What's Happening in OER in Africa

Image: CC0 (Public domain)

With the ever-increasing costs of textbooks, how can university students get access to the resources they need to study?

Worldwide, university students find it difficult to purchase textbooks for their courses as they are too expensive. Already in 2014 in South Africa[1], and in 2011 in the United States[2], there were reports that students didn’t buy textbooks due to expense. The situation has not improved in recent years; for example, in a study of nearly fifty thousand respondents in South African universities, nearly two thirds indicated that they spent between R500 and R2500 on textbooks, and while 87% of students’ first semester modules had prescribed textbooks, 27% of students did not buy any prescribed books in the first semester of 2020. Students were opting not to purchase textbooks either because of a lack of affordability, because they did not find them contextually relevant, or because a course would only use a small portion of the textbook. [3]

Open textbooks can be regarded as a subset of Open Educational Resources (OER). They are digital textbooks published under an open licence, which means that they are freely downloadable and adaptable to suit a range of contexts (as long as the licence permits adaptation). The right to adapt is particularly important for educators who may want to tailor the textbook to their specific curriculum. An open textbook can be published with different Creative Commons licences,[4] depending on how open or restrictive the author wishes the licence to be. The principal advantages of an open textbook are its accessibility and affordability to the students, as long as they have a digital device, or have access to print at low or no cost. However, open textbooks have other advantages as well. These include:[5]

• Local Contexts: Open textbooks can be regularly updated, and tailored to suit the local context, providing cultural relevance and addressing specific needs of students.
• Partial Use: In some courses, only a portion of the overall textbook content is relevant. Students may hesitate to purchase an expensive textbook when they will only use a few chapters. In contrast, open textbooks allow educators to select and integrate specific sections, reducing unnecessary costs.
• Collective Authorship: Open textbooks encourage collaborative authorship strategies. Locally produced open textbooks can involve input from multiple experts, resulting in richer and more contextually relevant content with diverse perspectives.
• Flexibility: Open textbooks can be accessed in different formats and stored digitally, so that they are easy to share and adapt.

Of course, open textbooks also have some disadvantages, namely:

• Availability: We provide examples of open textbook repositories below, but educators may find that there is limited selection for certain subjects or specialised topics. 
• Quality: There may be inconsistencies in writing style, accuracy, and depth of content but these can be easily mitigated by evaluating the textbooks prior to use, as should be done for all resources to be used, including commercial textbooks.
• Author incentives: Authors of traditional textbooks normally receive royalties from publishers as their books are sold. The open licence by which open textbooks are released means that other forms of incentive may be needed, for example in the form of grants, that may not be sufficiently enticing for many potential authors.

Research on open textbooks

Most research has been carried out in the Global North. For example, a meta-analysis of 22 studies of 100,012 students found that there were no differences between open and commercial textbooks for learning performance.[6] A research study Adoption and impact of OER in the Global South[7] had similar findings, with open textbooks being more effective that traditional ones in several instances. However, the studies reported that careful pedagogical scaffolding, including a mix of OER, produced the most effective learning. Within Africa, research findings from the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) Project[8] found that open textbooks addressed economic, cultural, and political injustices faced by their students, issues not considered by traditional textbooks. Summarising the research overall, we can say that open textbooks have several advantages over traditional ones, as listed above, and in terms of learning, they are equivalent. 

Examples of African institutions who have benefited from using open textbooks

Probably the best example of collaborative development of open textbooks is the University of Cape Town’s DOT4D Project. If you want to learn about the experiences of their staff and students, read UCT Open Textbook Journeyswhich documents the stories of 11 academics at the University who embarked on open textbook development initiatives to provide their students more accessible and locally relevant learning materials.

Other African universities’ libraries list sites where open textbooks and other OER are available, usually from outside the continent. Finding open textbooks for your own institution is not always easy. Here we list three sites where you can search for open textbooks. Bear in mind that, if you choose an American or European textbook, you may need to spend time adapting it for your own context. 

University of Cape Town Catalogue

26 textbook titles ranging from medical texts, through sustainable development to marketing, but also many other titles on OpenUCT.

Open Textbook Library

Based at the University of Minnesota in the United States, this repository has 1,403 titles. The view shown here groups the titles by subject.

University of Stellenbosch 

This LibGuide lists 17 platforms where you can search for open access textbooks and other free books.

Resources on developing and using open textbooks

Below is a list of resources to help you explore this growing field. The first three assist you to develop an open textbook, while the last two guide you to adopt or modify an existing open textbook.

• Commonwealth of Learning Guide to Developing Open Textbooks
• Open Education Network: Authoring Open Textbooks
• Rebus Community: A guide to making open textbooks with students
• BC Campus: Steps to Adopting an Open Textbook
• Open Education Network: Modifying an Open Textbook: What You Need to Know

Finally, although they are not designed for higher education, the open textbooks developed by Siyavula for high school mathematics, technology, and sciences may be useful for colleges and access courses in universities.

In summary, there are considerable benefits to using open textbooks, but with a few exceptions, African institutions have not yet taken on the challenge of producing open textbooks themselves. Clearly, funding is required for the development of open textbooks, and institutions might consider making funding applications to create (or adapt) these highly useful open education resources for the benefit of more African students.

Related resources:

• Researching OER initiatives in African higher education
• The Revised Open Knowledge Primer for African Universities
• Self-Publishing Guide: BC Open Textbook

 Access the OER Africa communications archive here

Introduction: Why is open access publishing beneficial to academics?

Why might you want to publish your research in an open access journal? Open access journals use Creative Commons licences, which lay out the terms under which they can be used and distributed.  All Creative Commons licences require full attribution.  Open access can benefit scholars because wider access to their research, enhances visibility and citations.[1]

Figure 1 shows some of the possible benefits of OA publishing, many of which are relevant to researchers around the world, including those in Africa.

Figure 1: Benefits of open access publishing

What are predatory journals?

Most open access journals are highly respected and entirely legitimate. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) lists more than 20,000 journals, many without an author processing fee:

Figure 2: DOAJ coverage[2]

The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) in South Africa includes the DOAJ journals amongst its list of accredited journals. Academics, researchers, and librarians are sure to find a reliable open access journal on the DOAJ database or any of the others that DHET lists.[3]

Even so, there are scores of journals that can be classified as ‘predatory’; they prey on the unwary who want to publish or to read a reliable article.

What is a predatory journal?  In 2019, a group of legal experts and publishers agreed on this definition:

"Predatory journals and publishers are entities that prioritize self-interest at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices."

Though it might seem straightforward, there are so many forms of predatory practices that this group of specialists had trouble agreeing on a definition to describe how predation manifests itself.[4]

Experts [5] believe that there are now more than 15,000 predatory journals, which promise:

• Peer review with a fast turnaround time.
• Low author processing fees—low in comparison to some of the top tier journals, but high in terms of what authors get for their money.
• Online publication and visibility.
• Indexing in platforms such as Scopus and Web of Science.

Figure 3: How to spot a predatory journal[6]

OER Africa has a free online tutorial on open access publishing, which includes suggestions on how to verify a journal’s legitimacy.[7] There is also a discussion in Open Knowledge Primer for African Universities on the ways in which DOAJ tries to ensure that the journals in its database are legitimate.[8]

All researchers are under pressure to publish to keep their jobs and become eligible for promotion. The pressure on African scholars is increased because they cannot afford the high publication fees some journals charge, and some may not be familiar with the steps necessary to evaluate journals.

Two researchers are quoted in a 2022 article in the Africa Edition of University World News to illustrate the dilemmas facing African scientists who must publish but have neither the funds to pay the APC costs of top-tier journals nor the knowhow to discern the legitimate from the predatory.[9]

One scientist, Euclides Sacomboio of Agostinho Neto University in Angola, had two articles published in disreputable journals. His preference would have been high-impact journals, but, as he told University World News:

"I earn US$500, and the article processing fee in reputable journals is about US$2,180. Where do I get the money without any support?"

Sacomboio added:

"To me, it was important to share my data. Worse, it was difficult to choose [where to publish] because some of these journals we call predatory have peer review processes."

The second scientist, Moses Samje of the University of Bamenda, Cameroon and a member of the African Academy of Sciences Chapter of Affiliates, was also taken in—this time because the journal’s focus was on research like his and because of the journal’s allegedly high impact factor. Samje said:

"The impact factor was quite attractive. It was too good to be true … We had to try and we submitted a paper and, in the space of 24 hours, they [the publishers] asked for the processing charge, which was getting way more affordable. In less than 48 hours, we received an e-mail [saying] our paper was online. I was quite excited."

Samje subsequently went online and discovered that the journal’s peer review process was not as it seemed; he believes that the journal is a sham.

‘Plagiarism, fraud, and predatory publishing’

The noted bioethicist, Arthur Caplan, wrote those words in 2015 and called predatory journals ‘polluting journals.’[10]

Although the points in figure 3 elucidate the major ways to identify a predatory journal, there are two additional strategies they employ. Predatory journals are noted for accepting plagiarized articles and those that have already been published elsewhere. Even though predatory journals may report that they check for plagiarism, they typically don’t.

A 2018 blog post in the Indian newsletter, The Wire, succinctly described the situation in India and gave examples. The authors wrote:[11]

"Fake journals and plagiarism in academics go hand-in-hand. The lack of peer review and a complete absence of quality checking provides a safe channel to publish plagiarised articles. It is therefore no coincidence that along with fake journals, almost all academic fields have also seen an epidemic of plagiarism."

Sometimes plagiarism is intentional; other times it is the result of a researcher’s lack of expertise on what the concept means.

It isn’t always easy to find specific examples of plagiarism. Science Integrity Digest is one source of information. In 2020, it reported on a clear case of plagiarism in which the work of the OstrowskiLab was stolen and published in a predatory journal.[12] In 2019 in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship, authors wrote about numerous instances of plagiarism in three predatory nursing journals.[13]

In South Africa, Professor Nicki Tiffin, a former researcher at the University of Cape Town (UCT) found that not only had she been plagiarized in a predatory journal, but her name had been stolen too.[14]

Unwary researchers are also trapped because some predatory journals have titles very similar to those of reputable journals. The three journals in the figure below all have similar titles but the similarity ends there.

What's in a name?

The first journal, Plant Physiology and Biochemistry is published by Elsevier, a reputable scientific publisher. The second, Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Physiology, is published by Longdom Press. Note it has phone numbers in Great Britain and in Spain and a registered address in Brussels. The journal is not included in any of the major indexing services that have quality controls, such as Web of Science, Scopus, or PubMed. The third, Journal of Plant Biochemistry & Physiology, is published by Omics, a publisher that was sued by the US Federal Trade Commission for predatory practices and ordered to pay a fine of more than $50 million.[15]

How to help researchers distinguish between the fake and the real

Above, we outlined several ways to determine legitimate journals from predatory ones. The two OER Africa publications we cited offer detailed help to students, researchers, and librarians.

Intellectual property rights, plagiarism, and referencing are taught in the Use of Libraries or embedded in the Use of English course, which is an integral part of the compulsory General Studies (GS) for first year students in Nigerian universities. However, the effect of the course on students has been found to be minimal.[16] Traditionally, African academic libraries run library orientation activities for new students. This window of opportunity could be widened to include provision of information packs or tutorials (online and physically) on information literacy, copyright, and plagiarism issues (including an introduction to plagiarism detecting software), as well as information about predatory journals.

Figure 4: AfLIA poster for use in libraries

Academic libraries can play an important role in raising awareness to the need to be wary of predatory practices.  But universities as a whole should be engaged in preventing staff and students from falling prey to these journals. They can list the open access journals for which academics associated with their institution can use for purposes of promotion, tenure, and contracts.  The DHET site discussed above would be a good place start.  Supervisors can advise their PhD students about conducting a literature review without including predatory journals.  Sarah Elaine Eaton of the University of Calgary wrote the following about the need of universities to support their students and academics against predation: ^[17]

"There are implications for mentors of graduate students and early-career stage academics, as well as for institutions as a whole. The issue of questionable conferences and publications is so complex that early-stage academics require support and mentorship to cultivate a deeper understanding of how to share their work in a credible way."

Dr. Eaton’s statement is valid around the world, particularly in circumstances such as Drs. Sacomboio and Samje described—insufficient funds to pay fees and insufficient guidance within the institution.

Much has been written about Artificial Intelligence (AI), mainly in English, including by OER Africa.[1] English is the predominant language on the Internet, in research and publications, and in education.  African languages are vastly underrepresented in the global knowledge pool, even though scholars at Harvard University believe that with between 1,000 and 2,000 languages, Africa is home to about one third of the world’s languages.[2]

Artificial intelligence (AI) can play an important role in mitigating these language challenges. Already, international search engines, such as Google, play a large role in using AI to translate English into African languages and vice-versa. Efforts are constrained, however, by the paucity of documents on the web written in most African languages. Additionally, networks of African researchers have become actively engaged in looking for ways to increase the data on the web in African languages, including documenting scientific terms in the African languages where no such terms currently exist. Such data will then be available for use by AI to improve access to African languages. Importantly, they are trying to grow the field of African AI researchers by building networks and finding AI language technology solutions.  

Many of us think about Google Translate when we want to understand what has been written in a language that we do not understand. Google Translate is now supported in 25 African languages: Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic, Bambara, Chichewa, Ewe, Hausa, Igbo, Kinyarwanda, Krio, Lingala, Luganda, Malagasy, Oromo, Sepedi, Swahili, Sesotho, Shona, Somali, Tigrinya, Tsonga, Twi, Xhosa, Yoruba, and Zulu. Several of these languages are spoken across borders. The good news is that the number of them keeps increasing. The bad news is that there does not seem to be any one place to ascertain which African languages are covered; this can only be determined through searches within Google Translate. Furthermore, Google Translate uses machine translation, which is mostly accurate, but not entirely.

The Nigerian linguist, Aremu Adeola, uses an interesting example about why context matters in many languages, including Yoruba:[3]

"Most translations done by machines render some words wrong, especially words that are culturally nuanced. For example, Yorùbá words ayaba and obabìnrin have their meanings situated in a cultural context. Most machines translate both words as ‘queen.’ However, from a traditional-cum-cultural vantage point, it is essential to note that the meanings of ayaba and obabìnrin are different: Ọbabìnrin means ‘queen’ in English while ayaba is ‘wife of the king.’"

Using AI as a translation tool is not straightforward. Most AI tools:[4]

"Rely on a field of AI called natural language processing, a technology that enables computers to understand human languages. Computers can master a language through training, where they pick up on patterns in speech and text data. However, they fail when data in a particular language is scarce, as seen in African languages."

