Group 3Developing Country Policies on the use of OER in Southern Africa

Members

• Mr Athanasius Mulenga – Zambia (Chairperson)

• Prof Honoratha Mushi – Tanzania

• Dr Sushita Ramdoo – Mauritius (Dept Chairperson)

• Mr Peterson Dlamini - Swaziland

• Mrs Lurdes Nakala – Mozambique

• Ms Trudi van Wyk – South Africa (Scribe)

Educational benefits of OER• When there are wider choices – students can make better informed

decisions about materials. There will be an improved connection between student needs and available educational materials/programmes

• When quality materials are available it will improve the quality of poorer materials (pressure to improve quality of materials)

• Collaboration/partnerships/communication/sharing is encouraged• Enhance multi-disciplinary inputs into development and use of

materials as well as enrich the curriculum by drawing from other disciplines

• Enable individuals to construct their own learning experience by building their own programmes

• Capacity building of both teaches and learners• Repurposing materials takes less time to produce – pace of materials

development is faster

Financial benefits of OER

• Cost-effective

• Increased access

• Sharing of resources drive down the unit cost of materials per institution/individual

• Time efficiency leads to cost benefits

Strategic Educational Challenges• Political support and commitment (political will) • Managing a change agenda• Lack of understanding of reallocating/prioritising/

repurposing of financial resources……..Can be addressed through:• advocacy and communication of the issues and its

benefits • Modeling good practice on the ground/practitioners and

‘sell the idea’ upstream• Capacity building at all levels – practical e.g.

development through VUSSC bootcamps, TESSA

What prevents harnessing OER …..

• Ignorance• Lack of understanding of the power of OER• Lack of workable examples• Lack of trust in change agendas communicated to decision makers• Resistance to change – can not think out of the box• Advocates of OER are too theoretical/abstract in communicating the

issues• Decision makers do not see OER as a solution to problems• Absence of a champion such as Minister Danny Faure for VUSSC • Focus too much on the formal school/ODL situation and benefits of

OER can be better introduced in other areas such as HIV/AIDS, climate change - Should permeate other sectors

• Lack of visibility of the benefits of OER for non-formal and informal learning programmes

We thank you…