Tag: open educational resources

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Mobile adapted OpenWASH courses

Digital Campus, with support from mPowering Frontline Health Workers, is very pleased to announce the release of mobile adapted versions of the OpenWASH training programme.

Based closely on the training model used for HEAT for training Health Extensions Workers in Ethiopia, “OpenWASH is a set of innovative learning resources launched in 2016 by The Open University in partnership with World Vision Ethiopia and UNICEF through the ONEWASH PLUS programme, funded by UK aid from the UK Government. OpenWASH supports the Government of Ethiopia’s One WASH National Programme which aims to radically improve the provision of safe water and sanitation and bring significant benefits to millions of people.” (quote from the OpenWASH website).

The OpenWASH courses were released as Open Educational Resources (OER) under a Creative Commons license.

The adaptation involved taking the original print-focused course content and creating a version suitable for mobile delivery using the open source OppiaMobile learning platform, so the courses may be downloaded and used offline on Android devices.

Additional quiz questions for all the study sessions have been added, and non-country specific versions of the courses have also been created. The adaptation process we used has been documented here: http://oppiamobile.readthedocs.io/en/latest/author/adapt/openwash.html.

The adapted courses in Moodle can be found here: Ethiopia specific version or Globally adapted version and to view on your Android device, install the OppiaMobile app, then select the OpenWASH courses to be viewed offline.

Images of OpenWASH courses running offline on Android phone:

Open Educational Resources

What is OER?

As I mentioned in previous posts, OER is defined as digitized educational materials offered freely and openly for use and re-use in teaching, learning and research.

OER challenges

Using OER in education presents some important challenges:

  • Globalization of the knowledge societies, related to the rise of knowledge-intensive societies and the demand for skilled population.
  • Challenges to education systems: extend reach of education, improve quality and flexibility.

Could the technology help?

The developments of new technical solutions, the increasing connectivity, the growing numbers of low-cost devices and the rising of open digital content create the infrastructure to facilitate knowledge sharing in a global context with social, economic and cultural differences.

OER: an academic and cultural challenge

The explosive increase of OER reinforces the tradition of the altruist academic sharing. Initiatives like MIT OpenCourseWare, the UNESCO actions, the OpenCourseWare Consortium movement, and others initiatives opened a wide debate about OER implications, about their advantages and disadvantages in educational systems in different parts of the world.

OER and the cultural context

OER content that is useful in a cultural, academic and economic development is not always applicable in a different context.
When a university is considering the use of open content in the development of their subjects, must carefully consider the relevance and implications of implementing OER and imagine the prospects for participation in the OER movement as institution.
The participation of the universities in this movement implies to go beyond its role like users of open contents to an active role to share the didactic materials developed by its teachers. This step raises important challenges; to develop pedagogical and technical skills between the teachers to develop to interactive contents and methods of quality control.

Interesting views

Catherine Ngugi’s interview, project director of OER Africa, offers interesting views:

  • Some resources created elsewhere, might not be culturally appropriate, or relevant to the other place.
  • Connectivity is one of the practical challenges.
  • An important point is availability of free licences, with permission for free use.
  • The support from university management is crucial.
  • The notion of open learning is an incentive for academics, but they need to know how to do it.
  • The partnership with other universities is a key issue.

For more detail, read the Catherine Ngugi’s interview (http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2010121021305756)

An interesting index of OER Resources

This list shows examples of OER, which, as explained: “The Open Educational Resources come in many shapes and sizes”.

This listing is part of the Free to Learn Guide (look in the Table of Contents: Index of OER Resources)

This guide describe Open Educational Resources (OER) as a cost-efficient method of improving the quality of teaching and learning while at the same time reducing costs imposed on students related to the purchase of expensive commercial textbooks and learning materials.

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