The South African science journalist, Sibusiso Biyela, gives an excellent example of just how difficult it can be to make scientific discoveries understandable and relatable in African languages, such as isiZulu.   Biyela was given an assignment to write about the discovery of a new species of dinosaur, Ledumahadi mafube in isi-Zulu.  He explained:[5]

"But there’s no word for “dinosaur” in Zulu. Nor are there words for “Jurassic,” “fossilization,” or “evolution.” Despite the fact that Zulu—or isiZulu, as the language is called in South Africa—is spoken by some 10 million people, it simply doesn’t have the words for communicating science.

So my news piece wasn’t just a news piece. It was an attempt to tell a science story in a language that science overlooked—to help right a societal wrong. It was a small contribution among an increasing number that aim to help decolonize South African science writing. And it was rife with more pitfalls than I could have imagined. The task of describing science clearly, concisely, and accurately—already challenging in English—became exponentially more difficult in my native tongue."

At the end of his article, Biyela gives a lexicon of some of the English-isiZulu scientific terms that he used. Biyela uses technology joined with his expertise in science for his work on conveying scientific terms from English to isiZulu. He was one of the partners in Masakhane, which is discussed below.[6]

The underrepresentation of African languages online makes it more difficult to use AI as a translating tool because computers have trouble identifying datasets with which to work. Several organizations are trying to mitigate this challenge, among them the Masakhane Research Foundation. Masakhane is collaborating with the African scientific preprint server, AfricArXiv,[7] to find a way to translate the papers that AfricArXiv receives into African languages.

Masakhane is a grassroots natural language processing (NLP) network that was formed for NLP research in African languages, for Africans, by Africans. The Masakhane community consists of:[8]

 ">1000 participants from 30 African countries with diverse educations and occupations, and >3 countries outside Africa. As of February 2020, over 49 translation results for over 38 African languages have been published by over 35 contributors on GitHub."

Masakhane has a trial translation page, but the translation results do not always match those of Google Translate. For example, ‘kisukuku’ is how ‘fossil’ is translated in Google Translate. ‘Mabaki ya Wanyama’ is the translation given by Masakhane. (Most online translations use kisukuku).

Figure 1: What is the correct translation?

These efforts are just getting started. If Africa is going to join the global knowledge pool, its languages must be represented too. Both AfricarXiv and Masakhane welcome volunteers; there are other such organizations that would also appreciate assistance.

And for those who are interested in the interrelationship between AI and library and information studies, the African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA) will host a webinar on this topic on 25 October 2023. Visit the webinar’s information page for more information.

Image at the top of the article courtesy of albyantoniazzi, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA

Figure 1: AfLIA poster on the UNESCO OER Recommendation

The UNESCO Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER) is significant to all those who are interested in and committed to ensuring that all learners have access to appropriate high-quality educational content, including librarians. It was approved unanimously by UNESCO member states in November 2019.

In August 2023, the African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA) and Neil Butcher & Associates (NBA) co-published an Overview for African Librarians on the UNESCO OER Recommendation and Open Knowledge.[1] A William and Flora Hewlett Foundation grant to NBA funded the research and writing entailed in producing the Overview.

The Overview explores how the OER Recommendation’s five action areas are relevant to librarians and what librarians can do to support their implementation. It examines how the OER Recommendation relates to the different library types in Africa and the user communities the libraries represent.

It further aims to help African librarians develop a deeper understanding of OER, including the kinds of open content that will resonate with library users. OER is consonant with other equally important principles for librarians—access to equitable, suitable, and relevant content for easy sharing and interoperability of knowledge within Africa.  All these facets are included in the Overview.

The Overview is filled with insights and stories from librarians on open knowledge and open licensing, including how traditional knowledge, culture, and languages can be used in creating and adapting openly licensed content.

AfLIA also produced a comic strip to explain to librarians why OER and UNESCO’s OER Recommendation are so important.  Comic strips on teaching are becoming increasingly popular;  Google has a full page of images, as does OER Commons. But we could not find a comic strip to explain open licensing or OER…until AfLIA came along and created one.

If you would like more information on the Overview or would be interested in joining related discussions, please write to Nkem Osuigwe, AfLIA’s Director of Human Capacity Development and Training.  Her email address is neosuigwe@aflia.net.
 

Figure 2: AfLIA poster on collecting and opening up Africa's heritage

The image above is taken from Next Einstein Forum

OER Africa has just published an expanded and revised Open Knowledge Primer for African Universities. In the five years since we wrote the first edition, open education has now grown to include developments in open access, open data, open educational resources (OER), and open science. We thought it was time for a refresh.

This new primer includes sections on how open access has changed to include more journals and publication mechanisms, new requirements for making data open, and how OER fits into open access. Librarians play a key role in promoting information literacy for students and staff; we have added sections specifically for them. There is also a new section on information resources, subdivided by subject. We have broadened the section on impact factors to explain why researchers in the global South are affected deleteriously by them.

This primer has grown considerably since the first edition. Although you can read it from cover to cover, it might also be useful to keep it handy as a reference document and read sections when you have need of specific information.

We welcome your comments, including on areas where we are not clear or that require expansion. Please email levey180@gmail.com. 

The primer can be found here.

Access the recording

AfLIA has recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with OER Africa of Saide to build a sturdy CPD framework that will project African librarians into a new era as change agents and leaders in driving open education, open access and open licensing as critical components for driving quality education and creativity in the continent.

In conjunction with OER Africa, AfLIA is hosting a panel discussion on the role of Artificial Intelligence and African libraries. This webinar is the second in a series of activities that will help build understanding, adaptable knowledge and skills. The first 100 participants can register and join the panel discussion on Zoom. Additional participants will be able to follow it live on YouTube.

Date: Monday, 24th April, 2023
Time: 9.30am UTC | 10.30am WAT | 11.30am CAT | 12.30pm EAT

Registration

This is a free webinar. After completing the registration form, you will receive notification via email with details of how to join the webinar.

Carefully read the section on Technical Requirements to help you prepare adequately for this webinar.

Resource persons

Just as the introduction of personal computers revolutionized access to computing power for everyone, AI technology such as ChatGPT, has made advanced language models widely accessible to a broader audience. The conversation about the implications of such AI has been re-ignited since the launch of ChatGPT. Indeed, AI powered technologies, when embraced, can play a vital role by improving access to information and refining the quality of services provided to patrons. As with every other technology, AI may have some undesirable implications on library education, research and service delivery. The global conversation is an interesting mix of divergent views on AI but not so much has been discussed in the area of its impact on Librarianship, especially within the African context. Stanley will briefly highlight general issues of awareness, perception, adoption and the implications of AI on African library education, research and service delivery.

Stanley Boakye-Achampong is the AfLIA Research Coordinator

English is the dominant language in most OER repositories. The same is true for open access journal literature; many more scientific journals are published in English rather than in other languages.  The two noteworthy exceptions are African Storybook (ASb) and StoryWeaver that focus on African languages and Southern Asian respectively.

It has been demonstrated that if children are to be successful in learning to read with comprehension, they should start out in their mother tongue.  Adults, too, would benefit by reading content in their own languages.  This is particularly true of scientific terms and concepts.  The use of language, therefore, has great significance when considering how to make education truly inclusive and equitable—one of the goals of the UNESCO OER Recommendation.

AI can assist authors and readers to read research in their own languages.  Liz will discuss efforts to make science inclusive and equitable in African languages, with a focus on research literature and the role of AI in translation.

Liz Levey is an independent consultant and expert in the field of openness and languages

Drs. Nkem Osuigwe and Tony Lelliott will facilitate the discussion.

Technical Requirements

Upon registration, reminders will be sent to all registrants periodically. This webinar will be hosted on the Zoom Conferencing Platform. Participants, who do not have Zoom on their mobile devices and or computers, need to download, install and create an account on Zoom ahead of time. Webinar attendees are encouraged to join early, preferably 15 minutes before the start of the webinar, as one may need time launch the application. The speaker will use a webcam to connect with attendees. Audio and video for the session will be streamed over computer speakers. Attendees are therefore encouraged to connect with a headset or earpiece for maximum utility. Please note that this webinar does not involve a certificate of participation.

The webinar will also be live-streamed on YouTube.

Not only do national education policies determine the educational principles and objectives that a sitting government adopts, they can also have a far-reaching effect on a citizen’s quality of and access to education, including whether that access is equitable and inclusive. Effective education policies can be transformative for a country and its people. This applies equally when one considers the potential impact of national Open Educational Resource (OER) policies on learners, educators, and education systems. OER provide possibilities to innovate in teaching and learning, to reimagine how education systems function and the values that they promote, and to expand access to inclusive and equitable quality education as outlined in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4. ^[1]

Policy is a key indicator of OER practice. When an OER policy is well-designed and implemented it can act as a driving force for creating and sustaining vibrant OER ecosystems.[2] It thus follows that one of the OER Recommendation’s five objectives and areas of action is to develop supportive policy. The Recommendation notes that this includes:

"Encouraging governments, and education authorities and institutions to adopt regulatory frameworks to support open licensing of publicly funded educational and research materials, develop strategies to enable the use and adaptation of OER in support of high quality, inclusive education and lifelong learning for all, supported by relevant research in the area."[3]

Work on OER policy has already started in many countries around the world and international bodies such as UNESCO are supporting efforts to develop such policies through, for example, the forthcoming release of guidelines for national governments and institutions on OER policy and capacity building in the first half of 2023. But what progress has been made so far on OER policy development and implementation?

A new report by Neil Butcher & Associates (NBA) sets out to understand the effectiveness of OER policies to date and whether there is evidence of integration between OER policy provisions and other mainstream government policy commitments or strategic goals. The research involved a review of 27 standalone OER policies and 16 policies that contained OER commitments. The research also sought to strengthen understanding of the most effective strategies and approaches to create government policy and regulatory environments that facilitate implementation of UNESCO’s Recommendation on OER and OER more generally.

The report contains three key findings.

1. There were unforeseen challenges with finding OER policies that fitted the research criteria

For a policy to qualify for inclusion in the dataset, it needed to meet three criteria. There needed to be:

• Evidence that the policy had been approved by the government.
• Availability of baseline documentation of what OER activities were already underway in the country before the policy came into effect (where available).
• Evidence of meaningful OER practices that were implemented since the policy was approved.

The research team was only able to identify a handful of policies that met our criteria – 27 national standalone OER policies and 16 policies that contained OER commitments.

2. There was limited evidence of policy implementation in line with the policy provisions of standalone OER policies and other policies that contained OER commitments.

Of the 27 national standalone OER policies, only two fitted all criteria and provided sufficient evidence of meaningful OER practices following implementation. There were four instances of OER commitments in other policies (e.g. Information and Communication Technology policies) that matched the qualifying criteria. However, in most cases, there was limited evidence available of sustained and comprehensive policy implementation in line with the policy provisions.

It was not possible to tell which type of policy (standalone versus a different policy containing OER commitments) was more impactful for various reasons, including that there were too few qualifying policies to draw a meaningful comparison. There was also conflicting information online, and sometimes a lack of information online regarding a causal link between OER practices that occurred as a result of policy commitments.

3. When looking at the relationship between OER policy provisions and national plans or strategies, OER policy is not a precondition for meaningful OER practices, but it does seem to be an enabler in creating a coordinated national effort geared towards OER implementation.

For a coordinated national effort to proceed optimally, there needs to be alignment between OER policy provisions and a government’s strategic priorities. Ideally, this should be consistently expressed in the government’s overall vision for the education system and in the documents that it releases and implements including policies, legislation, national plans, and strategies.

Ultimately, the research provides insight into the global OER policy landscape, outlining successes in OER policy development and implementation. It highlights a need to problematise the idea of educational policy as it relates to the OER movement and interrogate why OER policies are developed, their function, and how they are implemented. The report provides a series of recommendations and areas for further enquiry, centred around the suggestion that until OER policy commitments are directly connected to the attainment of national level policy commitments and the overall vision for the national education system as expressed in government documents, they are unlikely to be impactful.

Other recommendations include allocating more resources to policy review processes to determine the validity, relevance, and progress in achieving policy outcomes. The report also encourages governments to consider possible misalignments between national policy provisions and what is realistic to implement. It concludes with a series of questions that governments might reflect on when starting the OER policy development process.

OER Africa will release a subsequent thought piece on these findings and how to take the recommendations forward.

Access the full report here.

Related articles

• International Day of Education on 24 January 2023
• The UNESCO OER Recommendation and effective, inclusive, equitable access to quality OER
• Why is 'Open Education' important?

Image courtesy of USAID, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

UNESCO OER Recommendation

UNESCO members states unanimously approved the OER Recommendation on November 29, 2019. It is the first international normative instrument to embrace the field of openly licensed educational materials and technologies in education and builds on almost two decades of UNESCO work on OER.

The Recommendation pinpoints five essential areas of action to build and sustain a worldwide OER ecosystem:

1. Capacity-building;
2. Developing supportive policies;
3. Effective, inclusive, and equitable access to quality OER;
4. Creation of OER sustainability models; and
5. Use of international cooperation to foster OER.

UNESCO will publish guidelines on these five action areas in early 2023.[1] This communication is about action area three—effective, inclusive, and equitable access to OER—which touches on all five areas. We are focusing on areas one to three from the list below.

What does effective, inclusive, and equitable access to quality OER mean?

UNESCO’s list is quite broad:

1. Ensuring online and offline technical access;
2. Supporting OER stakeholders to develop gender-sensitive, culturally, and linguistically relevant OER, particularly in under-resourced and endangered languages;
3. Ensuring that the principles and programmes are in place for gender equality, non-discrimination, accessibility, and inclusiveness;
4. Ensuring public and private investments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure and providing increased access to OER, particularly for low-income, rural, and urban communities;
5. Incentivizing the development of, and research on, OER; and
6. Developing and adapting existing evidence-based standards, benchmarks, and related criteria for OER quality assurance.

The UNESCO guidelines will discuss and analyze this and the other action areas in detail; this article provides examples of innovative ways that OER is being used in educational systems from basic to tertiary education to ensure effective, inclusive, and equitable access to quality openly licensed content.

Policies and implementation

There are some institutional and national policies on technical accessibility, which are reported on in the forthcoming UNESCO guidelines. Policies on gender, culture, and language are less entrenched. In some African countries, there are policies in place to use local languages in teaching through grade three or four.  However, a lack of sufficient content, appropriate teacher training, and public attitudes that favour English or other colonial languages, makes implementation difficult.  In Kenya, for example, the implementation of mother tongue education policy: [2]

'is likely to flop if it is not supported by careful implementation strategies that take care of teacher training, the production of teaching/learning materials and attempts to change the attitudes of parents towards indigenous languages.'

In Sierra Leone, the politics of language complicate policies in favour of learning in local languages: [3]

'People are looking at it like, if you are literate in mother tongue, what will you eat? Will it get you a job? Are you even considered literate?'

The UNESCO OER Recommendation requires governments to report to UNESCO annually on their progress in meeting the Recommendation using an accepted list of criteria. Governments will begin reporting in 2023. Progress in meeting all of the action areas in the OER Recommendation will be known as reporting continues, including this action item on accessibility, inclusion, and equity.

