Research Reports

The current impact study follows on from two earlier evaluations of the project.

A formative evaluation of the Design Phase completed at the end of 2009 focused mainly on OER ‘take-up’ and production in the partner institutions (OER Africa 2009). This evaluation concluded that expectations and contractual targets had been met, or exceeded by an impressive margin, with project coordinators and participants in each partner institution having engaged OER in creative ways that were most appropriate to their own contexts.

The second evaluation, a mid-term evaluation titled ‘Phase 2 Evaluation: Consolidation and Sustainability’ (OER Africa 2011),reinforced the finding that individual and institutional participants in the project had made significant progress in producing OER as well as in developing OER-supportive policy environments. This they had done in their own distinctive ways, in a manner that was consistent with their own ethos, contextual realities, strategies and resources.
This impact evaluation focused more broadly on Network activities, including these four institutions and partnerships that have been formed since project inception in 2008, as well as broader usage of health OER by other users not affiliated with the Network.

The aim of the AgShare Planning and Pilot Project is to create a scalable and sustainable collaboration of existing organizations for African publishing, localizing, and sharing of teaching and learning materials that fill critical resource gaps in African MSc agriculture curriculum.
This Impact Study focussed on assessing AgShare impact on the three layers of the project, namely: teaching and learning, project ‘take up’, and farming practice.

The study focuses on the involvement of the Library as an organizational unit, and of individual librarians and other information science specialists, in open educational resources (OER) initiatives. This research study contributes to the current Open Educational Resources (OER) Programme [http://www.jisc.ac.uk/oer], an initiative by JISC and the HEA whose objective is to promote the creation, dissemination, access and use of OER. This programme represents a firm commitment by UK Higher Education (HE) institutions to the OER movement.

This document is the result of a discussion within the African Teacher Education Network of OER Africa on the status of OER integration into teacher education. It provides some suggests regarding why OER should be integrated into teacher education as well as possible barriers and ways to overcome them. It provides insight into how different institutions in Africa are currently integrating OER into their teacher education programmes.

This case study documents the background, process and outcomes of a collaboration between Mkwawa University College of Education, the University of Dar-es-Salaam and OER Africa in the period 2011 to 2014.

This report, based on a desktop review, unpacks the possibilities of opennes in African higher education, launching the discussion with a presentation and explanation of the concepts and icons associated with various tenets of open practice. The discussion then moves on to explore the factors leading to the rise of openness, including a social inclination towards opennes, government involvement, and technological innovations that have encouraged and facilitated openness. Global and regional trends in openness in higher education are highlighted in the context of the core business of universities: teaching and learning, research and community engagement. Concerns over quality in open practice are raised and discussed. Given its importance, especially in relation to African economic development, the important role of higher education in research, development, and innnovation is given special attention, covering aspects of supply and demand, and university-industry partnerships - their nature, enablers to partnership, open innovation, and barriers to such partnerships. The report concludes with an outline of recommendations on how African universities can reinvent themselves through making certain changes that will enable them to be more relevant and responsive to 21st century skills demands and ultimately to serve their communities more effectively and efficiently.

The study discusses the challenges of open educational resources and in doing so makes a comparative analysis between Shanghai Open University and the Open University of Tanzania. The study uses descriptive survey research design to examine the challenges of open educational researches and hence make a comparative analysis between Shanghai Open University and the open university of Tanzania. 

This report outlines the process and outcomes of a 4th visit to explore how to mainstream engagement with OER to support the increasing demand for flexible higher learning opportunities at Africa Nazarene University using a participatory action research approach.

Background documentation reflecting on the emerging lessons as OER Africa comes to a close of its second year of engagement with identified institutions.

Qualitative case study that used interviews and document analysis to collect data. The findings indicate varying degrees of open education practices at the AVU network level, at the level of the partner institution and at the level of the educational professional. Presented at OEGlobal 2017, 8?10 March 2017. Cape Town, South Africa

A study to determine whether a group of Ghanaian students are able to easily use electronic learning material and whether they perceive this method of learning as acceptable. Ghana Medical Journal, Vol. 44(4), 159?162.

Presents The National Open University of Nigeria's (NOUN?s) OER strategy with insight on lessons learned. Open Praxis, 8(2), 111?121.

Investigates the key challenges to Higher Education (HE) in SSA and identifies those areas in which OER could contribute significantly to finding solutions to those challenges.

A typology for analysing OER initiatives using four main categories: creation, organisation, dissemination and utilisation, and 18 sub categories to examine and analyse each initiative, with each sub category having a number of properties and possible dimensions.

The article concludes that, in order to foster a greater uptake or more institution-wide diffusion of use of emerging technologies, institutional opinion leaders need to purposefully create an enabling environment by giving recognition to and communicating with change agents, and developing policies that will encourage institutional-wide engagement with emerging technologies.

A summary of key issues in OER, an analysis of those issues, and a set of appendices, containing more detailed information about speci c areas of relevance to OER.

Outlines the importance of OER in the African context and sets out a 'Theory of Change', for OER which begins by identifying a clear set of specific problems