Make your voice heard about OER at Unisa!

Open Educational Resources are 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 or re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.
(Atkins, Brown, & Hammond, 2007, p.4)

Unisa has shown its intent to embrace Open Educational Resources and there has been encouraging growth in OER use and production in pockets at Unisa. Members of the Unisa community have not only employed existing OER to improve their own curriculum design and research, but some have also ventured into producing OERs for others to use (e.g. MathsEdge and Learn an African language online). Judging by the vast array of OER materials available, OERs are changing the face of education and Unisa intends to play its part. In order to increase Unisa’s involvement in OER though, we need a coherent institutional position statement and strategy. So, here we are – at the beginning of the process of developing such a strategy.

OERs are vehicles to improve curriculum development, share resources and collaborate, but becoming fully involved with OER presents challenges, such as those related to intellectual property, copyright, ICT infrastructure and quality assurance, to name just a few. You can actively contribute to the drafting of our OER strategy and help us address these issues. Did I hear you ask, “How?” Well, it’s simple: start contributing to the conversations in this blog and make your voice heard.

Opening the book on OER:

We are in no doubt about the powerful potential of OER to change the nature of our social relations. By radically reconceptualising normative educational practices in our schools and in our universities, OER will change the way we think about education in the future and on our continent, but it will do so only when we have carefully considered its distinct advantages and usages for Africa.

(Personal communication from Unisa Chancellor, Prof Makanya to Minister of Education, Dr Nzimande, 7 December 2011)

The OER phenomenon has grown in leaps and bounds since the concept of OER was codified at a UNESCO forum more than a decade ago. Recently, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) also identified OER development as a component in “…increasing and assuring the quality of provision [of education] across the entire post schooling system” (Department of Higer Education and Training, 2012, p. 59). In accordance with this, the DHET has committed to funding and supporting the development of shared learning materials. In addition, the Department is considering the adoption or adaptation of an appropriate Open Licensing Framework (Department of Higher Education and Training, 2012). It is clear that OER do not present a passing fad in education, but are here to stay. It is time for Unisa to leave its mark on the movement.

The OER road so far:

Unisa has been exploring various means of engaging with OER in an organised manner. These efforts, guided by the Pro Vice Chancellor, Professor Narend Baijnath, include, but are not limited to:

• The establishment of an OER steering committee
• A request to the Commonwealth of Learning to institute a Chair in OER at Unisa
• Focussing on OER at the Teaching and Learning Festival in September 2011 by careful selection of keynote speakers (Catherine Ngugi, OERAfrica; George Siemens, Athabasca University) and by hosting an African Roundtable on OER (including Dr Gilbert Hpangyewi from University of Zimbabwe and Ms Glenda Cox from University of Cape Town)
• Engaging the Department of Institutional Statistics and Analysis (DISA) in an OER Feasibility Study. This was completed in November 2011 with three phases of reporting. (Reports can be accessed on the Institutional Information and Analysis Portal)
• Becoming a founding anchor partner in the OER university initiative

The question now is, how do we proceed further towards the African university in the service of humanity?

Where do you fit in OER?

At the heart of the movement towards Open Educational Resources is the simple and powerful idea that the world’s knowledge is a public good and that technology in general and the Worldwide Web in particular provide an extraordinary opportunity for everyone to share, use and reuse knowledge.

(Atkins, Brown, & Hammond, 2007, p. 5)

The success of OER at Unisa is dependent on each one of us. What do you think should be our next step? How can Unisa successfully and appropriately engage with OER to both improve Unisa and contribute to the OER movement in a meaningful way? What would you focus on in the Unisa OER strategy if you were to write it?

For more information, please contact:

Dr Liz Archer
Specialist: Institutional Research
Department of Institutional Statistics and Analysis (DISA)
Email: archee@unisa.ac.za
Tel: 012 429 2035