USE OF OER – LESSONS FROM THE PHEA-ETI KENYATTA UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE

By Dr. Michael Wainaina,Associate Dean,

Graduate School,Kenyatta University.

1. Digitization of Past Examination Papers2. Creation of Chemistry and Communication

Skills e-Learning Modules 3. Digitization of Thesis (A pilot Project)4. Online Executive MBA Project5. Common Research Methodology e-Course –

Presentation focuses on this Project

Projects by K.U.

A Common Research Methodology Course (CRMC)e-Course to meet the 35 hour contact requirement for a University course

Faculty would develop the Unit themselves for ownership

Content developers were identified by the Deans of Schools (K.U. has thirteen teaching Schools)

They were identified through a participatory process for their “expertise”

Output Description & Operational Parameters

Approved CRMC description: CRMC Course Outline CRMC content developers identified CRMC Content Developed Facilitators Identified Facilitators trained

Outputs of the Participative Process

Engagement with OER Requested and Received existing OER on

Research Methodology from SAIDE

OER – 37 Rows Resource Name

URL Description Copyright Conditions

Topics

OER Resources

Successful Educational Research

No URL – copy of resource has been received.

These Guidelines were developed in the context of a wider project aimed in part at developing research and research capacity in teacher education.

The copyright for this work is held by Roger Deacon, Ben Parker and the Centre for EducationPolicy Development. However, to maximise distribution and application, the work is licensedunder a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. To view a copy ofthis licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0

Research Proposal, Research Questions, Planning and Management, Funding Research, Publishing Research

What were we to do with the materials? We reviewed it and forwarded it “as is

where is” to the content developers!! With wisdom of hindsight it is clear now the

this is not a very productive approach!!

Use of OER

We should have done a needs assessment of the requirements of the Content developers ensuring that developers were clear about what they needed or did not need and/or

We should have interrogated the materials received with a view to:◦ Sift through the materials with the Content developers to

identify relevant information◦ Explore the materials as a resource for content

development based on the requirements and set parameters of the CRMC

◦ Identify and address any challenges the content developers may have had in using the materials

◦ Review usefulness of the materials in meeting needs of CRMC as conceived for Kenyatta University

Looking back, what should we have done?

What did the Content developers do with the material?

We don’t know! While we ultimately produced good

material, we cannot say the extent that OER contributed to the quality, if at all.

That OER is an opportunity to re-engage with the process of course development

That information is available, in fact there is a glut of it and the challenge is to manage it to meaningfully, effectively and optimally work for your needs and context: Need to plan, adopt and evaluate the use of OER in Curriculum development…We cannot assume that the fact that the material is available it is necessary and sufficient

What are lessons of the exercise?

◦The illiterates of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, un-learn and re-

learn…Alvin Toffler

OER demands a New Literacy

How do we ensure that we optimally use OER in collaborative curriculum and course

content development projects?

It will be productive for the PHEA-ETI projects working with OER to deliberately investigate this question and document lessons learnt

with a view of scaling up best practice.

Opportunity for learning

OER as a Resource…Who Has More Muscles?

THANK YOU