ACDE Forum - capacity building and OER introduction: for review and response

[Neil Butcher]

Hi everyone,

I see many people have joined the discussion list since I posted my introductory message yesterday.

The list is also very quiet since we started, so I thought I should re-post my introduction to encourage people to begin debating some of the issues it raises. Please do contribute, as the forum can only work as an online discussion

First, let me outline our understanding of the concept of OER, as this is critical when considering the capacity-building challenges and issues. In a nutshell, the concept of OER describes educational resources that are freely available for use by educators and learners, without an accompanying need to pay royalties or licence fees. A broad spectrum of licensing frameworks is emerging to govern how OERs are licensed for use, some of which simply allow copying, others of which make provision for users to adapt the resources that they use.

Why is the concept of OER so potentially powerful?

1.      Because OER removes restrictions around copying resources, it holds potential for reducing the cost of accessing educational materials over time, provided judicious investments are made in producing and sharing high quality, well designed resources.

2.      The principle of allowing adaptation of materials contributes to encouraging higher education students to be active participants in educational processes, whereby they learn by doing and creating, not just by passively reading and absorbing.

3.      OER has the potential to build capacity in African countries by providing educators with access, at low or no cost, to the means of production to develop their competence in producing educational materials and completing the necessary instructional design to integrate such materials into high quality programmes of learning.

The last point is the most important for this discussion, as it suggests to me that there are really two fundamental questions to consider when thinking about capacity-building and OER:

1.      What capacity do we need to build to enable higher education institutions, academics, and students to take advantage of OER?

This might include issues of raising awareness about the concept of OER itself, helping people to understand the licensing issues, supporting institutions to develop OER-friendly policies, and so on.

2.      How can OER help to build stronger institutional capacity in African higher education?

For me, this issue is the really important one. Many people in the OER movement seem to be operating under the illusion that simply making content freely available for use and adaptation will magically improve higher education delivery in Africa. This simplistic position ignores the obvious reality that content is only one piece of the educational puzzle, and that effective use of educational content does demand good educators to facilitate the process. I find OER an exciting, but daunting, concept, because it provides us a structured opportunity to engage African higher education faculties in structured processes that will build their capacity to design and deliver high quality higher education programmes without increasing cost. Without this institutional capacity, OER will not be able to fulfil its transformative potential.

With this introduction in place, I suggest we begin discussion by focusing on the following initial questions. Please feel free to respond to any one of these initial questions to get the conversation going:

1.      Why are you interested in OER? What do you and/or your institution hope to gain from engaging with the concept?

2.      If you are from a higher education institution, is your institution (or any faculty within the institution) starting to invest in producing Open Educational Resources or using OER produced elsewhere? If so, is this process being used to build your institution’s/faculty’s capacity, what kinds of capacity are you trying to build, and what effect is that having? If not, what needs to be done to get your institution to engage in OER?

3.      What kinds of capacity-building interventions do we need to consider to persuade institutions to implement OER-friendly policies?

I look forward to hearing people’s responses to these questions, as well as any thoughts you might have on the issues raised in this introductory posting. Please feel free to share links in your responses to documents available on the Internet that you think people might find interesting.

Let’s get the discussion going!!!

Neil

[Tunde Ipaye]

DEar ALL,

I am happy to be part of this discussion forum. I ma Professor Babatunde Ipaye. I work for the National Open University of Nigeria and serve as the Director of Learner Support Services.  As you know the availability of study materials is a huge support service in ODL, since without study materials learning in ODL goes no inch. One of the questions I think Neil has left out is this:  How many instituions per se in developing nations are aware of the use of OER; next how many Faculties or staff know there is womething like this? For how long and how many had started participating in the development of such materials?  Third, do we "believe" in the use and adoption of OER within our courses and programmes. I see a cultural bent in OER. AFrica in particular believes in sharing, we see ourselves as our brothers' keepers and are thus preapared to share, co-own and joint-produce. WE can explore this cultural situation as we get our people to know and partonise the development ansnuse of OER. Another question that may come later in the discussionis this.  Within many African universities, the slogan "publish or perish" reigns supreme.  Lecturers have to publish to get promoted; they have to publish and depend sometimes later on the accruing royalties etc. OER to a large extent is free, has no attached owenership once you release your production etc.  How does the youger academic who still needs promotion and wjhose promotion is based on his productivity participate gainfully inthe OER  open commons?  Can s/he cite his/her contributions as her own and will his/her university accept and use this etc. Allow me to stop meanwhile and make further contributions later.  Thank you all for joining and for contributing. 

