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IAU Training and Support Programme for Academic Librarians on OER Use, Reuse, and Production

Validation Workshop – Anglophone Africa

IAU OER Project

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Outline of presentation

• Why an OER project at IAU?• Objective and outcomes of the IAU OER project• Proposed purposes• Proposed format• Next steps

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Why an OER project at IAU?

• IAU Position Statement Universities and Information and Commmunication Technologies, 2004 asking:– Universities to provide all members of the academic community and non-

academic staff with skills to use up-to-date ICTs– IAU to act as a platform for information sharing in regards to the use of (…) OER

and advocate and promote networking among higher education institutions to share experience, educational material (…) in order to ensure that (all) institutions (..) fully participate in exchange of (…) knowledge.

• IAU participation in various international OER-linked activities (UNESCO; Mapping, ICDE)

• Demand from IAU Board to deliver on new e-learning developments (in relation to the rapid development of MOOCs) in 2013

• Need for clarification: Mis- or differererent - interpretations of what OER stand for among IAU Members

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Objective and outcomes of the IAU OER project

• Objectve:To train and support academic librarians in identifying and providing information on existing OER and for informing faculty and students in their use, re-use and production.

• Outcomes:– Universities wherever they are situated use, re-use and produce OER

according to their needs;– Academic librarians add support in OER use, development and

dissemination to their competences, and services offered; – OER worldwide are better identified and indexed;– IAU gains greater visibility both amongst and through academic

librarians.

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Proposed purposes

• The promotion of OER use, re-use and production by academic librarians;

• Training of academic librarians to gain basic knowledge and know where to find additional information on OER use, re-use and production;

• The creation of a community of Academic Libraries and Librarians for OER use, re-use, and production: ALL4OER (IAU’s acronym for the community);

• The development of OER re-use and production.

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Proposed format

• Capacity development sessions for knowledge reinforcement– one three-day session per region (definition of region can vary)

• Collaborative online platform for on-going and in-service support and information on new developments– Access through membership limited to academic librarians – Organized per region/ session with possibility to access other groups

as observers

• Participation in other international projects in OER• Review / evaluation of the project’s results

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Proposed next steps

• Report on the validation workshop to all participants;• Integration of comments/ proposals in final project;• Budgeting the project;• Drafting of a promotional fundraising document;• Fundraising campaign;• Setting up of the community;• Development of the capacity building session;• 1st capacity building session in Africa;• Development of support tools.