-Content, Student-Student and Student-Educator interactions)edX as most of you will know, is a non-profit created by Harvard and MIT, originally as a platform from which to run MOOCS. A relatively recent alliance with Google has set to result in a YouTube of free online courses, open for any institution or business to post courses on MOOC.orghttp://techcrunch.com/2013/09/10/google-expands-role-in-digital-education-teams-up-with-edx-to-build-a-youtube-for-free-online-courses/
4. Practicing Skills: (Student-Content interaction)Games –Shongwe (Ann Githuku)Haki 2: Chaguo Ni LakoAfter the events in Haki 1 the heroes have foiled the Evil Entities attempts at violating peoples’ environmental rights. But the Evil Entity is not done. The Entity has sent Mboss, a diabolical mastermind, to destabilize the country by causing discontent, disunity, disharmony and civil unrest. Mboss has challenged the Underground (a group of heroes who strive for peace and tranquility) to stop his evil plans. The clues to stopping him are hidden in puzzle images and quizzes that he has sent the Underground.MorabaCreated with the support of UN Women Southern Africa, Moraba is a mobile game developed to address Gender Based Violence issues amongst youth audiences. A quiz based adaptation of Morabaraba, the traditional southern-African board game of strategy and wit, Morabaendeavors to highlight gender inequality, gender rights and establish a sense of advocacy amongst users around gender based violence issues.
Open textbook - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_textbookAn open textbook is a textbook licensed under an open copyright license, and made available online to be freely used by students, teachers and members of the ...Usage rights - Affordability - Milestones - InstructionCollege Open Textbookswww.collegeopentextbooks.org/Funded by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, College Open Textbooks is a collection of colleges, governmental agencies, education non-profits, and ...Open Textbooks by Subject - Chemistry - English & Composition - MathematicsOpen TextbookCatalog - University of Minnesotaopen.umn.edu/Open TextbookCatalog. In an effort to reduce costs for students, the College of Education and Human Development has created this catalog of open textbooks ...