Purpose & Partners: Problem we are trying to solve

OER Africa has recognized that extensive change in institutional practice is required to transform higher education provision in ways that overcome institutional barriers – policy, regulatory, systemic, and cultural –which inhibit the sustainable adoption of pedagogical practices that take full advantage of the transformative educational potential of OER and ICT. While these barriers remain, mainstream adoption of OER practices is likely to remain on the margins of institutional activity. Over the current period (2015 – 2017) our objective is to support four institutional partners to achieve the following:

• build a deepened understanding of how OER practices can support transformation of teaching and learning
• ensure that such accumulating understanding is widely shared and incorporated into policy and advocacy.

We selected institutional partnerships that represent a diversity of situations and approaches. Our objective is to ensure that the knowledge gained from these engagements leads to a generalizable understanding of these barriers and potential strategies to overcome them, which can then be widely shared with key educational decision makers in African higher education. This is being achieved by implementing a parallel action research agenda designed to maximize opportunities for reflection on lessons being learned as the processes unfold at each institution.

Our Partners