Analytical Insights on the Position, Challenges, and Potential for Promoting OER in ODeL Institutions in Africa (original) (raw)
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2019
The academic literature on open educational resources (OER) and practices in higher education has grown substantially over the past decade. OER is seen to offer endless possibilities for Sub-Saharan African universities by reducing costs of education, improving quality of education, as well as increasing access to quality education for all, among others. Sub-Saharan African universities though, are notably underrepresented in the literature, especially on differentiations, be it on access to or use and sharing of OER. This thesis synthesizes research carried out to develop a representative view of OER in three Sub-Saharan countries: Kenya, Ghana and South Africa. The study, which formed part of the Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project, explores differentiation in terms of (i) digital proficiency; (ii) level of use of OER; (iii) awareness of licensing; and (iv) the perceived value of OER. This thesis examines a deliberate selection of twelve univers...
Mainstreaming use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in an African context
Open Praxis
The study derives from a multi-year project implemented by OER Africa. The project sought to understand how OER might be used as a catalyst for pedagogical transformation in African universities. Within a non-determinist and interpretivist theoretical framework and an over-arching project methodology of participatory action research, the study made use of an analytical autoethnographic approach to capture and analyse data and to make recommendations. The approach was informed primarily by hermeneutics and systems thinking and involved multiple in-country engagements and the triangulation of information derived from document review, observation and iterative focus group discussions and individual interviews. The key finding of this study is the suggestion that engagement with OER is unlikely to move from being an individual to an institutional focus unless such engagement is aligned with the overall vision, mission and business model of the university.
Trends and Future Directions in Open and Distance Learning Practice in Africa
Journal of Education and Practice, 2014
Open and Distance Learning (ODL), formerly known as Distance Education (DE) is one of the most rapidly growing fields of education in recent time. Distance education has experienced remarkable growth in national and international scenes since the early 1980s. In spite of recent phenomenal developments in the world of electronic networks, especially the recent global attention to the Internet, which has provided the primary technological thrust, several other emerging technologies have also promised to change the landscape of education in general, and distance education in particular drastically. The field of distance education is therefore, at the centre of dynamic growth and change. This paper focuses on current trends in ODL from African perspective. It examines some of the definitions that have been put forward by experts in the field, as well as some features that characterized ODL. The paper also reflects on some practices in Africa's ODL programmes. Furthermore, current trends in the practice of ODL in African countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Bostwana and Nigeria are critically discussed. Some of the policy recommendations highlighted in the paper include the need to invest more in ODL through meaningful budgetary allocations and cost sharing at higher levels of education, creation of partnerships and networking among ODL institutional providers within the continent, private telecommunication sector, and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs).
The past few years have seen increasingly rapid development and use of open educational resources (OER) in higher education institutions (HEIs) in developing countries. These resources are believed to be able to widen access, reduce the costs, and improve the quality of education. However, there exist several challenges that hinder the adoption and use of these resources. The majority of challenges mentioned in the literature do not have empirically grounded evidence and they assume Sub-Saharan countries face similar challenges. Nonetheless, despite commonalities that exist amongst these countries, there also exists considerable diversity, and they face different challenges. Accordingly, this study investigated the perceived barriers to the use of OER in 11 HEIs in Tanzania. The empirical data was generated through semi-structured interviews with a random sample of 92 instructors as well as a review of important documents. Findings revealed that lack of access to computers and the Internet, low Internet bandwidth, absence of policies, and lack of skills to create and/or use OER are the main barriers to the use of OER in HEIs in Tanzania. Contrary to findings elsewhere in Africa, the study revealed that lack of trust in others' resources, lack of interest in creating and/or using OER, and lack of time to find suitable materials were not considered to be barriers. These findings provide a new understanding of the barriers to the use of OER in HEIs and should therefore assist those who are involved in OER implementation to find mitigating strategies that will maximize their usage.
2018
In the current economically constrained environment Open Educational Resources (OER) have been heralded as a way of providing access to relevant and affordable educational resources to learners and educators in both formal and informal learning contexts, including higher education. OER are being created and shared through a range of OER initiatives, repositories and portals (e.g. MIT Open Courseware, OpenLearn, MERLOT, Khan Academy, OER Africa, OER@AVU). Although site statistics provided by these various portals indicate some access to these resources from countries in Africa, the number of 'hits' do not explain how these materials are being used, by whom and to what effect to provide empirical evidence for the "widely shared belief that [OER are] going to be a fundamentally important phenomenon for the future of learning and education" (Tuomi 2013:59) and on pedagogical practices in particular. This keynote address will explain how the Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project is using desktop regional reviews, cross-regional surveys, cross regional and country case studies, action research studies and focused impact studies to establish in what ways, and under what circumstances the adoption of OER can impact upon a range of educational aspects. It will focus specifically on conceptual and methodological strategies adopted to tease out the relationship between OER and pedagogical practices in selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. OER as a response to some educational challenges in the Global South According to an article by e-Learning Africa News: There has been a huge amount of debate about the relevance of these kinds of resources in the developing world, particularly in Africa, a continent which is currently seeing rapid economic growth and technological innovation. Using open source materials in developing countries could potentially lead to a greater knowledge gap between the developed world and the developing world, with Africans becoming consumers of knowledge rather than producers. Because of the high cost involved in the creation of OERs, African countries with fewer resources may not have the means to create and distribute their own materials and resources. As the quality and quantity of OERs from the developed world continues to grow, African nations are more in danger of falling behind 2. OER definition Open Educational Resources can be briefly defined as "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 and/or re-purposing by others" 3. OER: Degrees of Openness The most frequently used intellectual property rights mechanisms used to indicate the permissions for the creation and reuse of OER are Creative Commons licenses 4. These indicate the original authors' permissions for reuse (copying), revision (customisation, including translation), remixing (or combination with other materials) which allow for the legal redistribution, and retention of the original or adapted materials. OER initiatives globally and in Africa OER have been made available through a range of OER global initiatives, repositories and portals (e.g.
