Conference Papers and Presentations

In the hope of reducing ever-rising educational costs, more universities are turning to open educational resources (OER) as a means of minimizing the financial burden on students. Although initially a transition to OER may seem like a quick economic fix for reducing costs and increasing resource accessibility, it brings with it a variety of multi-layered issues - e.g., copyright and intellectual property issues, OER quality, relevance and applicability, resistance from faculty and the publishing industry, and institutional degree of openness (D'Antoni & Savage, 2009; Wiley, 2010) - each of which need to be addressed before successfully implementing a full-scale OER solution. In addition, institutions need to weigh the degree of openness they choose to engage in, as well as consider the advantages and disadvantages of their approach. This paper will discuss definitions of openness and OER, the benefits and challenges of OER, and current OER implementation strategies, while presenting three case studies of distance education institutions that have adopted OER and a summary of best practices.

This presentation was given by Tony Mays at the Open University of Tanzania in 2016.

The purpose of this paper is to document the conversations that took place at the iSummit in Dubrovnik where a full track was dedicated to open education. The conversation started moving from things like content and repositories to a broader view that included all people, processes and resources that make up the open education ecosystem. Challenges focused more on use, users and usability; making collaboration happen; licensing and packaging better; and investing more money and energy into communities and processes which bring open educational content to life.

Paper presented by Tessa Welch and Ingrid Sapire to the TEP Consortium conference: 'Teacher development and institutional change in an evolving education context', 29 May 2007, Benoni

A presentation by Tessa Welch to the DETA (Distance Education and Teacher Training in Africa) conference, 7 August 2007 on Saide's OER initiatives (before OER Africa was born). It provides a useful insight into what OERs are and how their vision can be realised in various ways.

This brief paper was developed in response to the launching of the Cape Town Declaration that set itself up as a manifesto of a 'movement', the 'open education movement'.It describes five ideas that SAIDE regards as important in engaging with the OER 'movement'.

This presentation presented by Paul Muyinda covers the background, aims, objectives, ongoing and recently completed research, modus operandi, projects in the pipeline, benefits and research agenda for e-learning at Makerere University.

An overview of the changing Higher Education sector in Mozambique. This presentation looks at threats and opportunities facing the Catholic University of Mozambique. The presentation is in Portuguese.

A presentation that outlines the role that ICTs should play within the universities core functions. It also outlines in some detail the development of the ICT directorate.

A presentation from the University of Ibadan's College of Medicine of a successful collaboration with Swansea University. With limited funding teh two institutions were able to develop open access copyright free teaching materials that enhanced the teaching of Health care delivery.

This presentation outlines various ICT initiatives that have been orgainsised and implemented by the DI Team at UniJos

This presentation looks at strategies used at UniJos to improve teaching and Learning in the subject of Mathematics

This paper reports on a survey of 147 eLearning practitioners from 34 countries in Africa. It considers practitioner perspective regarding current challenges, priorities for action and the role of donors within the eLearning arena. It then focuses on the vital place of monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment, giving recommendations for effective progress. The paper concludes by identifying sustained teacher training and infrastructural provision as significant recurring themes within development of eLearning in Africa and offers six themes for reflection and future research.

This presentation to the Advisory Group discusses key problems experienced in higher education in Africa. It further highlights how OER's can assist in alleviating some of the problems as well as OER Africa's proposed activities in this regard.

Powerpoint presentation by OER Africa to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Nairobi 19th March 2009.

This presentation provides an overview of OERAfrica, their aims and understanding of the role of OERs in Africa, with particular reference to higher education on the content. Additional author:Butcher, Neil

The data makes it easy to apply a deficit model to project planning, but we need to start with what we have and how we can build off it OER projects must work with what is available now, not demonstrate what would be possible if only the constraints were different but paradoxically we must hold in our minds a vision of a radically different future from the one that current trends project ? change is always surprising because it takes so much longer to happen than people think it will but happens so much quicker than they expect

Presentation to the Open University of Tanzania on what OER Africa is about and aiming to achieve.

OER Africa believes that OER can positively support development and capacity of higher education systems and institutions across Africa and is concerned that if the concept and practice of OER evolves predominantly outside and for Africa, we in SSA will not be able to liberate its potentialry year.