Online and offline technical access

According to the Recommendation, all content created for the Internet, whether it is used online or offline, must meet certain technical standards to ensure that resources can be accessed by the visually, hearing, or otherwise impaired individuals

In a 2021 briefing paper co-published by UNESCO and the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD), the organizations identified six barriers to accessible OER for people with disabilities or those who are underserved in education: [4]

• Languages used in the creation of resources (particularly for English language learners) and the readability level; [5]
• Images, charts, and figures which are instrumental to the text, however, do not include alternative text; [6]
• Multimedia such as video, which does not include transcripts or closed caption; [7]
• Lack of access to digital technology for learning; [8]
• Poor assistive technology compatibility with OER; and [9]
• Locating appropriate OER resources can be difficult. [10]

Figure 1: CUNY accessibility logo

The City University of New York (CUNY) in the United States has created an OER accessibility toolkit to assist librarians, faculty, staff, and developers meet some of the challenges enumerated by UNESCO and UNPRPD. [11]  It does not address problems associated with languages, for example, or locating accessible OER resources.

The toolkit contains information on:

Creating Accessible Content: Tips on how to create accessible Word documents, PDFs, images, videos and other multimedia.

Platforms: Which OER platforms are accessible? What are the pros and cons of each one?

Evaluating your OER site: Determine if your site is accessible and see how to fix issues on your site.

Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs): Collection of VPATs from various vendors to see relevant information on how a vendor’s product or service claims to conform to IT standards for people with disabilities. (Section 508 Standards in the US Rehabilitation Act).

The University of British Columbia in Canada has published a similar open education toolkit, which is far more detailed than the one produced by CUNY.

There may be a disjuncture in how different authorities determine what is entailed in accessibility.  UNESCO includes language, gender, and culture in the OER Recommendation.  CUNY, UBC, and other universities examine the technical aspects of accessibility, but not the broader societal issues that also impact on the ability to people to use content.

Much has been written about accessibility policies and there are clearly excellent toolkits available, but it is not always easy to identify accessible OER to support diverse learners. Accessible OERs are not readily apparent on relevant hubs and in Google searches. This appears to be an unmet need for anyone who wants to adapt existing content that is already accessible.  In an interview with University World News, Kesah Princely, a blind PhD student in conflict resolution at the University of Buea in Cameroon, outlined some of the accessibility problems he and other students face: [12]

'The challenges are quite enormous. The library is inaccessible to blind students because there are no books in Braille, nor are there audio recorded materials. Infrastructure-wise, it is also not accessible to people in wheelchairs. Some of these students with disabilities are not even aware of the school library, just because things are not well explained to them.

Also, the curriculum is not well designed to suit learners with different abilities. It becomes very difficult for us with visual impairment to comprehend some key courses, especially those which have to do with images. Photojournalism is an example. In other areas, like mathematics and diagrams, the lecturers lack the requisite skills to explain the concepts to learners with visual impairment.'

Gender, cultural, and linguistically sensitive OER

Below are some instances on how gender, culture, and language intersect with content and its use. Not all the examples are openly licensed, but they provide ways to ensure that inclusion is an essential consideration. There is nothing to stop you, the reader, from modelling your efforts on the ideas given in these examples and using an open licence.

Gender

Use of the Internet and other technologies are now essential, for education and much else. UNICEF reports the disparities between the sexes both as users and designers of technology:

'There is a gender digital divide: girls are disadvantaged when it comes to digital adoption, have lower levels of access to and use of digital technology than boys, and often they are not benefitting from digital technology in the same way as boys.'[13]

The UNICEF office for East Asia and the Pacific therefore produced a toolkit of best practices, to support innovators, designers, and implementers of digital products and services, to benefit girls and young women equally and help close the gender digital divide.

Figure 2: Blowing bubbles and writing code at Girls Code Africa

The Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) puts ideas about gender-based best practices and training to work. WOUGNET, which partners with many different international organizations, including UN Women, has a mission of promoting the use of ICTs by women and girls for gender equality and sustainable development. There are also many programmes to teach African females of different ages how to code, such as the African Girls Can Code Initiative and Girl Code Africa.

Programs carried out by WOUGNET and the ones to teach girls coding, empower females with the kinds of skills they require in their work and studies.  WOUGNET focuses on adult women in training, technical support, networking, and advocacy to empower women.  Its workshop on digital security training, for example, showed how social media platforms can be misused to the detriment of women’s safety [14]. Coding is important for a number of reasons.  According to the British organization, Funtech, girls who learn to code improve in math, writing, and creativity.  Coding also offers girls admission into a variety of tech careers. [15]

Openly licensed digital story platforms, such as African Storybook and StoryWeaver, have numerous stories promoting the roles of girls and women. StoryWeaver has a special section for middle readers on challenging gender stereotypes, which includes a boy who is mocked because he wants to dance and a girl who lifts weights.

Culture and language

In 2019 UNESCO celebrated a Year of Indigenous Languages and marked this effort by releasing the Los Pinos Declaration in 2020. In this document and elsewhere, UNESCO integrates culture and language with several key principles including:

'Centrality of indigenous peoples – ‘Nothing for us without us’, according to the principle of self-determination; the right to use, develop, revitalize, and transmit languages orally and in written forms to future generations which reflect the insights and values of indigenous peoples, their identities and traditional knowledge systems and cultures; the equal treatment of indigenous languages with respect to other languages; and the effective and inclusive participation of indigenous peoples in consultation, planning and implementation of processes based on their free, prior and informed consent right from the start of any development initiative as well as the recognition of the specific barriers and challenges faced by indigenous women, whose identity, cultural traditions and forms of social organization enhance and strengthen the communities in which they live.' [16]

Initiatives that focus on the use of mother-tongue languages sometimes also incorporate gender into their efforts. In 2016, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning reported on one such instance on maternal health, literacy, and language. In Bolivia, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport worked in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund to implement a bilingual literacy project in reproductive health. The project was instituted in response to high levels of illiteracy and high maternal and infant mortality rates among poor people, particularly those from indigenous populations. It employed a gender-based approach and primarily targeted women. Learning was conducted in both indigenous languages and in Spanish. This bilingual approach is vital because it helps learners to comprehend the issues covered, while drawing on the learners' experiences and cultural sensitivities. This initiative was then implemented in Paraguay, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Guatemala, with coordination and support from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL/ ECLAC). [17]

In Canada, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Indigenous Services Canada works collaboratively with partners to improve access to high quality services for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. Resources on the platform have been created by the Public Health Agency of Canada, Indigenous Services Canada, and various Indigenous organizations, with a vision to support and empower indigenous peoples to independently deliver services and tackle the socio-economic conditions in their communities. COVID-19 awareness resources are available in English, French, and languages spoken by the indigenous peoples of Canada. [18]

Turning to the youngest learners and nascent readers, Dorcas Wepukhulu of African Storybook explained the importance of using local languages and familiar images as follows:

'For children’s literacy material to be equitable and inclusive, it must be appropriate for the child’s context and age, with images that make sense to the child and support the meaning of the written text, it must also be available, accessible and affordable. With technology and open licensing, ASb aims to get storybooks to every child learning to read, in a language that is familiar to them; with content that speaks to their interests, and experience.' [19]

Interconnections and complexity

The UNESCO OER Recommendation is about creation and utilization of openly-licensed content.  This action area on accessibility, inclusion, and equity addresses the underlying issues that are necessary to both produce and use OER.  Governmental policies and implementation are critical to the success of the Recommendation if it is to have benefit. Some areas are technical, but others impact on cultural assumptions, towards language, for instance, or girls’ education.  The complexity of action item three is therefore notable.

References

[1] Guideline authors include OER experts in the action areas covered by the UNESCO OER Recommendation and listed in alphabetical order: Tel Amiel, Javiera Atenas, Melinda dela Peña Bandalaria, Neil Butcher, Lisbeth Levey, Ahmed Tlili, and Zeynep Varoglu

[2] MANDILLAH, Lucy. Kenyan curriculum reforms and mother tongue education: Issues, challenges and implementation strategies. Educ. as change [online]. 2019, vol.23, n.1 [cited  2022-11-18], pp.1-18. Available from: <http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1947-9417201.... ISSN 1947-9417.  http://dx.doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/3379. 

[3] “Mother tongue won’t help you eat”: Language politics in Sierra Leone. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345815874

[4] https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000380471

[5] Rets, I., Coughlan, T., Stickler, U., & Astruc, L. (2020). Accessibility of Open Educational Resources: how well are they suited for English learners? Open Learning, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2020.1769585 (This journal requires a subscription to access articles or a fee of $47 for purchase.)

[6] Coolidge, A., Doner, S., Robertson, T., & Gray, J. (2018). BCcampus open education: Accessibility toolkit (2nd ed.). https://opentextbc.ca/accessibilitytoolkit/

[7] Ibid.

[8] UNICEF. (2021). Responding to COVID-19: UNICEF annual report 2020. https://www.unicef.org/media/100946/file/ UNICEF Annual Report 2020.pdf

[9] Zhang, X., Tlili, A., Nascimbeni, F., Burgos, D., Huang, R., Ting-Wen Chang, Jemni, M., & Mohamed, K. K. (2020). Accessibility within open educational resources and practices for disabled learners: A systematic literature review. Smart Learning Environments, 7(1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-019-0113-2

[10] Anderston, T., Doney, J., Hendrix, B., Martinez, J., Stoddart, R., & Wright, M. (2019). The five laws of OER: Observations from Ranganathan. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, 7(1), https://www.iastatedigitalpress.com/jlsc/article/id/12846/

[11] CUNY OER accessibility toolkit, last updated 2021. https://guides.cuny.edu/accessibility/home

[12] Njie, Paul. (2022). All students must learn about inclusive education – Activist. University World News. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=202211161601561

[13] https://www.unicef.org/eap/innovation-and-technology-gender-equality

[14] https://wougnet.org/website/news/newsingle/70

[15] https://funtech.co.uk/latest/why-should-girls-learn-to-code

[16] https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/los_pinos_declaration_170720_en.pdf

[17] https://uil.unesco.org/case-study/effective-practices-database-litbase-0/bilingual-literacy-and-reproductive-health-bolivia

[18] https://www.sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1586548069915/1586548087539

[19] https://www.earlyliteracynetwork.org/blog/how-do-we-ensure-quality-equitable-and-inclusive-education-all-early-literacy-qa-part-3-3

The 5th of October is World Teachers’ Day! It is wonderful to receive global affirmation for the important contribution we teachers make. Please bask in the attention, which is well deserved. 

But come the 6th of October the world shifts focus. Apparently, it is World Pumpkin-Seed Day and/or Take Your Daughter to Work Day, depending on who you ask. In the meantime, we will be left to get on with the job of preparing and empowering the next generation for another year.

Part of why the world nominates one day a year to pat teachers on the back is because parents and students DO appreciate those educators who find ways to keep students excited about learning. There is effort required to do this successfully. We are always on the lookout for creative and innovative methods. We are constantly scouring our surroundings for appropriate resources. This all takes time and creativity.

That’s where Open Educational Resources, or OER, can make a difference. According to Creative Commons, the open licensing authority, there are over two billion openly licensed resources on offer[1], free of charge, which permit adaptation to new teaching and learning contexts. In turn, we are encouraged to share our best work with others. The catch is that not all teachers know how to search, find, adapt, and share OER.

OER Africa has recently worked with UNESCO’s Regional Office for Southern Africa, based in Harare, to put together a series of four short tutorials on using, finding, adapting, and sharing OER for Zimbabwean educators. While these tutorials address the Zimbabwean context, they would be of interest for all educators wherever you are in the world.

The tutorials can be accessed here:

Tutorial 1: Using OER for teaching and learning

Adapted: March 2021

Short tutorial that defines OER, outlines their benefits in comparison to fully copyrighted teaching materials and introduces Creative Commons licencing and how to decipher them.

Click here to access the PDF version of this tutorial.

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Tutorial 2: Finding OER for teaching and learning

Adapted: March 2021

Short tutorial that demonstrates how to search for resources aligned to the MoPSE Zimbabwe curriculum using search tools such as Google Advanced search, Google image search, Creative Commons search and YouTube filters. It also investigates a number of open repositories ideal for primary and secondary educators.

Click here to access the PDF version of this tutorial.

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Tutorial 3: Create your own OER

Adapted: March 2021

Short tutorial on how to adapt existing OER and also what to consider when developing your own open resources. It also demonstrates how to generate your own licence plate using the Creative Commons Licence Generator tool.

Click here to access the PDF version of this tutorial.

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Tutorial 4: Share your OER with others

Adapted: March 2021

Short tutorial on how to publish your open resources on both the Zimbabwe EduConnect portal and also on OER Commons. The tutorial also provides teachers with a set of criteria to ensure high quality of published open resources.

Click here to access the PDF version of this tutorial.

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Why not invest a little time to acquire the skills to harness OER? The payoff is that you will be able to mine quality resources developed by your global peers to make your lessons even richer and more engaging than they already are. And, by sharing your best work, you can, in turn, receive global exposure and affirmation for your creativity and innovation every day of the year. Why wait until the next World Teachers’ Day before people notice the valuable contributions you are making for the next generation?

Related articles:

• What is the Purpose of Assessment? Looking at assessment of, for, and as learning
• International Literacy Day 2022: ‘Transforming Literacy Learning Spaces’
• Reinvigorating Libraries: South African Library Week 2022
• Open Pedagogy

Since 2018, OER Africa has partnered with the Partnership for Enhanced and Blended Learning (PEBL) Project, a collaborative project to develop blended learning courses with university partners across East and West Africa. PEBL is using our platform to showcase the courses as OER.

Data protection by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free

What is personal information? What is a Cookie Consent popup on a web page? What are the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), the GDPR’s South African equivalent? This week’s post looks at recent legislation around personal information and how we need to consider protecting it when working with OER and open education practices.

When you open a webpage, you may have noticed that there is often a pop-up on the page which asks if you accept the website recording your interactions with it. There are many different formats; this is the one we use on the OER Africa website:

Most websites use HTTP cookies (web cookies, browser cookies). These are small pieces of data created by a web server while a user is browsing a website, which are placed on the user's computer or other device (Source: Wikipedia). Cookies serve important functions, such as authenticating the user and storing sensitive information. If you click “Accept”, then cookies will be set on your device, whereas if you click “Reject”, you may not receive the full user experience on certain websites. ‘Tracking cookies’ collect long-term records of individuals’ browsing histories and can be used to target advertisements to individuals. This has led to concerns about invasion of privacy, resulting in countries and blocs of countries requiring ‘informed consent‘ from the user before data is captured. The European Union enacted the GDPR that requires users to ‘opt in‘ to their cookies being stored. Similar legislation has been legislated elsewhere, for example the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the US, and POPIA in South Africa. The African Union has called for the adoption of a common framework on the protection of data and at least six countries have adopted laws for the protection of their citizens (Daigle, 2021).