 

Professor Babatunde Ipaye 

--
Professor Babatunde Ipaye
Educo-Health Project
234-803-310-1920
234-805-310-1919

[Felix Olakulehin]

Dear All,
My name is Felix Kayode Olakulehin, a Research Fellow at the Regional
Training and Research Institute for Open and Distance Learning
(RETRIDAL), National Open University of Nigeria. My first introduction
to OERs was at the UNESCO virtual forum in 2005. My understanding is
that OERs have lots of potentials for capacity development of staff in
higher education institutions and it facilitates the process lifelong
learning.
AT RETRIDAL we have organised capacity development workshops on the
use of Open source software -learning management systems. The LMS
focused on are: ATutor, WikiEducator and Moodle. While there was
enthusiasm on the part of participants, there has been great
technology restriction limiting the utilization of these tools.
Another challenge which I think is confronting the utilization of
OERs in Africa has been attitudinal. Many academics are not
comfortable with providing their resources for all to use without
providing the necessary credits. I am hoping that this forum will
answer the questions on this issues as expressed by Prof Ipaye.
Other challenges I can point to immediately areQuality and Access. How
can one ascertain the quality of these materials, many of whoich may
not have been peer reviewed? Then what of accessibility to those of us
whose internet connectivity is reallly precarious? I think these are
the main issues involved with the sustainability of OERs for HE in
Africa.

--
Quality is not an act, It's a Habit!
...........................................................
Felix Kayode Olakulehin
Research Fellow
Regional Training and Research Institute for Open and Distance Learning

National Open University of Nigeria

14/16 Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island
Lagos - Nigeria
+234-805-544-7164
folak...@nou.edu.ng, felix...@gmail.com
...........................................................
---------------------------------------------------------
RETRIDAL is an International Training & Research Institute
co-established by the National Open University of Nigeria and The
Commonwealth of Learning (COL) to develop a strong corps of experts in
various areas of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) within the West
African sub-region.

[Neil Butcher]

It is great to hear from both Tunde and Felix. You are both raising many
important issues.

Let me try to provide a few tentative responses to some of them.

Regarding the issue of awareness, I think it is clear that very few
universities are aware of OER and its potential benefits. At the Faculty or
staff level, therefore, I think the level of knowledge is likely even to be
lower. Thus, a major component initially of capacity-building efforts will
be to raise awareness about and advocate for the use of OER

I think the problem of 'belief' in use of OER is a fundamental barrier to be
overcome, both globally and within Africa. Although, within Africa, there is
some culture of sharing, I think this is eclipsed by the publish-or-perish
mentality mentioned by Tunde. This is one of the major difficulties with
innovations such as this - as they run against the grain of established
practice, their adoption is problematic even if they are rational and make
economic sense.

It is great to hear form Felix a bit more about capacity-building efforts in
technology use at NOUN. It is worth pointing out, though, that better use of
technology does not necessarily translate into greater openness in licensing
regimes within an institution. I am interested to find out: Have you also
run capacity-building workshops at NOUN on licensing policies and are there
any moves afoot yet to introduce open licensing regimes within the
institution? I think the distance education institutions have a major role
to pay in fostering and advancing the concept of OER.

Regarding issues of quality, these should - I believe - be tackled in the
same sorts of ways as one approaches quality of any learning materials.
First, we must ensure that investment is made in producing high quality OER,
otherwise we must expect that while some resources may be open they are
likely to be of dubious quality. This needs to be a collaborative effort if
we are to create a critical mass of high quality, shareable educational
material. Second, we should use the same established criteria for judging
quality as have been developed for any kinds of material. A quick Internet
search will yield many frameworks for assessing quality of educational
materials.

What do others feel about the issues raised by Tunde and Felix?

Regards

Neil

[elviso...@gmail.com]

Good day everyone,

I am Elvis Otamere, Senior Systems Analyst, Information Technology
Support Services, National Open University of Nigeria. I wish to
concern myself with the second issue: How can OER help to build

stronger institutional capacity in African
higher education?

There is no doubt that the concept of OER is welcome development in
the full realization of the aids and objectives of Open and Distance
Learning environment (ODL). In build stronger institutional capacity
in African higher education system, strong focus must be on
empowerment for accessibility for not only the educators but also the
learners. In other words, there must be a proper platform for the
participants to take leverage of the opportunities provided by OER.
For instance, an instructor or facilitator who can not afford a PC or
pay for internet access will certainly not enjoy the dividend of the
enormous benefits of OER. So institutional frame work should be put
in place to empower all stakeholders of ODL. That can be easily
achieved with the provision of modern digital centers with ODL
operational locations. Furthermore, ODL institutions should be able
to provide a flexible revolving acquisitions of PC scheme for their
participants, that also will go a long way to enhance the utilization
of OER for capacity building such institutions.

