The use and production of OER &amp; OCW in teaching in South African higher education institutions: Case Study

Igor Lesko

doi:10.5944/openpraxis.5.2.52

Abstract

With thousands of materials having been produced and shared openly and freely on the Internet as Open Educational Resources (OER) or OpenCourseWare (OCW), the focus of the Open Education movement has shifted toward the need to demonstrate how such materials are being used, by whom and with what impact. This paper reports on the uses, the motivation for and perceived benefits of use, as well as the challenges of using or producing OER/OCW among academics at public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in South Africa (SA). Findings revealed widespread use of OER/OCW amongst respondents in their teaching endeavors, with a number of reported benefits. Findings also revealed respondents’ educational rationale for using or producing OER/OCW. Identified challenges to using or producing OER/OCW are related to licensing issues, institutional challenges or infrastructural problems. The paper proposes several recommendations to advance the use and production of OER/OCW in SA public higher education.

Highlights

Mapping the landscape of Open Educational Resources (OER) & OCWMore than a decade has passed since the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) made the announcement1 that they would make course materials from across their entire curriculum available online for free, under an open license, as OpenCourseWare (OCW)
The use and production of OER & OCW in teaching in south african higher education institutions that a number of evaluation studies have emerged in recent years
This paper reports on the uses, the motivation for and perceived benefits of use, as well as the challenges of using or producing OER/OCW among academics at public Higher Education Institutions in South Africa

Summary

Introduction

With thousands of materials having been produced and shared openly and freely on the Internet as OER or OCW, the focus of the Open Education movement has shifted toward the need to demonstrate how such materials are being used, by whom and with what impact. The use and production of OER & OCW in teaching in south african higher education institutions that a number of evaluation studies have emerged in recent years The findings from these studies revealed that OER & OCW had been used by numerous stakeholders. This paper reports on the uses, the motivation for and perceived benefits of use, as well as the challenges of using or producing OER/OCW among academics at public Higher Education Institutions in South Africa

Methodology

Findings

OER Commons is a search engine for OER