This short video explains how the GDPR works. Although it relates to Europe, data privacy laws in other countries work in similar ways.

How does this relate to OER?

As the name suggests, privacy and personal data protection legislation is intended to protect people from having their personal information accessed without their consent. There are two main ways in which personal data might be at risk when working with OER.

First, there is evidence that ransomware and related attacks target the education system, specifically school and university websites (Zdravkova, 2019) and that the attackers have accessed email addresses and other data from students and staff to mount the attacks. If you access a site that includes OER or open courseware, ideally you should be presented with a cookie consent form. You can then choose whether you allow yourself to be tracked and what data the website may use. For example, the UK-based Open University website includes a cookie consent popup on opening. While Khan Academy does not have one, it does have a page explaining its policy on cookies. Others, such as the MIT Open Courseware Repositoryand the South African Siyavula website (openly licensed school science and mathematics resources), do not show a popup on opening. Users need to be aware of the possible risks they face when using such webpages; their browsing history may be tracked. In the commercial world, unscrupulous companies sell user data to other companies for profit.

Second, many online activities require users not to be anonymous when working with OER. When creating an OER a person would normally provide their name and (possibly) their affiliation. In giving this information, users should be aware that the information can be shared widely. More importantly, if you are working with students, they need to be aware of their rights to informed consent. For example, if you are working with students on platforms such as learner forums, Twitter, Facebook, and Wikipedia, they should be aware that their data are being shared. Large companies usually list consent within their Terms of Use/Terms and Conditions, which can be very extensive, couched in legal language and are often not read by the user before being signed. We recommend that universities should adopt data consent policies for their students, and that academics and librarians should make students aware that their consent must be freely given, specific and unambiguous. Such consent may constrain existing practices, for example if an academic sets the writing of a Wikipedia article or a series of tweets as an assignment, the student cannot be forced to create a social media account in order to comply with the assignment. 

In summary, with the rise of digital technologies (particularly smartphones) personal information of users can be easily accessed and tracked. If they register on a site, the information may include their browsing history, email address and any other details they have entered. People accessing and creating OER should be aware of the risks of allowing access to their personal information: OER repositories should consider including cookie consent popups, while data consent policies need to be made clear to all users.

References

• Daigle, B. (2021). Data Protection Laws in Africa: A Pan-African Survey and Noted Trends. Journal of International Commerce and Economics, February 2021. Retrieved from https://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/journals/jice_africa_data_protection_laws.pdf
• van Valkenburg, W. (2018). GDPR and Open Education. Retrieved from http://www.e-learn.nl/2018/04/08/gdpr-and-open-education
• Zdravkova, K. (2019). Compliance of MOOCs and OERs with the new privacy and security EU regulations. 5th International Conference on Higher Education Advances. Retrieved from http://www.headconf.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/9063.pdf

Related articles

• World Intellectual Property Day: A note on open licensing and intellectual property
• Promoting diversity and inclusion in the OER space
• How do I create a Community of Practice for Open Educational Resources?

What have been the experiences of African Open Educational Resources (OER) initiatives focussed on higher education? What can we learn from these experiences? Although the concept of OER initially gained publicity in the Global North, OER are gaining traction in Africa, with an increasing number of OER initiatives focusing on areas such as OER advocacy, practice, and research. Today, the concept has been mainstreamed around the world, as exemplified through the unanimous adoption of the UNESCO Recommendation on OER in 2019.

OER Africa researched several African OER initiatives to assess their long-term contribution to establishing sustainable OER practices in African higher education. This work explored their effectiveness and identified lessons to enable better development and support of OER practices. It also helped to deepen OER Africa’s understanding of professional development needs amongst African academics to enable more effective OER practices.

To do this, we developed case studies on eleven African OER initiatives in higher education to gain an understanding of the effectiveness of each initiative, followed by an analytical summary report. The report collates the findings from the OER initiatives , highlighting the implications of the findings for better development and support for effective OER practices.

Access the case studies and report here.

Related articles:

• Researching the benefits of OER through the Network of Open Orgs
• Interactive report provides progress on research into CPD models for Higher Education
• Do you want to communicate your research more widely?

 Access the OER Africa communications archive here

Advocates of Open Educational Resources (OER) often promote their perceived benefits, such as increasing access to educational materials; improving scalability and circulation of resources; and providing opportunities to adapt resources to suit learners’ needs and contexts. However, the past five years alone have seen significant shifts in education systems. Transformative forces such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, leaps in technology development, and global economic reconfiguration mean that now more than ever, education systems need to remain dynamic and responsive.

Key to this responsiveness is ensuring that there is ongoing research on the actual benefits of using OER, so that we can gain a comprehensive, measured understanding of its implementation, benefits, challenges, and lessons. Such research can provide insight on how to most effectively implement the goals of the UNESCO OER Recommendation.

Within this context, OER Africa coordinated a project with members of the Network of Open Orgs, a coalition of organizations that meets regularly on implementing and supporting the UNESCO OER Recommendation. The project involved a collaborative effort among several members of the Network to develop a set of seven research summaries that explore the success of OER. The summaries were then analysed to extract key findings, which were presented in a short report.

The Network aims to make such analyses an ongoing activity to remain abreast of OER implementation around the world. Ultimately, this will assist in realising the goals of the OER Recommendation.

Access the case studies and summary report here.

Image courtesy of Martin Weller, Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

As of 2022, activities by UNESCO to support implementation of its OER Recommendation are gathering pace and OER Africa is pleased to be assisting UNESCO in this important work. The Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER) (40 C/32) was adopted at the 40^th UNESCO General Conference in Paris on 25^th November 2019 as the culmination of a long process of UNESCO engagement with the concept of OER.

First and foremost, UNESCO is planning a series of regional virtual consultation workshops around the world, with at least one workshop to be organized for each of the five regions into which UNESCO organizes member states (Africa, the Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe and North America). These workshops will provide a first platform for member states to re-convene formally since the OER Recommendation was adopted, allowing an opportunity for them to share information on how they have progressed with implementation and discuss ideas for the way forward. This will be an important opportunity for such discussion and for UNESCO to share key messages learned in the first two years since adoption. It will also enable member states to begin planning what and how they would like to report on their progress with operationalization of the OER Recommendation, a process which occurs for all UNESCO Recommendations every fourth year at the UNESCO General Conference (and is thus due to occur in 2024 for the OER Recommendation).

In parallel, with this work, UNESCO has begun a process to develop a guide on the integration of OER into national policies and strategies, which will be developed in French with a focus on Francophone Africa and particularly the Sahel Region. Although many such guides exist, they have typically always been developed in English first with a global audience in mind, so development of a guide such as this, with its specific geographical focus, is a global first and will help to resolve some of the inequities associated with rate of progress of adoption of OER globally. OER Africa is glad to be providing technical and research support to a Consultant contracted by UNESCO Dakar who has been appointed to undertake this important work.

While this is all happening, UNESCO continues its work in advocacy and information-sharing through the OER Dynamic Coalition. Regular webinars are held online (the most recent, on Quality OER, was held on 10^th March, 2022) and a monthly newsletter keeps interested parties up to date on latest developments. Anyone interested in receiving the newsletter can request to be added to the mailing list. Please fill out the form here.

OER Africa is proud to continue to support UNESCO in its important work in facilitating implementation of the OER Recommendation around the world.

Related articles:

• UNESCO and the Dynamic Coalition for OER (7 May, 2020)
• Taking forward the work of UNESCO’s OER Recommendation through the Dynamic Coalition (29 July 2020)
• UNESCO’s OER Recommendation Dynamic Coalition Consultations: The way forward (26 August, 2020)
• How can governments and institutions operationalize the OER Recommendation? (17 November, 2020)

Access the OER Africa communications archive here

Every year, the team at OER Africa looks forward to Open Education Week (OE Week). This year is no different, as we prepare ourselves to engage with this vibrant community and participate in the many diverse activities on offer.

Launched in 2012 by Open Education Global, OE Week is a collaborative, community-built open forum. It raises awareness about open education and highlights innovative open education successes worldwide. OE Week provides practitioners, educators, and students an opportunity to build a greater understanding of open educational practices and be inspired by the wonderful work being undertaken by the community around the world (OE Global, 2022).

OE Week will run from 7 to 11 March, 2022 this year. There are several ways to participate in OE Week:

Source: Open Education Global, 2022

Join us for what promises to be an inspiring week filled with new ideas, a celebration of open education, and vibrant community engagement. Access information about the event here.

Source:

Open Education Global. (2022). Open Education Week. https://www.oeglobal.org/activities/open-education-week/

Related articles

• Why is 'Open Education' important?
• How do I create a Community of Practice for Open Educational Resources?
• Opening education: What role do librarians on the African continent play?
• Open Pedagogy

Image courtesy of National Cancer Institute, Unsplash

What is ArXiv?

You may have seen ArXiv pop up in your science-related or open access repository searches. For those of us who are still wondering how to say it, it is pronounced ’archive’. The X represents the Greek letter, c, which is pronounced ‘ch’ and thus spells out archive.  

ArXiv is an open access repository for pre-prints[1] and post-prints[2] that have been moderated but not peer reviewed. It was the first freely available, open access repository, established years before Creative Commons or other mechanisms were available or the Internet became ubiquitous. ArXiv was established in 1991 as a way for physicists and mathematicians to circulate their research for comment before peer review and publication in a journal. It was developed with distribution formats few people use today — File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Gopher, and Mosaic (the world’s first Internet browser). According to Wikipedia:[3]

In many fields of mathematics and physics, almost all scientific papers are self-archived on the arXiv repository before publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Some publishers also grant permission for authors to archive the peer-reviewed postprint.

ArXiv has become tremendously important for scientists worldwide. On this, its 30^th birthday, there are almost 2 million articles posted on the site in physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering, systems science, and economics. 

In the 30 years since ArXiv’s  founding, many additional servers for different disciplines and regions have been established, all on the Xiv model.  AfricArXiv, for Africa, is discussed in detail below. Two preprint servers in the biomedical sciences have received considerable attention because of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the publication of several highly quoted articles in the mass media and research publications.[4]  But how much relevance do ArXiv and the other servers have for Africa?

How relevant are preprint servers to Africa?

ArXiv and the disciplinary servers that followed aim to help scientists worldwide share results and get feedback quickly without waiting for publication in journals.  Although bibliometric surveys have not been done for all of the servers, two in the biomedical sciences point to the paucity of African research appearing in them.  A 2020 survey of in eLife, of over 67,000 articles posted on bioRxiv found that international authorship and collaboration of African researchers was scant and most were not principal author.  Table 1 shows which were the 11 most published African countries in bioRxiv.[5]

Table 1: Which African countries publish the most in bioRxiv?

Figure 1: The good news[6]

When the researchers dug deeper into subject matter and where the research was carried out, they found:

Figure 2: Digging deeper[7]

This is important research for those of us who care about the contribution of African scientists to the global knowledge pool.  The role of scientists has evolved over the course of the pandemic – they are becoming more public-facing, which can significantly improve dissemination of accurate information in any given country.  Examples include Dr. Anthony Fauci[8] and Dr. John Nkengasong.[9] It is also important to encourage representation so that we can learn from other approaches and develop solutions that cater for diverse populations. 

AfricArXiv

In 2018, African scientists established an open access African preprint server, called AfricArXivto promote better visibility for African research and enhanced collaboration throughout the continent. AfricArXiv’s African focus has a special set of objectives, among them:

• It is an African-owned open scholarly repository, a knowledge commons of African scholarly works to catalyze the African Renaissance.
• Submissions must be relevant to Africa, with at least one African author.
• Language is important in Africa, where AfricArXiv estimates that over 2,000 are spoken, a number which has been confirmed elsewhere.[10] All submissions must be accompanied by a summary in English and French to ease language gaps. Automated translation is allowed and must be acknowledged because these translations are not always accurate.  AfricArXiv also uses volunteer translators. In addition, AfricArXiv encourages postings in African languages and is partnering with Masakhane to undertake human translation of articles into African languages. AfricaArXiv writes about the significance of translation as follows:[11]

We encourage submissions in languages that are commonly used by the scientific community in the respective country, such as English, French, Swahili, Zulu, Afrikaans, Igbo, Akan, or other native African languages. Manuscripts submitted in non-English languages will be held in the moderation queue until we can get them verified. We herewith encourage you to suggest people who could assist in moderating in your language.

For those who want to know more about the significance of preprint servers, we encourage you to read Ten simple rules to consider regarding preprint submission, which was published in May 2017 in PLOS Computational Biology, an open access and highly prestigious journal. The article has been viewed over 44,000 times and cited 61 times.[12]

For those who would like more information on the lack of representation of African science in the journal literature, please see Where there is no local author: a network bibliometric analysis of authorship parasitism among research conducted in sub-Saharan Africa, published on 27 October 2021 in BMJ Global Health.[13]  It demonstrates how few African biomedical researchers receive recognition for research results from their own countries.  See also the journal’s editorial on ‘parachute’ research: Using scientific authorship criteria as a tool for equitable inclusion in global health research.[14]

This has been one of OER Africa’s communications on open knowledge, which we will continue to explore in future communications.

Related articles

• What is Open Science and how does it relate to open knowledge? (29 April 2021)
• Open Pedagogy (19 April 2021)
• How can OpenCourseWare help you to improve your courses? (16 July 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open data (18 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through openly licensed publishing (11 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open African research repositories (29 May 2020)
• OER Repositories in Africa (8 May 2020)

Access the OER Africa Communications Archive here

Image courtesy of Kiran Kumar, Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0)

The open knowledge ecosystem has seen significant growth in the last few years. UNESCO’s November 2019 Open Educational Resource (OER) Recommendation is rightly considered a groundbreaking development in support of open education practices; OER Africa has already explored the significance of the Recommendation in July 2020, August 2020, and November 2020. 

What may be less widely known is UNESCO’s role in open knowledge more broadly – Open Access, Open Data, and Open Science. UNESCO also works to link these three ‘opens’ with OER. In UNESCO’s post on its work in support of an Open Science Recommendation, UNESCO writes about these linkages:

[The] UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science will complement the 2017 Recommendation on Science and Scientific Research. It will also build upon the UNESCO Strategy on Open Access to Scientific Information and Research and the new UNESCO Recommendation on Open Educational Resources.

OER Africa discussed Open Access publishing and Open Data in previous posts. This communication is about Open Science from an African perspective. Below you will find examples showing how Open Science platforms are being constructed, together with linkages among the different forms of openness.

Member states tasked UNESCO to develop an Open Science Recommendation at its 40^th General Conference, the same one in which the OER Recommendation was approved. UNESCO began multi stakeholder consultations shortly thereafter, which will continue until September 2021.