Open Educational Resources Utilization in Tanzanian Higher Learning Institutions
Technologies (ICT) in teaching and learning especially in Higher Learning Institutions (HLIs). Despite the observed countrywide ubiquitous use of internet, access to plenty of open educational resources (OER), several challenges on OER use are yet to be identified and clearly addressed. Necessary changes in the curriculum, teaching methods and institutional management procedures are required. While OER are designed as "learner centred", "teachercentred" method is predominant in Tanzania. Incompatibility between OER and the educational system may culminate into confusion among students, instructors and educators. The changing role of lecturers, tasked in forging parity between the OER and the situations in HLIs forms another challenge. The origin of OER used in Tanzanian HLIs probes on both their quality and utility. All these issues need to be addressed. This paper explores the teaching/learning system in the verge of vast utilization of the OER in Tanzania using meta-analysis that combines facts, data and findings from previous studies. It identifies the nature and character of teaching/learning process in Tanzanian HLIs, locates the OER use, uncovers challenges facing effective accommodation of OER; and highlights ing policy implication to Tanzania. The findings indicate high accessibility of OER to lecturers, students and educators in Tanzania, with the evident lack of national policies and guidelines on OER use. The education system is not in conformity with OER requirements in terms of both syllabi and pedagogy. Therefore major adjustments are recommended on the transformation of the educational system for countrywide sustainable OER utilization.
International Journal of Educational Methodology, 2022
Open educational resources (OER) are an innovation coined to bridge the educational divide by providing free quality learning resources. Consequently, this study explored the perception of the Namibian open and distance learning institutions' perception of the use of OER as a pedagogical approach. The study focused on faculty members from the three public ODL institutions in Namibia. Integrated theories with a qualitative case study and interpretivist paradigm underpin this study. Qualitative methodologies were used to collect and analyse data. This study showed an inconsistency between the faculty members' perceptions and OER use within the ODL institutions in Namibia. Although the faculty members displayed positive attitudes towards the use of OER, very little has been achieved in the use of OER within the institutions for the benefit of the Namibian ODL students. The study identified various challenges that impede OER adoption at the institutional level. Recommendations were formulated to address the identified challenges.
IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 2012
Considerable effort has gone into Open Educational Resource (OER) initiatives in the past decade. These initiatives have created free, high quality educational resources for everyone and anyone to use. However, these open and free resources appear to remain largely unused by university academics on the educationally resource-poor African continent. The objectives of the research study are to explore the inhibitors and enablers are experienced by academics that use OER, and what barriers prevent academics from using OER. The sample consists of academics from East, West and Southern Africa. Information was gathered by means of a survey questionnaire. A modified version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model was used to identify the influence of certain factors on a user's intention to adopt OER. Some of the key findings indicate that Performance Expectancy and Effort Expectancy have a positive effect on a user's Behavioural Intention to use OER, and the latter has a strong influence on the Actual Use of OER. Facilitating Conditions do not have a statistically significant impact. Additionally, significant differences were found in the barriers which users and potential users of OER have identified as either limiting their current use of OER, or negatively affecting their intention to use OER.
Awareness of Open Education Resources (OER) in Higher Learning Institutions
Sustainable ICT, Education and Learning, 2019
Open Educational Resources (OERs) has entered the world of academia and has inspired innovation in education since 1990s, yet OERs awareness in higher education (HE) remains very low in Tanzania. Educators in Higher learning institutions (HLIs) in Sub-Saharan Africa are striving to provide effective learning experiences to address the needs of university students in crowded classes with limited printed resources. OERs currently hold great promise for instructing university students because unlike traditional curriculum materials, OERs content can be copied, used, adapted, adopted and re-shared for free. This paper presents findings obtained from the baseline study conducted at the State University of Zanzibar (SUZA) to explore the students' OERs awareness. In the academic year 2014/2015, 352 out of 713 first year undergraduate students (randomly sampled) from three campuses participated in the study. Online questionnaire survey was employed and the data were analyzed. We first show that there is a serious gap in OER knowledge followed by a number of structural and contextual barriers. We further revealed that more than 40% of students are not exposed to OERs offerings. Overall the data revealed that the use of OER at university is low, however, there is potential for growth of OERs as many students have mobile and are using ICT for education. Most participants cited limited access, limited connectivity, and affordability to be significant barriers to wider adoption of OERs. There were also concerns about the limited ICT infrastructure at SUZA and the need to build the capacity of academics on OER integration.
Open Praxis
The paper posits the Regional Training and Research Institute for Distance and Open Learning (RETRIDAL) as an institution established for the purpose of enhancing Open and Distance Learning in the West African sub-region. The institute has pursued this mandate with an unparalleled vigour since its establishment in 2003 —a partnership of the Commonwealth of Learning and the National Open University of Nigeria. It is the opinion of this paper that enhancing the Open and Distance Learning mode of education in the West African subregion will require building capacity. Consequently, RETRIDAL has championed this cause through workshops and training sessions as well as commissioning research studies in Nigeria and other West African countries. The objective is to produce suitably qualified manpower that is able to utilise ODL to mitigate the exploding demand for access to education in the sub-region. The paper also foresees a future of ODL and RETRIDAL for West Africa, as many universities...