Research Reports

A formative evaluation of the African Health OER Network: Impact Study. Nairobi, OER Africa, A Saide Initiative/University of Michigan 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.

Provides definitions for OER, MOOCs and Open Textbooks and identifies key activities underlying them.

Explains 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. Focuses specifically on conceptual and methodological strategies adopted to tease out the relationship between OER and pedagogical practices in selected countries in Sub- Saharan Africa.

Suggests that careful analysis of existing educational materials and processes is necessary to provide an indication of what can be done to make them more openly available beyond the confines of an individual teaching and learning space.

Addresses a way of responding to one of the key challenges of OER contribution, namely academics? lack of time to re-purpose teaching materials originally intended for campus-based face-to-face lectures as stand-alone Open Educational Resources (OER). It describes how masters? students, tutors and interns at the University of Cape Town have been engaged to support the innovative practice of adapting academics? existing teaching materials into OER.

Endeavors to surface the various disturbances or conflicts with which postgraduate students had to engage to make OER socially inclusive, as well as Engestrm's "layers of causality" to explain postgraduate students' growing sense of agency as they experienced the OER development process as being socially inclusive.

Reviews the first year of UCT?s OER initiative, recount how the Centre for Educational Technology (CET) developed an institutional directory using a customised version of the open source software Drupal, highlights the signs of change in the UCT landscape and
explain how UCT is extending its open footprint through a more encompassing Open UCT initiative

The Use of ICT at Kenyatta University brochure is one of a series that aims to showcase good practice in African higher education. It is intended for higher education decision-makers on the Continent and overseas. Each institution in this series has taken simple steps to solve basic fundamental problems and improve the level of education and service delivery in a context of limited resources.

Explores the contribution of face-to-face, facilitated sessions to the learning experiences of wrapped MOOC participants. Interviews, surveys and course evaluations were analysed using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework.

This article seeks to contribute to the debate on OER. It critically examines the experiences of the Commonwealth of Learning in the creation and dissemination of OER and identifies lessons learned. It also suggests concrete ways in which various stakeholders can contribute to the sustainability of OER.

The main objective of this study was to assess the level of preparedness of Higher Education (HE) institutions in Kenya to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in teaching, learning, research, and management. Indirectly, it also assessed the capacity or readiness of these institutions to use electronic learning (e-learning) to improve quality of education and ultimately increase access to higher education in the country.

This article provides an insight into the state of educational development in Kenya and the role of ICT in narrowing the knowledge divide. It documents the progress made in educational development, while revealing the challenges faced. The article provides an overview of the historical and economic context, social factors, and the organization and state of education.

Provides insight into how to improve the diffusion of OER through (formal) institutional networks. It does so by examining two cases: (1) MORIL - the Multilingual Open Resources for Independent Learning task force, a Network of Practice that acted as a space for sharing and developing institutional OER strategies, and (2) TESSA - The Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa programme, an R&D initiative for OER and course design guidance for teachers and teacher-educators working in Sub-Saharan African countries.

This paper presents a scenario in which education is approaching a potential tipping point, where major changes are about to happen as a result of developments in technology, social networking, deeper understanding of educational process, as well as new legal and economic frames of reference.

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.

Reports on the uses, the motivation for and perceived benefits of use, as well as the challenges of using or producing OER/OCW among academics at public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in South Africa (SA). Findings revealed widespread use of OER/OCW amongst respondents in their teaching endeavors, with a number of reported benefits. Findings also revealed respondents? educational rationale for using or producing OER /OCW.

The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the present and future impact of digital learning on teacher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. The focus of the report is student-teachers and teachers, and its central argument is that existing institutional structures will be insufficient to meet the scale of demand for well-prepared, qualified teachers. The report describes digitally enhanced programme innovations that can be identified in many institutions across the region, as well as three phases to full-scale adoption of new digital technologies.

Argues that the exponential growth in connectivity, the emergence of the ?social web? and the freedoms and philosophies of the Open Educational Resource Movement (OERs) present a mix of phenomena that have come together in time to offer highly significant modes of education and training.

Open educational resources, international co-operation and teacher education in Sub-Saharan Africa (PDF Download Available). Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/43322886_Open_educational_resou... [accessed Nov 03 2017].

Research reports are presented highlighting the various challenges within the structure and provision of teacher education within certain national contexts, including assessment and curricula issues, which need to be addressed.