This is UNESCO’s cogent explanation of Open Science:

The idea behind Open Science is to allow scientific information, data and outputs to be more widely accessible (Open Access) and more reliably harnessed (Open Data) with the active engagement of all the stakeholders (Open to Society).

Figure 1: Concepts linked to Open Science, UNESCO

Image adapted from Robbie Ian Morrisson, Wikimedia (CC BY)

The concept of open or openness ties together all these elements. Open Access, Open Data, OER, and open-source hardware all carry licences that permit sharing and reproduction. Open Access and OER content typically use Creative Commons licences, while Open Data licences are largely based on those written by Creative Commons. 

Indigenous Knowledge Systems are a part of the Open Science concept, but they are not always easily available to researchers, development experts, or policy makers because they have not been considered part of the development of Western empirical science. In its article on Indigenous Knowledge Systems, SciDevNet explains why Indigenous knowledge is a form of scienceand should not be ignored. UNESCO’s programme on Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems is trying to bring indigenous knowledge into the open. It is important to bear in mind, however, that some communities are wary of theft of intellectual property by for-profit companies, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is taking a leading role in helping them articulate these fears.^[1]

In 2016, a preparatory pilot for the African Open Science Platform (AOSP) began. Its priorities were to:

1. Map the current landscape of data/science initiatives in Africa. 
2. Build a Pan-African open science community and encourage the formation of national open science fora. A notable and crucial success of the pilot in this regard was development of an African community of practice and support, which included relevant government ministries, universities, and pan-African and regional organizations. African networks, such as the African Academy of Sciences, the Network of African Science Academies, the Association of African Universities, the West and Central African Research Network (WACREN), and the UbuntuNet Alliance (the research and education network for Eastern and Southern Africa).
3. Develop frameworks for policy, incentives, training, and technical requirements that would inform the operational platform.[2]

The final report was published in 2018. On 29 April 2020, the NRF announced that it would be responsible for hosting the African Open Science Platform project for the next three to five years.

The WACREN is responsible for coordinating African national and regional efforts to build the technical components of the Platform through its LIBSENSE initiative. LIBSENSE was established in 2016 to bring together African research and education networks and academic library communities to advance Open Science in Africa and foster the continent’s participation in Open Access globally.

WACREN and others draw a clear link between Open Science and Open Access, for instance using a national Open Science platform to host Open Access repositories. In a panel session at the 2021 WACREN annual conference, held virtually this year, Owen Iyoha, Managing Director of Nigeria’s Eko-Konnect made the following points about Open Science and infrastructure considerations in the figure below:

Figure 2: Open Science infrastructure for Nigeria

Eko-Konnect plans to include Moodle, the open-source learning platform on its Open Science cloud, which will allow the seamless integration of OERs created at multiple institutions.

OER and Open Science are based on a shared belief that access to knowledge should be freely, openly, and publicly available. In its draft Institutional Open Access Policy Template, LIBSENSE ties together open principles in its section on reward mechanisms by:

Setting up reward mechanisms for researchers using open science practices (e.g. sharing provisional results through open platforms, using open source software and other tools, participation in open collaborative projects, open access to publications and data, using open educational resources etc.).

However, specificity about where OER fits into Open Science is lacking. Where exactly might Open Science take advantage of OER principles and vice-versa? As a start, capacity building and training are integral to efforts to drive Open Science planning and implementation in Africa. If all training materials were openly licensed and made widely available, they would be relevant to a much broader audience and might be adapted to fit different needs. In addition, many African countries and institutions are planning Open Science clouds, including Eko-Konnect in Nigeria. All content related to platform-building could also be openly licensed. Finally, should Open Science clouds host or link to OER, at the very least the OER created for Open Science cloud training and capacity building? The bottom line is for WACREN and others working on Open Science to ensure that OER play an integral role in building OS communities and platforms.

Policy is another issue that would benefit from more sustained attention. There are proposed or actualized polices for Open Access, OER, Open Data, and now Open Science. Some African universities, particularly those in South Africa and East Africa, have their own Open Access policies. A few of these include the University of Cape Town in South Africa; Kenyatta University in Kenya; and Ethiopia, which has a national Open Access policy. LIBSENSE is also working on an Open Access template. Somewhat fewer African universities have distinct OER policies or broader policies that support OER; OER Africa tracks these examples. In addition, research networks such as the African Academy of Sciences have both Open Access and Open Data guidelines. Until now, however, most policy setting has been tackled in silos, with little sustained effort to build knowledge on what options work best. Are individual standalone policies desirable? Should they be integrated into other, existing tools rather than being developed independently? In addition, do university intellectual property policies require revision (where they exist)? 

Open Knowledge (OER, Open Access, Open Data, and Open Science) can greatly benefit African knowledge production, access, and utilisation by improving its discoverability and visibility. Open UCT at the University of Cape Town, for example, has usage statistics for each of the resources included in its repository. The National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia does the same.

OER Africa will continue to monitor developments, such as the ones we write about above, which impact on higher education on the continent. Please contact us here if there are additional issues you would like us to discuss.

For more articles in this series, click on the links below.

• Open Pedagogy (19 April 2021)
• What role do Creative Commons licences play in OER? (17 March 2021)
• Why is ‘Open Education’ important? (25 February 2021)
• How do I create a Community of Practice for Open Educational Resources? (3 February 2021)
• Do you want to communicate your research more widely? (19 January 2021)
• How can you get involved in the Open COVID Pledge for Education? (9 December 2020)
• How can governments and institutions operationalize the OER Recommendation? (19 November 2020)
• How can you use MOOCs in your teaching? (21 October 2020)
• Online assessment: How do we know if students are learning? (18 September 2020)
• UNESCO’s OER Recommendation Dynamic Coalition Consultations: The way forward (26 August 2020)
• The Open COVID Pledge for Education (12 August 2020)
• How can OpenCourseWare help you to improve your courses? (16 July 2020)
• Evaluating Open Content (2 July 2020)
• Adapting Open Content (25 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open data (18 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through openly licensed publishing (11 June 2020)
• Podcast: OER and their Relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic (5 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open African research repositories (29 May 2020)
• Emergency Remote Teaching Webinar Series – All resources available (18 May 2020)
• OER Repositories in Africa (8 May 2020)
• How to Find Open Content (30 April 2020)
• Online (and offline) reading resources for children (23 April 2020)
• Showcasing OER Platforms: OER Africa (15 April 2020)

Image courtesy of qthomasbower, CC-BY-SA 2.0

As readers will know, OER Africa is a strong proponent of open educational resources (OER) and open licensing. Creative Commons licences are the ones most frequently used when OER content is produced. There are six of them, which range from very permissive, allowing copying and modification (CC BY), to those that are more restrictive, permitting distribution of a work in its original form, but no modification (CC BY-ND). Users need not request permission to use resources with a CC licence, but the terms of each licence must be met. For more information on CC licensing, go to the OER Africa tutorial on Finding Open Content.

Creative Commons and other organisations discuss OER in the context of five key points called the five Rs – reuse, retain, revise, remix, and redistribute.^[1] Retain, reuse, and redistribute mean that users have the right to download, distribute, and keep the content without requesting permission from the resource creator. Revise and remix mean that the user may change the content in some way without asking permission. As an example, the stories on African Storybook and Storyweaver can be reused, retained, revised, remixed, and redistributed. At the tertiary level, all OER Africa content carries a CC BY licence. Go to the OER Africa tutorial on Adapting Open Content for more information on the five Rs.

Although many OER proponents argue that all five Rs are required in an open licence for a resource to be considered truly open, some organisations have opted for more restrictive licences. Two African award-winning early literacy NGOs – Ubongo, headquartered in Dar es Salaam, and the Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy (MILL), based in Johannesburg – have each decided to permit three Rs, but not to allow remixing or revision. MILL limits its resources to a non-commercial and non-derivative (CC BY-NC-ND) licence so that the methodology of its Vula Bula literacy materials can be retained. Ubongo uses the same licences for much the same reason; it does not wish its strict quality assurance methods to be compromised in any way through someone else’s adaptation. 

The experience of Ubongo and other organisations with different kinds of CC licences is discussed in Closed or open? Ubongo’s switch from copyright protected to Creative Commons licensing.

In many countries, the high cost of textbooks and financial burdens placed on students have led initiatives to write and publish openly licensed textbooks. Siyavula, a South African NGO, produces open textbooks in mathematics and science in English and Afrikaans that are aligned to the South African curriculum as set by the Department of Basic Education (DBE). It licenses some versions of its textbooks only as CC BY-ND, while others carry a CC BY licence. Textbooks that feature a DBE logo are branded with a CC NY-ND licence to prevent any changes without permission, while the logo does not appear in the CC BY version. The ones in the latter category are downloadable in ePUB format to allow for easy adaptation.

Figure 1 Siyavula textbooks are available in PDF or ePUB formats depending on the licensing conditions.

Licence type is an important consideration, but file format is equally significant. By way of example, text document formats such as Word or ePUB files are relatively easy to edit if you have the required software, but their PDF equivalents are not. In addition, video can be particularly challenging to adapt, even if it is legally permissible. Khan Academy (KA) videos are a case in point. KA offers most of its videos with a CC BY-NC-SA licence, which allows for changes in content or language. But adaptation requires software and skills that many educators do not possess.

Thus, OER content creators should consider both the most appropriate licence to apply to their work and the format in which it will be released. In 2015, the University of Cape Town published a three-step guide for academics on open licensing, which includes a discussion of content creator intentions, institutional policy frameworks, and selecting and application of licences.

Figure 2 All resources must be atttributed to the content creator.

Finally, OER content creators must correctly attribute every resource they use while producing their OER. The figure above shows the attribution page of OER Africa’s learning pathway on finding open content. Note that each resource includes information on the licence used.

In conclusion, while the meaning of openness can relatively easily be defined, working out aspects of openness that are most suitable to implement for different kinds of resources is a process that will be strongly influenced by the wider context in which these decisions are being taken. Some organisations want to maximise distribution but are reluctant to permit adaptation of their resources because of potential problems this might create. Others have no objection to their resources being adapted, but those resources are in a format that cannot be easily revised. Still other organisations are unwilling for their content to be reproduced and monetised by commercial publishers, either for ethical reasons or because it might jeopardise their own financial sustainability. This suggests that we need flexible, less prescriptive definitions of OER that will remain relevant for different contexts and needs and that allow people and organisations to move towards greater degrees of openness in ways that work best for them.

Image courtesy of rawpixel.com via Freepik

For more articles in this series, click on the links below.

• Do you want to communicate your research more widely? (19 January 2021)
• How can you get involved in the Open COVID Pledge for Education? (9 December 2020)
• How can governments and institutions operationalize the OER Recommendation? (19 November 2020)
• How can you use MOOCs in your teaching? (21 October 2020)
• Online assessment: How do we know if students are learning? (18 September 2020)
• UNESCO’s OER Recommendation Dynamic Coalition Consultations: The way forward (26 August 2020)
• The Open COVID Pledge for Education (12 August 2020)
• How can OpenCourseWare help you to improve your courses? (16 July 2020)
• Evaluating Open Content (2 July 2020)
• Adapting Open Content (25 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open data (18 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through openly licensed publishing (11 June 2020)
• Podcast: OER and their Relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic (5 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open African research repositories (29 May 2020)
• Emergency Remote Teaching Webinar Series – All resources available (18 May 2020)
• OER Repositories in Africa (8 May 2020)
• How to Find Open Content (30 April 2020)
• Online (and offline) reading resources for children (23 April 2020)
• Showcasing OER Platforms: OER Africa (15 April 2020)

What is the Open COVID Pledge for Education?

In August, OER Africa introduced the Open COVID Pledge for Education, which was launched at the OER20 Conference earlier that month. OER Africa is proud to be a founding signatory of this Pledge, which encourages individuals and organisations to make their intellectual property available through open licensing arrangements to support educators, learners and decision-makers and assist educational organisations.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, millions of learners and educational institutions globally have had to place greater reliance on digital communication and media in teaching and learning. The long-term effects of such shifts have yet to be seen, but there is no doubt that those most negatively affected will be learners in under-resourced environments, where access to high-quality educational resources, ICT, and learner support is often limited.

Developed by the Open COVID Coalition and hosted by the Association for Learning Technology (ALT), the Open COVID Pledge for Education responds to this context by drawing from principles highlighted in the UNESCO Recommendation on OER (2019) and building on the Open Education values outlined in the Cape Town Declaration. It has been signed by representatives of many global Open Education Open Education bodies and professional organisations, universities, and individual researchers.

The Pledge asks that signatories commit to sharing Open Educational Resources (OER) for educators to support teaching and learning over the course of the pandemic. It also asks that signatories share practice and policy lessons, such as how individuals or organisations are responding to COVID-19 and what they are learning. In addition, the Pledge encourages signatories to share the following:

• Open data, e.g. from surveys;
• Open access research;
• Unpublished research, organisational research, action research; and
• Open source applications to support open education.

What has happened since the Pledge was launched?

Since its launch, two planning meetings were held online in September and October. These meetings produced an email discussion list, the Twitter account and hashtag, and an informative slide deck and logo. The team also conducted an open webinar in collaboration with the Open Education Special Interest Group to promote the Pledge.

UK-based members of the Open COVID Pledge for Education are currently developing two organisational case studies – one on University College London and the other on the University of Edinburgh – to showcase how they have released OER for educators as well as policy and research purposes under the Pledge. A keynote panel will be held on 15 December 2020 as part of the ALT winter conference, where the two case studies will be launched.

To date, there are 60 organisational signatories and 121 individual signatories and the project team welcomes new signatories.

How can I get involved?

The Open COVID Pledge ultimately aims to build a fairer and more resilient education system. It has been promoted using the @Covid_education Twitter account and #OpenCovid4Ed hashtag; through blog posts on the ALT blog; and on a public email list. You can become involved in the Pledge in various ways:

• Sign the pledge as an individual or organisation
• Upload your logo
• Blog about it, and share using #OpenCovid4Ed
• Join the discussion list by emailing OPEN-COVID-ED@jiscmail.ac.uk
• Spread the word with the Pledge’s Twitter handle and hashtag
• Download the logo here to add to your own websites

For more articles by OER Africa, click on the links below.

• How can governments and institutions operationalize the OER Recommendation? (19 November 2020)
• How can you use MOOCs in your teaching? (21 October 2020)
• Online assessment: How do we know if students are learning? (18 September 2020)
• UNESCO’s OER Recommendation Dynamic Coalition Consultations: The way forward (26 August 2020)
• The Open COVID Pledge for Education (12 August 2020)
• How can OpenCourseWare help you to improve your courses?(16 July 2020)
• Evaluating Open Content (2 July 2020)
• Adapting Open Content (25 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open data (18 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through openly licensed publishing (11 June 2020)
• Podcast: OER and their Relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic (5 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open African research repositories (29 May 2020)
• Emergency Remote Teaching Webinar Series – All resources available (18 May 2020)
• OER Repositories in Africa (8 May 2020)
• How to Find Open Content (30 April 2020)
• Online (and offline) reading resources for children (23 April 2020)
• Showcasing OER Platforms: OER Africa (15 April 2020)
• Understanding OER in a Context that Necessitates Remote Learning (9 April 2020)
• OER Africa COVID-19 Statement (3 April 2020)

Image courtesy of Mathieu Plourde, Wikimedia Commons

What are MOOCs?

