Awareness Raising and Marketing

This paper investigated the accessibility of Open Educational Resources at The Open University of Tanzania. Specifically, the study looked at staff and students’ level of awareness on the types of OER available at OUT Library, access and use trends of OER by academic staff and students, challenges faced in accessing OER and possible solutions. The study involved one hundred and twenty (120) students and eighty (80) academic staff who were randomly selected. Primary data for this study was collected through self-administered questionnaires.

Open Educational Resources (OER) — teaching, learning and research materials that their owners make free for others to use, revise and share — offer a powerful means of expanding the reach and effectiveness of worldwide education. The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and UNESCO co-organised the World OER Congress in 2012 in Paris.

The purpose of this document is to provide a concise analysis of where the global OER movement currently stands: what the common threads are, where the greatest opportunities and challenges lie, and how we can more effectively work together as a community. The first draft was born from a meeting of 26 OER leaders in February 2015.

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.

Presentation at the Association of African Universities (AAU) Conference of Rectors, Vice-Chancellors and Presidents of African Universities (COREVIP) is an assembly of the chief executive officers of member institutions or their representatives. The theme of the 2011conference was: Strengthening the Space of Higher Education in Africa.

JISC made a new guide on open educational resources available in March 2013

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.