Open Educational Resources: How to build a culture of knowledge sharing
What is OER?
Digitized educational materials offered freely and openly for use and re-use in teaching, learning and research
OER challenges
Using OER in education face some important challenges:
Globalization of the knowledge societies, related to the rise of knowledge-intensive societies and the demand for skilled population.
Challenges to education systems regarding the extend and reach of education and the need to improve quality and flexibility.
Could the technology help?
The developments of new technical solutions, the increasing connectivity, the growing numbers of low-cost devices and the rising of open digital content create the infrastructure to facilitate knowledge sharing.
OER: an academic and cultural challenge
The explosive increasing of OER reinforce the tradition of the altruist academic sharing. Initiatives like MIT OpenCourseWare, the OCW initiated, the UNESCO actions, the OpenCourseWare Consortium movement, and others initiatives opened a wide debate about OER implications, about their advantages and disadvantages in educational systems in different parts of the world.
One aspect of key importance in the case of African universities is to go beyond their role as users of open content and become active participants in this movement. OER content that is useful in a cultural, academic and economic development is not always applicable in a different context.
When a university is considering the use of open content in the development of their subjects, must carefully consider the relevance and implications of implementing OER and imagine the prospects for participation in the OER movement as institution.
Some interesting views:
Some resources created elsewhere, might not be culturally appropriate, or relevant to the other place.
Connectivity is one of the practical challenges.
An important point is availability of free licences, with permission for free use.
The support from university management is crucial.
The notion of open learning incentives the academics, but they need to know how to do it.
The importance of partnerships with other universities.