Regards,
Elvis Otamere

[Felix Olakulehin]

Thanks so much for your comments Neil.
Actually the University has also organised a capacity building
workshop on copyright issuesfor academics in 2005 in preparation for
course writing actvities. The OER/eLearning capacity buidling workshop
which held in Cameroon in sept last year and the follow up training
done in feb this year at NOUN, Lagos dedicated sections of the
training to licensing issues. There were discussions on the GNU Free
dcumentation adnd the creative commons licenses.
On another level, NOUN has currently instroduced a new dimension to
content sharing by making the instructional materials for its courses
and programmes free online in a portable downlaodable format. So
learners of NOUN and others from other parts of the world can access
these 'free content'.

regards,

[Dr. Sunday A. Reju]

Thanks for all the interesting contributions on this week's topic and sorry for joining a bit late. I am Sunday Reju, Director of RETRIDAL (Regional Training & Research Institute for Open & Distance Learning) a sub-regional institute co-established by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and the National open University of Nigeria (NOUN) to develop capacity in various aspects of ODL within the West African sub-region. Felix already provided some info on RETRIDAL capacity building activities in the sub-region.Now On OER issues in  Africa, my strong opinion is that institutions need to take bold steps towards developing strategic directions
for any meaningful initiative and implementation. Within such strategic policies, capacity building and other implementation mission critical issues are in-built. From our experiences random introduction of technologies without policies to guide directions and quality, is going to impede rapid critical mass of both human and content resources. There are many OER stuffs outside there, begging patronage and institutions need to be focused and disciplined to follow an institutional strategic direction to avoid wasting funds and efforts on many things.

Another issue I wish to raise is on change management among the OER developers, viz, the academics. Institutions must be ready to help academic staff manage the loss curve they will definitely traverse by putting their materials outside there for FREE. The protectionist culture pervasive among many experts migrating to ODL institutions need be wisely handled if our OER initiatives will succeed, especially in Africa. Reward policies that provide incentives for initially resistant academics to motivate them to see the institutional benefits for making their materials available free for the public good, are non-negotiable in Africa. Let me hang out for now. Thanks

--
=====================================================
Dr. Sunday A. REJU (Assoc. Professor)
DIRECTOR, Regional Training & Research Institute for
Open & Distance Learning (RETRIDAL)

National Open University of Nigeria
14/16 Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island

Lagos, NIGERIA
Email: sunny...@gmail.com; sr...@nou.edu.ng
Tel: +234-803-313-5420 (Mobile), +234-1-271-2661 (Office); Fax: +234-1-271-2665
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Neil Butcher]

Hi everyone,

 

It is wonderful to see the conversation picking up and to hear the perspectives of so many different people.

 

There are some really important points being made, which I hope we will continue.

 

I would like to note a few conceptual issues:

 

1.    OER is not only relevant in ODL, although I believe it has great potential in that field. What is important though is to make sure we do not mix up the challenges of delivering ODL with the challenges of creating open resources.

2.    OER does not have to involve e-learning. Printed materials could be made available under an open license and then distributed to learners using conventional distance education methods. However, I do think it is true that, for institutions to participate in, and benefit from OER, they do need to be able to connect to the Internet to find and download materials and participate in OER communities of practice. Elvis has raised this concern very well.

 

We know there are many challenges with ICT use in African higher education. However, sometimes I fear we become bogged down in worrying about the problems rather than focusing on doing the best we can with what we have available. I think OER helps us to take a more constructive approach, as it enables us to share Intellectual Property to the benefit of all.

 

It was great to read form Felix about the capacity-building work at NOUN on OER. Do people from other institutions have similar experiences to share?

 

Regards

 

Neil

[Emmanuel DK Meduri]

Greetings to you all from India

- the ACDE Forum - capacity building and OER introduction: for review and response.

 

Let me introduce my self, I am Emmanuel D.K. meduri, Consultant, Prof. G. Ram Reddy Research Academy of Distance Education, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad, India.

 

I am very happy to join in this group to lean and to know about OERs and delibrations and reflections of eminent scholars of Distance Education from Africa.  Really NOUN is doing an excellent work in Distance Education.  It is not just "passive" University but is very vibrant and "active" to make technology as an "enabler" by overcoming all constraints.

 

I will be going through your insights.  All the Best

 

Emmanuel D.K. Meduri

 

 

Telephone: + 91-40-2368 0344

[wale wale adesina]

Dear All,

My name is Adewale Adesina I work at the Computing and Networking Services Directorate of the National Open University of Nigeria. My contact with OERs was at  the first International Conference on ICT for Development and Training in Ethiopia at a workshop organized by the African Virtual University on OER’s (2006) . Since then I have been interested in the potentials of OER’s in developing capacity in Africa without having to reinvent the wheel.