A few years ago, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) were touted as “the next big thing”. They have developed since then and are part of the current education landscape. Who are they aimed at? Can university faculty members take an existing MOOC and use it in their own courses? How open are MOOCs? Where can you find them?

A MOOC is a course (teaching a specific subject or topic) available online via the Internet, aimed at unlimited participation (hence massive) and open in so far as anyone can enrol (no formal admission process and normally no charge). They are produced by universities, companies (Microsoft, Linux, Canvas, Blackboard) and non-profit initiatives (edX), and are aimed at anyone who wishes to learn about the subjects covered. Most MOOCs are distributed via course providers such as Coursera and Udacity. The extent to which they are considered ‘open’ has changed over time, but also depends on how they are presented online. When they first emerged, MOOCs were typically open in two ways: in enrolment and the fact that their constituent materials were openly licensed. By about 2012, many MOOCs no longer had openly licensed materials available, so their open-ness had diminished (Vollmer, 2012). As most MOOCs available now are not openly licensed, you cannot simply take one (or part of it) and use it in your own course. We suggest other ways in which you might use MOOCs below.

In a previous post, we discussed OpenCourseWare (OCW) as a ‘subset’ of Open Educational Resources (OER). We contrasted OCW with MOOCs, and here we provide a table showing the differences between these two educational tools:

Adapted from Martinez, 2014

A common criticism of MOOCs is their very low completion rate: often as low as 5 to 15%. Critics suggest that such a low rate indicates that learning from MOOCs is usually minimal. However, some specialists are beginning to refer to MOOCs as one of many forms of digital content, proposing that they should be compared with podcasts or educational news sites on the Internet instead of facilitated educational experiences similar to university courses (Ahearn, 2018). Other educationists note that MOOCs could help to widen global access to higher education, but they need careful research to assess the learning experiences that MOOCs can offer (Laurillard & Kennedy, 2017).

How can academic staff best use MOOCs?

Despite being not fully open, university academics can still make use of MOOCs as part of an interactive mix of educational experiences. They can be useful in various ways:

• As professional development for you: you might find that enrolling on a MOOC provides you with recent developments in your own field, which you can later incorporate into your courses.
• As a refresher for your own courses: High quality MOOCs often include recent research or cover topics in innovative ways. By enrolling on a MOOC, you can rethink your own courses, making them more relevant and enriching for your students.
• As a supplement to student learning: You can review MOOCs in your subject areas, and encourage your students to enrol, even if it’s only for a section of the course. You can get them to engage fully and critique the MOOC as part of the learning experience.

The open access article Twelve tips for integrating massive open online course content into classroom teaching suggests various innovative ways in which you might incorporate MOOCs into your teaching.

Where can you find MOOCs?

MOOCs in English are produced mostly by universities in the US, Europe, and Australia. They can be found on some university websites, but the better place to search is through course providers, which collaborate with universities and other organisations. These providers are now marketing themselves as online learning platforms, and some of them charge for the courses – this is another way in which the open-ness of MOOCs has changed. Examples of such platforms are Coursera, edX, and Udacity. If you want to find a MOOC relevant to one of your own courses, the best way is to use a browser and enter “MOOCs in <subject>”. You can then choose from your search results to examine them further.

Relatively few universities in Africa run MOOCs. Exceptions to this include the University of Cape Town, University of the Witwatersrand, and the African Leadership Institution. More institutions are likely to run courses as MOOCs or using online learning platforms in the future. The OER Africa website hosts some MOOC-related resources, such as:

• OER and MOOCs at the National Open University of Nigeria
• Moving forward with TESSA: what is the potential for MOOCs?
• ROER4D: OER in and as MOOCs

In summary, MOOCs appear to have become less open since their original inception before 2012. They can be used by academics in higher education as a form of professional development, and as a supplement to the courses they offer. MOOCs can also assist students wishing to access courses within higher education that otherwise might not be available to them. 

References

Ahearn, A. (2018). Stop Asking About Completion Rates: Better Questions to Ask About MOOCs in 2019. Available online at https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-11-28-stop-asking-about-completion-rates-better-questions-to-ask-about-moocs-in-2019

de Jong, P., Pickering, J., Hendriks, R., Swinnerton, B., Goshtasbpour, F. & Reinders, M. (2020) Twelve tips for integrating massive open online course content into classroom teaching, Medical Teacher, 42:4, 393-397, DOI: 10.1080/0142159X.2019.1571569 (Open Access)

Laurillard, D., & Kennedy, E. (2017). The potential of MOOCs for learning at scale in the Global South. Centre for Global Higher Education, working paper series, Lancaster, UK, 42. 

Martinez, S. (2014). OCW (OpenCourseWare) and MOOC (Open Course Where?). In Proceedings of OpenCourseWare Consortium Global 2014: Open Education for a Multicultural World.

Vollmer, T. (2012). Keeping MOOCs Open. Available online at https://creativecommons.org/2012/11/01/keeping-moocs-open/

For more articles in this series, click on the links below.

• Online assessment: How do we know if students are learning? (18 September 2020)
• UNESCO’s OER Recommendation Dynamic Coalition Consultations: The way forward (26 August 2020)
• The Open COVID Pledge for Education (12 August 2020)
• How can OpenCourseWare help you to improve your courses?(16 July 2020)
• Evaluating Open Content (2 July 2020)
• Adapting Open Content (25 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open data (18 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through openly licensed publishing (11 June 2020)
• Podcast: OER and their Relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic (5 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open African research repositories (29 May 2020)
• Emergency Remote Teaching Webinar Series – All resources available (18 May 2020)
• OER Repositories in Africa (8 May, 2020)
• How to Find Open Content (30 April, 2020)
• Online (and offline) reading resources for children (23 April, 2020)
• Showcasing OER Platforms: OER Africa (15 April, 2020)
• Understanding OER in a Context that Necessitates Remote Learning (9 April 2020)
• OER Africa COVID-19 Statement (3 April, 2020)

Image courtesy of Markus Büsges Wikimedia Deutschland.

UNESCO recently hosted a set of worldwide public consultations from 22-24 July 2020, the aim being to expand and consolidate commitments to actions and strategies as well as reinforce international cooperation among all stakeholders. As we noted in a recent blog post, OER Africa provided support to UNESCO Dynamic Coalition Working Group Consultation on the OER Recommendation. We are pleased to report that the final report from those consultation sessions is now available for download here. That report also summarizes data collected through the online surveys that led up to the consultation sessions.

The purpose of the three-day consultation process was to:

• Further clarify the priority areas of action per Working Group
• Identify activities and issues related to the establishment of an electronic tool for information sharing and collaboration on the activities of participating organizations.

The consultations provided a platform for rich conversation between a diverse group of participants. Thanks to the efforts of the organizers, facilitators and participants, valuable insights were collected across all four thematic Working Groups, as well as for the themes of the transversal Working Groups, as illustrated below.

While highlighting pertinent challenges and lessons, the discussions also provided insight into the countless OER-related activities occurring around the world. This speaks to the multifaceted network of individuals, Member States, organizations, institutions, and other stakeholders who can draw from one another in advancing the goals of the UNESCO OER Recommendation.

Notwithstanding challenges in connecting across time zones, the consultations illustrated that there is a strong network of people and organizations keen to support UNESCO in ensuring success in adoption of the OER Recommendation by Member States. Likewise, consultations yielded information on many resources and portals available online that can be harnessed by both Member States and institutions seeking to give practical expression to the OER Recommendation. It was heartening to see how much the OER Community has grown and how this has translated into growing access to openly accessibly resources. A major challenge here, though, remains a need to have materials available in a variety of languages other than English, although there are encouraging signs of diversification over time.

The highest priority moving forward will be to make strong connections with Member States to support their efforts to operationalize the OER Recommendation at national level. Across all Working Group areas and particularly in the Dynamic Coalition Communication Strategy, it will be important to focus on reaching out to and building working relationships with OER champions in government.

Linked to the above, effective communication will be critical to taking forward the OER Recommendation and the work of the Dynamic Coalition. Consequently, the Dynamic Coalition is considering how to develop an electronic tool which will be a means:

1. For the community to communicate with one another within and across projects;
2. To provide public information on the Coalition’s activities; and
3. For stakeholders to collaborate on common projects and activities.

At OER Africa, we are proud to be supporting the work of UNESCO’s Dynamic Coalition and excited to see the process moving forward. We look forward to more widespread operationalization of the OER Recommendation at national and institutional levels over the coming years as these efforts start to bear fruit.

Access more of our recent content below:

• OER Africa COVID-19 Statement (3 April, 2020)
• Understanding OER in a Context that Necessitates Remote Learning (9 April 2020)
• Showcasing OER Platforms: OER Africa (15 April, 2020)
• Online (and offline) reading resources for children (23 April, 2020)
• How to Find Open Content (30 April, 2020)
• OER Repositories in Africa (8 May, 2020)
• Emergency Remote Teaching Webinar Series – All resources available (18 May 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open African research repositories (29 May 2020)
• Podcast: OER and their Relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic (5 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through openly licensed publishing (11 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open data (18 June 2020)
• Adapting Open Content (25 June 2020)
• Evaluating Open Content (2 July 2020)
• How can OpenCourseWare help you to improve your courses?(16 July 2020)

During the week of 20^th July, 2020, OER Africa was privileged to be able to participate in, and provide administrative support to, the work of UNESCO’s Dynamic Coalition as its Working Groups convened in virtual consultations to begin preparing plans to support governments around the world in operationalizing the OER Recommendation. This article provides an update on the latest activities of the Dynamic Coalition and offers links to the various resources that are being shared.

The Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER) (40 C/32) was adopted at the 40^th UNESCO General Conference in Paris on 25^th November 2019 as the culmination of a long process of UNESCO engagement with the concept of OER. Following adoption of the OER Recommendation, UNESCO launched the OER Dynamic Coalition on 2 March 2020 to support its widespread adoption. OER Africa has been actively involved in all the processes that led to adoption of the OER Recommendation and continues to support UNESCO in this important work through its engagement in the activities of the Dynamic Coalition. This includes, amongst other activities, chairing the Working Group on Communications as the Dynamic Coalition consults stakeholders to prepare implementation plans.

The multi-stakeholder Coalition aims to expand and consolidate commitments to actions and strategies, as well as reinforce international cooperation among all stakeholders in the four areas of the Recommendation:

• Building capacity of stakeholders to create, access, re-use, adapt and redistribute OER;

• Developing supportive policy;

• Encouraging inclusive and equitable quality OER; and

• Nurturing the creation of sustainability models for OER.

The Coalition’s webpage is accessible here and the final report is available here.

UNESCO hosted a set of worldwide public consultations from 22-24 July 2020, the aim being to expand and consolidate commitments to actions and strategies as well as reinforce international cooperation among all stakeholders in these four areas. Stakeholders come from all regions of the world and include representatives from government, inter-governmental organizations, NGOs, educational institutions, associations and networks, and research agencies, amongst others. Central to the organization of the event were efforts for geographic balance, gender balance and a multisectoral approach, contributing to a diverse set of inputs and conversations. The consultations aimed to follow-up on an online survey (distributed by UNESCO to participants in the OER Recommendation activities and administered from 10 to 20 July) that collected information on priority areas of action. As such, the objectives were to:

• Further clarify the priority areas of action per Working Group; and

• Identify activities and issues related to the establishment of an electronic tool for information sharing and collaboration on the activities of participating organizations.

Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, all consultations took place online. While this introduced certain challenges, it also allowed more widespread participation from a very diverse group of stakeholders, including many people who likely would not have been able to engage had the sessions been face to face at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The online meeting formats, allowing simultaneous audio and text-based contributions generated very rich feedback. OER Africa, which is leading the Working Group on Communications for the OER Dynamic Coalition and part of the Advisory Group for the OER Coalition, served as the Rapporteur for Online Consultation.  Furthermore, OER Africa has made recordings of all the consultative sessions, as well as the presentations made throughout, accessible on our website here.

The report from these consultations is expected to be completed during August as part of the following programme of activities:

In follow-up articles, we will present the final report when it becomes publicly available and provide further updates on the work of the Dynamic Coalition. We will also explore in more detail some of the suggested actions and associated challenges that may be experienced as UNESCO and its partners (including OER Africa) seek to give practical expression to the goals of the OER Recommendation and thereby ensure that OER practices are adopted on scale in ways that truly help to improving the educational experience for students at all levels around the world.

For more articles in this series, click on the links below.

• OER Africa COVID-19 Statement (3 April, 2020)
• Understanding OER in a Context that Necessitates Remote Learning (9 April 2020)
• Showcasing OER Platforms: OER Africa (15 April, 2020)
• Online (and offline) reading resources for children (23 April, 2020)
• How to Find Open Content (30 April, 2020)
• OER Repositories in Africa (8 May, 2020)
• Emergency Remote Teaching Webinar Series – All resources available (18 May 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open African research repositories (29 May 2020)
• Podcast: OER and their Relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic (5 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through openly licensed publishing (11 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open data (18 June 2020)
• Adapting Open Content (25 June 2020)
• Evaluating Open Content (2 July 2020)
• How can OpenCourseWare help you to improve your courses?

Image source: Nick Morrison, Unsplash

What is OpenCourseWare?

• A free and open digital publication of high-quality educational materials, organized as courses.
• Available for use and adaptation under an open licence, such as certain Creative Commons licences.
• Not normally certified.

Source: UCI Open

OER Africa will cover MOOCs in an upcoming article.

Advantages and Disadvantages of using OCW

The main advantage of OCW for academics who are developing courses is the open licence, which enables adaptation and reuse, but other benefits include:

• OCW provides complete modules or courses, which can be very helpful if you are starting a course from scratch, providing you a template from which to work.
• OCW development in an institution can encourage academics to foster and use OER if they have not previously had experience in doing so.
• Course developers can share ideas and curricula openly, examine and adopt courses from other institutions, and potentially put their own courses online.
• By sharing courses openly, institutions can attract new students to enrol and be certified for a formal qualification.

Some disadvantages:

In adopting someone else’s course, you are taking on their pedagogy and course structure, which may not suit your own style. For example, many OCW consist mainly of ‘talking heads’ and presentation slides, which can result in the student being a passive rather than active agent. Modern teaching theory stresses the need for active student engagement to enable them to construct their own knowledge rather than learn a series of facts. A further disadvantage is that many OCW are produced in developed country settings, and cannot easily be transferred to other contexts without considerable adaptation. On the other hand, of course, the open licence allows just this adaptation (though sometimes trying to adapt an existing course can end up taking longer than developing it from scratch if the differences between what is there and what you need is too great).

