I work on a project (supported by Delft University of Technology) to investigate the (often limited) Open education as part of capacity building programs for universities in developing countries.
*Results will be presented during a conference and will take into consideration two cases that I’m involved in.
If anyone is interested in sharing experiences or contribute, please let me know!.
Below you will find a more detailed description.
Joost Groot Kormelink - Manager Open and Online Education
OER and Open education (OER/OE) could in principle be of great added value within the framework of for such capacity building programs:
• In principle it means open (free) access to high quality materials for both staff and students. Most CC-licences also allow adaptations to ensure local relevance.
• Activities focusing on (the joint) development of OER can increase impact in terms of: visibility, reputation, efficiency, contextualization, share and preserve local knowledge in specific fields, quality and outreach activities (re-use of materials).
• OE/OER -if implemented adequately- can sustain course and curriculum development and improve student-retention.
However, as mentioned above, open education and re-use of OER is not part (and parcel) of such programs or even a component. In this project I would like to investigate:
• What the reasons hereto are from the perspective of the donors and universities in the South (i.e. Africa).
• How open education and OER (re-use and development) could be better embedded in capacity building programs: i.e. : what are the conditions for success and what are the obstacles.
• The potential - but also risks (think about a strong bias in favour of Western knowledge and visibility at the expense of local sources)- of Gen-AI.
The idea is to address these issues from 3 angles: a) Social/cultural, b) Institutional and c) Technology.
The final result will be conference papers with a focus on awareness and a contribution to agenda setting from a policy perspective.
