Articles and Updates

Half a century ago, on 26 April 1970, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Convention came into force and is commemorated as World Intellectual Property (IP) Day, with the aim of increasing general understanding of IP. At OER Africa, we respect the right of individuals to protect their IP and we understand its importance in driving innovation. However, in the case of educational materials, we believe that All Rights Reserved may often not be the most appropriate copyright in today’s world.

As of 2022, activities by UNESCO to support implementation of its OER Recommendation are gathering pace and OER Africa is pleased to be assisting UNESCO in this important work. The Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER) (40 C/32) was adopted at the 40th UNESCO General Conference in Paris on 25th November 2019 as the culmination of a long process of UNESCO engagement with the concept of OER.

This week (14-20 March 2022) is South African Library Week. In 2001, the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA) established Library Week for all types of libraries in South Africa to market their services and create awareness of the important role that libraries play in a democracy.

Every year, the team at OER Africa looks forward to Open Education Week (OE Week). This year is no different, as we prepare ourselves to engage with this vibrant community and participate in the many diverse activities on offer. Launched in 2012 by Open Education Global, OE Week is a collaborative, community-built open forum. It raises awareness about open education and highlights innovative open education successes worldwide.

Assessment always has a purpose. We need to be clear on that purpose in our learning design work. But that purpose can vary. In this article aimed at educators, we explore assessment of, for, and as learning to think about the purpose of assessment and to help us think about integrated summative assessment.

You may have seen ArXiv pop up in your science-related or open access repository searches. ArXiv is an open access repository for pre-prints and post-prints that have been moderated but not peer reviewed.