OER Initiatives in Africa

The Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) initiative investigates the ecosystem of open textbook publishing and provides implementation support in open textbook publishing activity at the University of Cape Town (UCT). It also aims to support policy-makers and other stakeholders in the development of institutional and national policy frameworks that govern open textbook publishing activity and address long-term sustainability mechanisms.

TESSA is a network of teachers and teacher educators stretching across Sub-Saharan Africa. At the heart of the network is a bank of open educational resources (OER), linked to the school curriculum, and designed to support teachers and teacher educators in developing active approaches to learning. The network is co-ordinated by The Open University, UK.

The #OpenEdInfluencers at Nelson Mandela University began in 2018. The project launched a more focussed aim to increase awareness, access, adoption and creation of Open at the institution, and beyond. Exploratory institutional support enabled the appointment and training of three Mandela University students, each hoping to support change in education through direct action.

The Thutong Portal is the online point of entry to a comprehensive array of free educational resources, policy information, and interactive services concerning all aspects of the South African Schooling Sector. It will provide relevant information and services about the South African school curriculum, teacher development, school administration, and management. Thutong aims to facilitate ease of use, enabling users to find and make use of its resources and services in the most intuitive ways possible.

The overarching goal of OpenMed is to raise Awareness and facilitate the adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Educational Practices (OEP) in the Arab Mediterranean countries, with a particular focus on higher education in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Palestine.

OER Africa is a ground-breaking initiative established by the South African Institute for Distance Education (Saide). We play a leading role in supporting higher education institutions across Africa in the development and use of Open Educational Resources (OER) to enhance teaching and learning.

The Open University of Tanzania is the first university in the whole of the East Africa region to offer educational programs through Open and Distance Learning mode. This makes OUT peculiar from conventional residential universities. Through Open and Distance Learning, OUT allows flexible learning environment leading to protracted periods of course completion.

Saide is committed to the process of transformation of education and training so to increase equitable and meaningful access to knowledge, skills and learning through the adoption of open learning principles, distance education methods and educational technology.

The African Council for Distance Education (ACDE) is a continental educational organization comprising African universities and other higher education institutions, which are committed to expanding access to quality education and training through Open and Distance Learning (ODL) including e-Learning. It is a unifying body of distance education providers and practitioners in Africa, ACDE and was formally launched in January 2004 at Egerton University, Kenya.

School of Open is an initiative run by a global community of volunteers providing free online courses, face-to-face workshops, and innovative training programs on the meaning, application, and impact of 'openness' in the digital age. School of Open also provides educational materials on how to add a Creative Commons license to work, and free resources for classroom use, remix a music video, and more. It is a product of Peer 2 Peer University and Creative Commons. Read about School of Open Africa initiatives in Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.

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.