Policies

This strategy attempts to create an enabling environment for Wits academics, students and other staff to participate in the use, adaptation, creation, and sharing of educational and research resources as free and open educational resources (FOER). This new approach to old academic traditions is a global trend, led by some of the top institutions in the world, and as a world class, research-intensive university, Wits should keep abreast of these developments.

Access to relevant learning resources is an important aspect in ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all as outlined in the sustainable development goal 4 (SDG4). The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) has identified the development of open educational resources (OER) as a potential answer to these challenges. A total of 29 provincial/regional OER policies and guidelines were developed in Sri Lanka, Botswana, and Cameroon closely involving 608 provincial/regional policymakers from the general education system.

This presentation was given by Tony Mays at the Open University of Tanzania in 2016.

This module is aimed at providing the learner with basic guidance on OER, including underlying concepts, and encouraging practical use of OER. The first topic covers the basic definition of OER, their forms and repositories. Topic two introduces the learner to OER licensing, particularly Creative Commons licences (CC). The third topic covers ways that OER can be adapted and produced. Topic four highlights the importance of an institutional OER policy and its associated formulation considerations.      

The interactive toolkit allows you to choose a policy statement in various categories and create an output of a completed Open Policy for your Institution. The toolkit is licensed CC BY and we would love for you to reuse it, remix it, revise it, and/or redistribute it.

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.

Everyone talks about OER Policy, but what does it mean? What do OER policies look like in practice? How do they impact OER initiatives? How does our government and our world perceive Open policy? Is policy always necessary in OER implementation? SBCTC invites you on a journey, one where you will explore different paths,  each one reÄecting on these questions through interviews with experts in various areas of OER. These interviews are woven into a series of multimedia presentations on Open Education policy strategy, implementation, and vision.

This policy outlines the University’s position on Open Educational Resources (OERs) and provides guidelines for practice in learning and teaching.

The purpose of this policy is to provide direction in the use of open educational resources (hereinafter referred to as OER) to increase access to and support quality learning and teaching in Fiji’s education and training system. In doing so, the policy seeks to strengthen commitment to OER by all concerned including the Government.