Where can I find OCW?

OCW available on the Internet can be used in various ways, both by academics in Higher Education Institutions and by other educators. Quality courses from providers such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Open University (UK) or the University of Michigan can be accessed, and (if they are openly licenced) provide an impetus for lecturers to revise them into contextualised programmes for a developing country context. Academics can encourage their students to work through particular OCW to supplement their own learning. Teachers and other professionals can undertake their own development by working through courses relevant to their practice.

OER Africa has various OCW offerings available:

• The Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) Mathematics to assist teachers in their understanding upper primary and middle school maths as well as teaching issues relating to mathematical content: https://www.oerafrica.org/acemaths
• The ACE School Leadership and Management is aimed at empowering school leaders to lead and manage schools effectively: https://www.oerafrica.org/advanced-certificate-education
• The Household Food Security Programme aims to train household food security facilitators to work as change agents in the areas of agriculture, food and nutrition, focusing on households within communities.: https://www.oerafrica.org/household-food-security-programme
• The Partnership for Enhanced and Blended Learning (PEBL) assists university partners across East Africa to develop courses that can be offered by participant universities through blended learning: https://www.oerafrica.org/partnership-enhanced-and-blended-learning-pebl
• The Agshare II project, a collaboration between three HEIs in Ethiopia and Uganda on agricultural issues, lists a number of courseware documents under the list of Resources, while Communication Skills courseware developed by the University of Malawi is available at the IADP-SADC Digital Resources Project.

In summary, OCW can assist academics in higher education to improve their own offerings, and encourage them to share their own courses for the benefit of others. OCW can also assist students wishing to access courses within higher education that otherwise might not be available to them. However, as with all OER, you are ultimately responsible for assessing their utility by comparing what you find with your own understanding of what is needed to run your courses successfully.

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For more articles in this series, click on the links below.

• OER Africa COVID-19 Statement (3 April, 2020)
• Understanding OER in a Context that Necessitates Remote Learning (9 April 2020)
• Showcasing OER Platforms: OER Africa (15 April, 2020)
• Online (and offline) reading resources for children (23 April, 2020)
• How to Find Open Content (30 April, 2020)
• OER Repositories in Africa (8 May, 2020)
• Emergency Remote Teaching Webinar Series – All resources available (18 May 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open African research repositories (29 May 2020)
• Podcast: OER and their Relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic (5 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through openly licensed publishing (11 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open data (18 June 2020)
• Adapting Open Content (25 June 2020)
• Evaluating Open Content (2 July 2020)

What exactly can you do with OER? In what ways are they different from other resources? The beauty of OER is that most of them can be adapted to better suit your teaching and learning environment. They can be revised: you can re-work the language to make them more accessible to students; cut out and replace images with your own; translate into different languages; and add additional content, questions and exercises.

It is also possible to ‘stitch’ multiple OER into a new resource, like a patchwork quilt. We call this ‘remixing’ resources.

However, there is some skill and know-how required to revise and re-mix well. OER Africa has prepared a concise learning pathway (LP) to help you acquire these practical skills quickly.

The Adapt Open Content learning pathway covers the following themes:

Access the learning pathway on the OER Africa website here.

This LP on Adapting Open Content follows a previous LP that focused on Finding Open Content so if you are not clear how to find a good open resource, make sure you look at that LP too. All the LPs can be accessed here.

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For more articles in this series, click on the links below.

• OER Africa COVID-19 Statement (3 April, 2020)
• Understanding OER in a Context that Necessitates Remote Learning (9 April 2020)
• Showcasing OER Platforms: OER Africa (15 April, 2020)
• Online (and offline) reading resources for children (23 April, 2020)
• How to Find Open Content (30 April, 2020)
• OER Repositories in Africa (8 May, 2020)
• Emergency Remote Teaching Webinar Series – All resources available (18 May 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open African research repositories (29 May 2020)
• Podcast: OER and their Relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic (5 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through openly licensed publishing (11 June 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open data (19 June 2020)

Photo courtesy of Patrick Tomasso, Unsplash

This week, we focus on publishing in high-quality Open Access (OA) journals, with an emphasis on African journals. Open licensing allows for distribution of research literature, primarily online, without cost to the reader. Most OA materials use Creative Commons licences, which lay out the terms under which they can be used and distributed. Many OA journals employ a particular Creative Commons Licence, CC BY, which permits distribution, copying, and adaptation without requesting permission. Full attribution is always required, however.

Traditional journals typically meet their costs through subscriptions and selling advertising space, with some charging authors. OA journals usually charge authors a fee, called an Author Processing Charge (APC). The business model thus switches from one in which the subscriber or the advertiser pays the costs to one in which the author must pay. There is also a third mechanism called hybrid publishing. Funders increasingly require their grantees to publish using open access licences. If they publish with traditional journals, because of these donor requirements, these journals permit authors to select a Creative Commons licence for their accepted submissions, but charge a fee for doing so. In addition, some traditional publishers now produce fully OA journals. SHERPA/RoMEO, which is hosted by the University of Nottingham in the UK, maintains a database with information on publisher copyright restrictions and permissions. Note author rights and general conditions, see Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: SHERPA/RoMEO entry for African Journal of AIDS Research

There are two major platforms where you can search for journals. One is the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ); the other is through African Journals Online (AJOL).

AJOL hosts 526 journals, 264 of which are OA. On a national level, the University of Addis Ababa Libraries hosts Ethiopian Journals Online, a repository of 27 Ethiopian OA journals. The Academy of Science of South Africa also maintains Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) SA, which includes a selected collection of peer-reviewed OA South African scholarly journals and forms an integral part of the SciELO Brazil project.

Publishing research in African journals is significant for several reasons. It can give African scientists better global recognition. All too often African research is not accepted in traditional journals because it is not deemed a priority in Western journals or is considered too applied. African journals fill that gap; their peer review is comparable to their North American or European peers; and they are indexed by the same indexing and abstracting services. In addition, African OA journals charge lower Author Processing Charges or absorb costs in other ways. Moreover, the number of high-quality African OA journals continues to grow.

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates how well African publishers can speedily disseminate research particularly pertinent to Africa. As an example, the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), which produces AAS Open Research, has a webpage on research and funding opportunities specific to Africa. It also maintains a COVID-19 collection with articles that have been peer reviewed and those that are awaiting peer review. This is an important mechanism to ensure that time-sensitive research becomes immediately available.

Equally timely, the Pan-African Medical Journal has published a special issue on COVID-19 in Africa. The research articles, essays, and commentaries in this issue are specifically relevant to the continent, for example, on the coronavirus in Nigeria, Morocco, conflict-affected areas of Cameroon, and migrant communities in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) has started to publish weekly COVID-19 situation reports written by researchers associated with APHRC. They cover topics not usually included in traditional publications, for example supporting communities living in urban informal settlements to protect themselves from COVID-19. Although APHRC’s core business is to conceptualize, implement, and publish long-term evidence-based research, the Centre believes that information on the coronavirus pandemic is so urgent that it decided to publish these weekly briefs focusing on Africa.

Resources on Open Access

OER Africa’s open knowledge primer provides background on basic concepts and their pertinence to African researchers. OER Africa has also created a Learning Pathway (LP) on publishing using open access, which defines terms and will help you acquire the skills necessary to publish or advise on publishing research using OA. Both the primer and the LP will enable you to understand how to identify and select peer-reviewed OA journals that meet international standards. Both provide information on how to evaluate open access journals, an important consideration because some OA publishers use deceptive practices.

Our upcoming post on 25 June 2020 will address the significance of open data as a part of OA publishing.

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Click on the links below to access other articles in this series.

• OER Africa COVID-19 Statement (3 April, 2020)
• Understanding OER in a Context that Necessitates Remote Learning (9 April 2020)
• Showcasing OER Platforms: OER Africa (15 April, 2020)
• Online (and offline) reading resources for children (23 April, 2020)
• How to Find Open Content (30 April, 2020)
• OER Repositories in Africa (8 May, 2020)
• Emergency Remote Teaching Webinar Series – All resources available (18 May 2020)
• Sharing Africa’s knowledge through open African research repositories (29 May 2020)
• Podcast: OER and their Relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic

Open licensing is used for many different kinds of resources – open educational resources (OER), open access research publishing, open data, and more broadly open science. This post discusses developments in access to African research information through repositories that use open licensing. All of the resources are freely available and usually carry a Creative Commons or equivalent license.

OER Africa’s open knowledge primer provides a background on basic concepts and their pertinence to African researchers. OER Africa has also created a Learning Pathway on publishing using open access, which defines terms and will help you acquire the skills necessary to publish or advise on publishing research using Open Access (OA).

Like their global counterparts, many African research institutions and universities are increasingly using open licensing to make their research available and visible globally. The number of open access repositories is growing so quickly that it is difficult to keep track of them. The UK International African Institute (IAI) maintains a list that is frequently updated. IAI, in collaboration with AfricarXiv, has created an interactive map of African digital research literature repositories. You can also search on Google or the search engine of your choice by entering the name of an institution or country and repository (though this would require you to know better what you are looking for).

University open access repositories collect student theses and dissertations, case studies, conference papers, and sometimes journal articles. There are also continent-wide repositories. Three are discussed below. One focuses on university research output; one is a pre-print service; and one is discipline specific.

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Database of African Theses and Dissertations

The Association of African Universities maintains the Database of African Theses and Dissertations, including Research (DATAD-R). At this writing, universities in six countries contribute to DATAD-R. There are over 29,000 theses and dissertations and 4,700 research articles.

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AfricArXiv African Preprint Service

The AfricArXiv African Preprint Service is a part of the worldwide ArXiv movement in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics. ArXiv has become an important vehicle to speedily pre-publish scientific research and data on the coronavirus. The platform is maintained by Cornell University. Although contributions are not peer reviewed, ArXiv relies on a strong team of scientists as moderators and advisors.

Launched in 2018, AfricArXiv is an initiative of the Project for Open Science. This service allows African scientists to mount preprints of their research for review and discussion by peers in the international scholarly community before publication in a scholarly journal. AfricArXiv, which does not peer review submissions, sees itself as a way for African scientists to circulate their research quickly and freely in order to communicate with others in their field. It does not replace publication in a peer-reviewed journal. AfricArXiv is collaborating with Science Open to collect COVID-19 research in and about Africa.

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Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM)

RUFORUM, is a continent-wide consortium in 126 African universities and 38 countries. It operates an open access knowledge repository in the broad-based agricultural sciences, with copies of theses and dissertations, journal articles, case studies, briefing papers, policy briefs, posters, presentations, and conference papers from RUFORUM member universities and RUFORUM staff.

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Click on the links below to access other articles in this series.

• OER Africa COVID-19 Statement (3 April, 2020)
• Understanding OER in a Context that Necessitates Remote Learning (9 April 2020)
• Showcasing OER Platforms: OER Africa (15 April, 2020)
• Online (and offline) reading resources for children (23 April, 2020)
• How to Find Open Content (30 April, 2020)
• OER Repositories in Africa (8 May, 2020)
• Emergency Remote Teaching Webinar Series – All resources available (18 May 2020)

Photo courtesy of Trust Katsande, Unsplash

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, most African higher education institutions have halted face-to-face classes. But learning can continue, so OER Africa would like to share resources to help you to keep the doors of learning open. In contexts with limited educational means, Open Educational Resources (OER) can contribute to the accessibility of education and can encourage a culture of flexible and collaborative learning, particularly if the learning materials are reused, customized, and shared. 

A useful way of accessing such resources is via online knowledge repositories. A knowledge repository is an online database that systematically captures, organizes, and categorizes knowledge-based information. A few examples of OER repositories for the African context are:

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) OER – KNUST OER seeks to promote open learning through an open exploration that enables faculty, students, and the global academic community to access open licensed educational resources to maximize the impact and reach of their scholarly work through open sharing.

FundaOER, an initiative of VVOB, provides a repository of OERs to advance teaching and learning in Initial Teacher Education and Continuing Professional Development in South Africa. Articles, factsheets, videos, and other types of materials, covering different themes and phases, are freely and openly available on the platform.

The African Veterinary Information Portal (AfriVIP) contains materials pertaining to veterinary science. All its course materials, videos, animations, and images carry an open licence.

OpenUCT is the open access institutional repository of the University of Cape Town (UCT). It makes available and digitally preserves the scholarly outputs produced at UCT, including theses and dissertations, journal articles, book chapters, technical and research reports, and OER. These resources are organized into collections that are mapped against the university's organizational structure.

University World News recently published a list of South African OER, available here

For higher education courseware, the following resources are useful:

• AgShare Pilot and Planning Project
• African Teacher Education Network
• Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA)
• OpenStax
• MERLOT
• Middle East Technical University Open Courseware
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology Open Courseware

While many educators appreciate the value of openly licensed content, the issue is how to find these resources. Many educators and developers struggle to search for and identify useful resources.

OER Africa has prepared an interactive, multimedia rich, learning pathway on just this topic. It identifies a suggested simple set of procedures to find open resources that align with your curriculum requirements. 

The learning pathway is short, concise, and comprises eight segments of approximately 20 minutes each. 

The eight segments in the Find Open Content learning pathway cover:

1. Why find and use open content?
2. What is open licensing?
3. Identifying different types of open content
4. How to search for open content using Google
5. Search for open content using Creative Commons search
6. Search for open content on YouTube
7. Search for open content in open repositories
8. How to evaluate the open content discovered.

Access the learning pathway here

World Book and Copyright Day on 23 April is a celebration to promote the enjoyment of books and reading. Now that so many of us are at home with our children because of COVID-19, we can explore the virtual world of children’s stories – all free to read and many openly licensed. Some wonderful book and reading resources are listed below. 

African Storybook

With more than 7,200 children’s stories in 190 African languages, African Storybook has something for every child, from the very young ones just learning to read to older children. It’s possible to search in various ways, including by language and reading level, and to download freely and print. Most of the storybooks are created or translated by local educators and reflect African contexts. There is also an excellent guide for parents, teachers, and librarians on Preparing to Use African Storybooks with Children. Over 4,000 of these storybooks can be found on the ASb reader app. Selected books can be downloaded onto a personal library for offline use. 

StoryWeaver

There are more than 19,000 stories in 234 languages on the StoryWeaver platform. StoryWeaver has created a special page on Reading at Home during the Coronavirus school closures. This page links to: learning resources from grades one to eight; StoryWeaver’s special collection on science, mathematics, and technology; its local-language digital libraries, including African languages; and more.

Book Dash

Book Dash believes that every child should own one hundred books by the age of five. This South African non-profit gathers creative professionals who volunteer to create new, African storybooks that anyone can freely translate, print and distribute. It creates beautiful, high-quality books for young children in all South African languages. They currently have over 100 titles. Book Dash also has a short guide on Tips for Reading with Young Children.

