Book Chapters

In the last decade, a number of OER initiatives in African higher education have sought to address challenges related to the access, supply and contextualisation of educational materials. However, limited information is available on the effectiveness of such initiatives. To gain deeper insight into this, OER Africa conducted research between September 2019 and February 2022. The project analysed the effectiveness of eleven key African OER initiatives in higher education and their influence on developing and supporting effective OER practices. The research team used a mixed-methods approach which included a short survey, desktop research and in-depth online interviews with initiative representatives to develop eleven case studies (one for each initiative). They also developed an analytical summary report which drew key findings across the case studies together. Three significant themes emerged from the research, which are explored in this chapter. First, the research highlighted the impact that OER localisation had on improving the number of contextually relevant educational materials. Second, it identified successes and challenges of OER advocacy. Third, it contributed insights about sustainability efforts for the initiatives, including funding, inter-institutional support, and champions to advocate for OER. This chapter explores these themes using the case studies and the accompanying report findings.

Governments across the world are increasing the openness and transparency of their services, a move also taking place in the education sector in some countries, signifying commitment to openness and ensuring that adequate attention and funding is paid to open educational resources (OER). This chapter assesses the extent to which policies are being developed and/or modified to support effective use of open educational resources. However, despite the growth of OER at many institutions, surprisingly few have developed and implemented formal OER policies. Those with policies have most commonly established them in a context of having implemented OER projects, thereafter recognising the need for policy to inform initiatives or to institutionalise OER formally. Others have developed OER policies as they began exploring the use of OER. Evidence suggests the vital role of leadership support and champions in encouraging and driving OER policies.

Several institutions have developed practices or procedures that support OER and which contribute towards institutionalising OER, even though there may not be a formal policy. A review of available policies reveals that they do not typically cover all aspects related to OER creation and adaptation, with most institutions focusing primarily on managing intellectual property rights and releasing materials using a Creative Commons license. In some instances, policy has been created, but with little evidence of consistency between policy and practice, highlighting that policy fulfils a limited function and that issues such as sustainability and faculty buy-in and involvement are of equal importance. This chapter concludes with recommendations to accelerate the development and adoption of open licensing frameworks for governments, institutions and faculty.

This chapter focuses on online teaching but is relevant for all modes of instruction. Topics covered include microlearning and microcontent, text content, video content, and locating OER, along with five references. It is a valuable resource for academics to learn about ‘chunking’ content into manageable amounts, developing and presenting text, using, and hosting video content, and effectively presenting content in their courses.

Ideas for CPD Interventions
Useful for CPD where the focus is on selecting content for use in a course.

The resource champions using a teaching methodology with ‘hands-on activities’ to encourage higher order thinking skills to supplement lectures.

Ideas for CPD Interventions
This Pressbooks chapter is useful when compiling CPD that attempts to encourage lecturers to embrace varied teaching methodologies over and above the lecture. The strategy is to incorporate into a series of lectures opportunities for students to engage with the content in an active fashion. This method could be offered as part of a suggested list of things to try out in class shared among the academic staff, followed by an opportunity to discuss the effectiveness of these hands-on activities.

A good introduction to understand what role technology must play in supporting the common modes of delivery: asynchronous, synchronous, in person with facilitator, remote learning, blended, and hybrid. Once the modes of delivery are understood then the selection of technology is easier.

Ideas for CPD Interventions
The CPD intervention might be to develop a tool, and criteria, to determine if student or staff access to technology is sufficient to support a specific mode at an institution.

This is a book chapter with practical examples of how to curate digital resources. It would lead librarians into understanding the difference between collecting and curating digital resources.

The ebook provides background knowledge on institutional repositories – the content, access points and relevant stakeholders for the successful operations of IRs. 

Digital content refers to any type of material that exists in digital format, whether the material is born-digital or converted using scanning and digitization. Digital content has increased in recent years because of modern and innovative technologies, such as social media, enterprise applications, digital publishing, smart cities applications, Internet of Things (IoT) applications, and mobiles devices, such as smartphones with enhanced digital capture capabilities. The shift toward open access makes it easier and more affordable for libraries to provide access to curated digital collections. The role and nature of the librarian and information professional's job are also changing. Some existing jobs are being reinvented or expanded, and many new jobs are being created.

This resource provides historical and contextual information as well as trends and tools for management of digital content. 

The resource lists risks that data may face, and how policies, procedures, and standards can be put in place for effective management and use of data. 

The Open Access policy will provide our scholars the opportunity and platform to promote their academic work by enhancing access to research outputs. Further, the policy will enhance the visibility and impact of our research output and archiving of our
scholarly materials.

The University of South Africa has approved its OER strategy which demonstrates that they have realised that the vast quantities of content and teaching materials, especially openly licensed content, have significant potential to contribute to the quality of the teaching and learning experience of its students.

• guide the development and review of OER materials prior to sharing them on a worldwide scale
• clarify publication rights and licensing issues
• outline policies regarding the use of required infrastructure (information technology, library, etc.) and other support services
• identify human and other resources to support faculty in developing OER for teaching and learning
• define collaborations within and external to the university and the intent to allow access.

This strategy attempts to create an enabling environment for Wits academics, students and other staff to participate in the use, adaptation, creation, and sharing of educational and research resources as free and open educational resources (FOER). This new approach to old academic traditions is a global trend, led by some of the top institutions in the world, and as a world class, research-intensive university, Wits should keep abreast of these developments. The strategy provides examples of content types and recommends appropriate Creative Commons licenses for use when choosing to create FOER. In addition, the strategy provides for an open access institutional repository (IR) for research output, and provides means for researchers to add their papers to the IR. It also provides for the establishment and maintenance of a repository for academic presentations. The strategy grants explicit permission for Wits staff to participation in the creation of FOER, including courseware, and the deposit of research articles in an IR. It also establishes mechanisms to support and raise awareness of FOER and IR work at Wits. This will increase exposure of Wits researchers to other researchers around the world and to the media, contribute to increased citations, and enhance the already strong reputation that Wits enjoys internationally. It will also provide for a long-term archive for our research output. A number of projects and programmes of action will be used to implement this strategy.

This report makes a case for open educational resources (OER) in Nigeria and presents a draft OER policy for higher education in Nigeria. In its simplest form, OER are any “educational resources (including curriculum maps, course materials, textbooks, streaming videos, multimedia applications, podcast, and any other materials that have been designed for use in teaching and learning) that are openly available for use by educators and students, without accompanying need to pay royalties or licence fees” (Butcher, 2011). This report comprises four sections. Section one focuses on the status of higher education in Nigeria, covering information on the education system in Nigeria and higher education; issues of access, cost and quality in higher education, as well as a few details on the National Universities Commission (NUC). Section two focuses on information and communication technology (ICT) in higher education institutions, covering the status of ICT in higher education institutions in Nigeria as well as national and international projects and initiatives in this area. With a focus on open educational resources (OER) in Nigeria, section three presents an overview of OER, including short explanations of copyright and open licensing. Some of the institutions using and promoting OER in Nigeria are also highlighted. In section four, the process of validation of the draft OER policy though a national steering committee and national consultation is described. The Appendix provides the validated National OER policy for Higher Education in Nigeria, as distributed by NUC at the 2nd World OER Congress.

Although this document begins with the religious ideology of Brigham Young University, it provides a useful analysis of the status of open access at universities in the United States of America.

Although this document contains some of the religious ideology of the Brigham Young University, some of their staff are leading thinkers in open education resources theory. The policy document is therefore a useful reference for OERAfrica