African Storybook, StoryWeaver, and Book Dash use a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence, which means that you can download, print, share, translate, and adapt all of the stories in their collections.

Nal’ibali

Nal’ibali (isiXhosa for “here’s the story”) believes that well-established culture of reading can be a real game-changer for education in South Africa. Literacy skills are a strong predictor of future academic success in all subjects – and children who regularly read and hear engaging stories, in languages they understand, are well equipped and motivated to learn to read and write. Nal’ibali promotes reading and writing in mother tongue languages. 

Nal’ibali has free to download stories and reading resources for children and teenagers, accessible here

Audible

Audible (by Amazon) is a platform that allows you to stream audiobooks. While schools are closed, Audible is allowing free access to stream an incredible collection of stories for children and teenagers, including titles across six different languages. All stories are free to stream on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet. Note that these titles are currently freely available, but they are protected by full copyright.

The Early Literacy Resource Network

The Early Literacy Resource Network provides links to research and resources on licensing, policies, creation, and use of high-quality children’s materials in the global South. The Teaching Literacy page provides information for teaching reading and literacy skills. For more early literacy resources and information on how Creative Commons licences are used, access Good Stories Don't Grow on Trees: A Guide to Effective Costing of Storybooks in the Global South.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has spread, millions of learners and educational institutions globally have had to make rapid, unforeseen changes to how they run their learning programmes. Face-to-face teaching and learning have become impossible in many countries and there is uncertainty over when educational institutions will reopen their doors. This may have long-term effects on school programmes, examinations, and most importantly, learning. 

The pandemic has forced many educators and learners to explore new modes of learning provision such as online learning. It also places much greater emphasis on students being able to engage with educational resources as a primary mode of learning. Fortunately, over the last decade, a growing number of open educational resources (OER) have been made available by people in the education space for others to use. These OER offer great promise in ensuring that a range of educational materials are accessible to learners and educators.

What are OER?

There are many definitions of OER, one of the most comprehensive being:

Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property licence that permits their free use and repurposing by others. OER include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge. (Hewlett Foundation, OER Defined)

The Cape Town Open Education Declaration states that OER should be freely shared through open licences that facilitate use, revision, translation, improvement, and sharing by anyone. The materials need to be published in formats that allow for both use and editing, while accommodating manipulation and adoption on various technical platforms. It also requires that materials be made available in formats that are accessible to people with disabilities and people who do not yet have access to the Internet, where possible.

Creative Commons Licences 

The most common mechanism to share educational resources openly and legally is by using Creative Commons (CC) licences. Creative Commons ‘provides free, easy‐to use copyright licences to make a simple and standardized way to give the public permission to share and use your creative work – on conditions of your choice’ (Creative Commons, nd). 

CC licences provide a wonderful opportunity to translate materials into other languages and use them for varying purposes. This is illustrated in the World Bank’s recent rapid response note, Remote Learning and COVID-19: 

A quick inventory of content that can be easily made available via remote learning is a first order of business. Freely available, ‘open education resources’ are plentiful in some languages; in languages where digital learning content is limited, translating existing open education resources from other languages may be worth considering, together with partners. (World Bank, 2020).

Over the years, countless educational materials have been available as OERs and released online. Because they are openly licensed, OERs can be rapidly aggregated and deployed in remote learning contexts to substitute for the loss of face-to-face teaching time caused by institutional shutdowns. With most proprietary educational materials locked behind paywalls and not free to copy or use, OERs can provide educators and students access to free, high quality resources, offered with no threat of litigation from overzealous copyright lawyers. 

In our upcoming series of communiques, we will share tutorials designed to provide users the skills to find and adapt OER. We will identify excellent open reading resources for your children while at home, and even how to start to assemble OER into a learning design. 

Our next installation will be on showcasing OER platforms. We will look at OER Africa’s activities and highlight some of the useful resources and sections on the website.

Image Credit: Bandita, CC-BY-SA 2.0

The Commonwealth of Learning (COL), an inter-governmental organisation headquartered in Burnaby, Canada, is committed to promoting learning for sustainable development. It does this through the use of distance learning and online learning technologies. For more than 30 years, COL has used innovative approaches to open the doors of learning not just for formal education but non-formal and informal learning that is accessible, affordable and available to the last person in the queue.

With an increasing number of states, provinces and even whole countries closing institutions of learning as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, 363 million learners worldwide are being impacted (UNESCO, 2020). How can we ensure that valuable time is not lost and our learners at all levels continue to learn wherever they are?

Many countries are planning to offer online learning as an alternative. COL’s experience shows that open, distance and online learning, if done well, can have the same outcomes as campus education without requiring teachers and learners to be in the same place at the same time. However, we recognise that not all schools, colleges and universities are currently well-prepared to fully utilise these approaches, and COL stands ready to share its expertise and resources to enable stakeholders to keep the doors of learning open for all.

In this time of crisis, a suitable response requires a renewed commitment to sharing and re-using open educational resources (OER); exploring novel ways to enable interaction between learners and other learners, learners and teachers, learners and content using online platforms; and to use appropriate technologies so that no one is left behind.

Some guidelines to consider include:

1. Institutions should take emergency policy decisions to adopt alternative ways of teaching, including online learning.
2. Ensure that learning is delivered using ICT tools such as radio, TV, mobile devices so that no learner is disadvantaged.
3. Identify and use existing OER to provide quality learning.
4. Develop and implement strategies for synchronous/asynchronous approaches.
5. Encourage teachers to use free resources such as MoodleCloud to conduct online classes.

COL has compiled a selection of resources and tools as a first response to this crisis. The resources can be accessed below.

What is Open Education Week?

Founded in 2013 by the Open Education Global (previously Open Education Consortium), the goal of Open Education Week is to raise awareness and showcase impact of open education on teaching and learning worldwide. Open Education Week has become one of the most foremost global events recognizing high achievement and excellence in open education.

The week-long event spotlights amazing work from over a dozen categories including live, face-to-face events, webinars, projects, and resources.

For more information, visit the Open Education week website: https://www.openeducationweek.org/

For resources and projects, see: https://www.openeducationweek.org/resources

For Open Education Week 2020 online and offline events, check out: https://www.openeducationweek.org/events

Is your organization hosting any events for OE Week? Let us know in the comments below or let us know on Twitter: https://twitter.com/oerafrica
 

This report assesses students’ access to educational materials in select institutions within Commonwealth countries. The findings indicate that learners are now engaging with a complex ecosystem of learning materials, both print and digital, in a multitude of differing forms and formats, with various terms of use and durations of sustained access.

This paper demonstrates how the features and affordances of open learning have been developed in new and productive ways to provide school-based continuing professional development for teachers in Zambia. It presents and critically reviews data from 200 teachers who have taken part in phase 1 of the Zambian Education School-based Training (ZEST) – a project which, over the next three years, will be scaled-up across Zambia. The project is underpinned by the belief that knowledge about teaching is co-constructed through participation in, and reflection on, practice. Thus, the emphasis is on empowering teachers to work together to develop practices appropriate to their context – open practices. In the study, we describe an on-going process of realist evaluation which enables us to establish at an early stage what works in which contexts and informs on-going project planning. It concludes that this approach to evaluation has the potential to be helpful in understanding open practices and how they can be developed.

The guidelines describe the whole process for designing and implementing OER policy in seven chapters, each representing a clear phase in the whole process. The chapters introduce the purpose of the phase and provide background information and references with practical examples for illustration. At the end of each chapter, specific tasks are set for the policy-maker, which will help with formulating of the final OER policy. The guidelines start with an introduction to the potential of OER and then ask the policy-maker to determine the vision of the OER policy she or he has in mind. This policy needs a framework, which determines on what level of the education system the policy will be set (scale) and which sector of the education system the policy will cover (focus). This sets out the first part of the theory of change – i.e., it determines what change is envisaged through the policy.

A gap analysis is then necessary to provide a realistic picture of the challenges and the opportunities that the current educational system, its infrastructure, its key members and the overall policy context present for the new OER policy. This can be used as a backdrop for designing the masterplan, which takes the building blocks present in a standard OER policy and specifies them for the specific policy context. These building blocks indicate what is going to be changed. An implementation plan adopts a strategy for how to realise the masterplan effectively and to ensure that all key stakeholders are involved. This phase includes setting up an evidence base and monitoring framework so that the policy can be adjusted during the implementation phase. Finally, the policy developed needs to be launched, so streamlining and checks against the reality of the context should be carried out. This is where the policy-makers have to focus on the outreach of the policy. In this phase, a policy needs to be officially endorsed by someone in an authoritative position – for example, the cabinet, education minister or president of a country – and by educational leaders, to ensure that it can have an impact on the education system. Moreover, it is important to ensure that the policy has been understood by those it is hoping to influence – i.e., the actors and institutions using OER to make teaching and learning better. Finally, a policy should be ambitious and aim to reach the mainstream in the future. Therefore, a review of implementation and its impacts should lead to a discussion of what shape the next-generation policy should take and how the scope and scale of this policy can be extended.

The key readers of this publication are those directly involved in policy design. The aims of these guidelines are to help these people to:

• Understand essential subject-matter knowledge on OER through a learning-by-doing process
• Develop a set of procedural knowledge on OER policy planning, working through key steps necessary for designing a comprehensive OER policy
• Reinforce the contextual knowledge needed to leverage OER in achieving SDG 4 through assessing the policy context and needs for OER, planning institutionalised programmes and drawing up a contextualised masterplan
• Ensure the commitment to policy adoption and implementation through integrating stakeholder engagement into the policy-planning process and determining adequate policy endorsement and implementation strategies
• Enhance the quality of policy implementation by planning a mechanism for monitoring and evaluation, and working towards an evidence based policy-planning and updating cycle.

Although textbooks are a traditional component in many higher education contexts, their increasing price have led many students to forgo purchasing them and some faculty to seek substitutes. One such alternative is open educational resources (OER). This study by John Hilton III synthesizes results from sixteen efficacy and twenty perceptions studies involving 121,168 students or faculty that examine either (1) OER and student efficacy in higher education settings or (2) the perceptions of college students and/or instructors who have used OER.

On Wednesday 3 April 2019, Neil Butcher of OER Africa conducted a webinar for librarians, hosted by the African Library & Information Associations & Institutions (AfLIA). The webinar was the first in a series of three on open education resources (OER) for librarians. In the webinar, Butcher introduced librarians to OERs, and described the Creative Commons licences licensing conditions. Butcher explained that librarians need to spend time understanding the licences to be able to explain them to library users, so that these users can get maximum value from OERs and also create and share their own work. Butcher discussed the opportunities presented to librarians, students, and academics through the use of OER, as well as various OER repositories to be found online. These OER repositories provide a platform for content creators to show African content to the world, and ensure that African content creators are active in global knowledge networks. Butcher presented examples of African OERs in practice, and explained how institutional policies on OER use and Internet access are essential for African academic libraries. The webinar was well received, and over 100 librarians participated.

In Webinar 2 in the series, held on 17 April 2019, Lisbeth Levey introduced Open Access (OA) publishing and licensing models. Lisbeth described how to determine reputable OA publishers. Dr Tony Lelliott explained how OER and OA intersect, and how good research can help educators prepare up-to-date and relevant learning materials. He identified African institutional repositories and discussed the importance of institutional OA policies and repository management. By the end of this webinar, librarians understood the ramifications of high-cost journal subscriptions, how they can help researchers identify high-quality OA journals, and how to manage institutional repositories. Librarians should be able to situate themselves as champions of OA within the university community. Webinar participants responded with many questions for the presenters, indicating deep engagement with the topic.

Webinar 3, on 2 May 2019, closed out the series by contemplating the implications of OER for librarians. In the first two webinars, librarians learned how to find and assess openly licenced resources. In the final webinar, presented by Kirsty von Gogh, librarians discovered how to integrate what they learned about openly licences resources into their work. With access to openly licenced resources, librarians need to establish processes for managing this content and to find ways of supporting academics and students to access and use high-quality research and resources.

For more on the webinars series, visit: http://web.aflia.net/open-educational-resources-oer-webinar-series-for-african-librarians/

The webinars are available on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPaQeggWf7gVPSkLhYl9_8g

This free online course on OER from the Commonwealth of Learning has recently been updated. It is interactive and on completion you can download a certificate of participation.

As the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) 14-strong portfolio of open online courses continues impacting internationally, six have been singled out as world class by global MOOC monitoring website Class Central, based on participants’ reviews.

The latest JL4D features three articles on OER Research in Africa, including "Learning for Development in the Context of South Africa: Considerations for Open Education Resources in Improving Higher Education Outcomes" by Narend Baijnath CEO of the Council on Higher Education. Kirk Perris of the Commonwealth of Learning reviews the CILT research "Adoption and Impact of OER in the Global South".

Saide's OER Africa consultant, Brenda Mallinson, will be running a session together with Shadrack Mbogela from the Open University of Tanzania on "Exploring the Digital Fluency course for Academic staff Professional Development" at the e/merge Online Festival. The workshop was a live stream session on Tuesday 17th July (15:00-17:00) and the materials will be open for at least a week afterwards for participants to engage with the DF courses on the OUT Moodle.

Exploring Aspects of Digital Fluency for Blended Teaching and Learning. Workshop presentation by Brenda Mallinson to The First Annual Teaching and Learning Conference 2018 at North West University, South Africa. The workshop was on the digital fluency course developed together with the Open University of Tanzania.

COL has identified the development of OER as a potential answer to the challenges of access to relevant learning resources to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education. Provincial/regional OER policies and guidelines were developed in Sri Lanka, Botswana, and Cameroon involving provincial/regional education policymakers. The innovation of this project lies in the collaborative approach adopted for OER policy/guideline development. 

This volume examines aspects of educator and student adoption of OER and engagement in Open Educational Practices (OEP) in secondary and tertiary education as well as teacher professional development in 21 countries in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia.

An important new resource has just been timeously released during Open Education Week. The question of “what makes a good actor or not” in OER is one that Lisa Petrides, founder and CEO of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, has addressed in a new guide for OER stewardship.

The ROER4D project being managed through the University of Cape Town is releasing chapters from their forthcoming online publication. In this chapter the authors report on an investigation into the production and rollout of four MOOCs at UCT in South Africa, and on the experiences of the educators involved in their production.

Launching OER Degree Pathways: An Early Snapshot of Achieving the Dream’s OER Degree Initiative and Emerging Lessons is a formative evaluation report prepared by SRI International that was released in June, 2017. It is a preliminary report that shares findings from initial surveys and interviews of an initiative to launch ‘OER degrees’ in 38 community colleges across the United States of America, which is being led by Achieving the Dream.

We have created a PDF of our Supporting Distance Learners online resource that will be used at a workshop to be conducted at the University of Lesotho which others may find useful too.