To my mind a great benefit of OER may well be in the availability of quality and useable content in building human capacity in the area of computer literacy. Lack of computer literacy is a barrier and hinders people from making the best of technological resources for teaching and learning purposes. With OER’s, quality materials that can aid the development of rich computing skills can be made accessible for use and improvement on regular basis at affordable cost.

An interesting perspective I ve gained from Neil is that OER’s does not have to be accessed through computers, the fact that it can be available in printed format means that organizations and universities can begin to tap into the recourses immediately. However we need to work at solving the problems of computing infrastructure, bandwidth, power and in some places adverse legislation. Having the right policies to guide can not be overstated. I believe this boils down to creating great awareness in institutions around Africa.

I am aware of the great benefits of Free / Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) movement. NOUN has participated in many of such initiatives and uses open source tools. The philosophy that the resources can be available free and open and users can become active “resource” creators and that resources can be re-used and freely maintained is indeed a great one. What is also interesting is that there is a large support base, this means that it is sustainable.

May I suggest that we introduce some practical dimension to our discussions  a lot of us may not be very familiar with OER’s and may miss the very salient issues that have been raised in the discussions. Can we see links to sites where OER’s are being utilized? I have read about the MIT open courseware initiative (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm). For these discussions can we create a sample site for example in wiki educator and invite members to explore. Awareness may be the key to tapping into the great resources.

Regards

----- Original Message ----
From: Neil Butcher <neil...@gmail.com>
To: acde-2008-onlin...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thursday, June 5, 2008 10:41:34 PM
Subject: RE: ACDE Forum - capacity building and OER introduction: for review and response

Hi everyone,

 

It is wonderful to see the conversation picking up and to hear the perspectives of so many different people.

 

There are some really important points being made, which I hope we will continue.

 

I would like to note a few conceptual issues:

 

1.    OER is not only relevant in ODL, although I believe it has great potential in that field. What is important though is to make sure we do not mix up the challenges of delivering ODL with the challenges of creating open resources.

2.    OER does not have to involve e-learning. Printed materials could be made available under an open license and then distributed to learners using conventional distance education methods. However, I do think it is true that, for institutions to participate in, and benefit from OER, they do need to be able to connect to the Internet to find and download materials and participate in OER communities of practice. Elvis has raised this concern very well.

 

We know there are many challenges with ICT use in African higher education. However, sometimes I fear we become bogged down in worrying about the problems rather than focusing on doing the best we can with what we have available. I think OER helps us to take a more constructive approach, as it enables us to share Intellectual Property to the benefit of all.

 

It was great to read form Felix about the capacity-building work at NOUN on OER. Do people from other institutions have similar experiences to share?

 

Regards

 

Neil

 

 

From: acde-2008-onlin...@googlegroups.com [mailto:acde-2008-onlin...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Dr. Sunday A. Reju

Sent: 06 June 2008 01:43 AM

[Ayanniyi Bako Alhassan]

Hello Forum Participants,

 
I am Ayanniyi  ALHASSAN.  I work with the School of Education in the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).

 
I find the information to date on OER refreshing, stimulating and potentially beneficial to Open and Distance Learners, and building stronger institutional capacity in African higher education, given the continents’ infrastructural challenges.

 The more pressing challenge for the Forum is to generate strategies for policy and practice towards realising the potential gains of OER both in the short and long term.

 
Thanks.

 

 

"wale wale adesina" <waalsa...@yahoo.com> wrote:

Dear All,

 

My name is Adewale Adesina I work at the Computing and Networking Services Directorate of the National Open University of Nigeria. My contact with OERs was at  the first International Conference on ICT for Development and Training in Ethiopia at a workshop organized by the African Virtual University on OER?s (2006) . Since then I have been interested in the potentials of OER?s in developing capacity in Africa without having to reinvent the wheel.

 

To my mind a great benefit of OER may well be in the availability of quality and useable content in building human capacity in the area of computer literacy. Lack of computer literacy is a barrier and hinders people from making the best of technological resources for teaching and learning purposes. With OER?s, quality materials that can aid the development of rich computing skills can be made accessible for use and improvement on regular basis at affordable cost.

An interesting perspective I ve gained from Neil is that OER?s does not have to be accessed through computers, the fact that it can be available in printed format means that organizations and universities can begin to tap into the recourses immediately. However we need to work at solving the problems of computing infrastructure, bandwidth, power and in some places adverse legislation. Having the right policies to guide can not be overstated. I believe this boils down to creating great awareness in institutions around Africa.

I am aware of the great benefits of Free / Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) movement. NOUN has participated in many of such initiatives and uses open source tools. The philosophy that the resources can be available free and open and users can become active ?resource? creators and that resources can be re-used and freely maintained is indeed a great one. What is also interesting is that there is a large support base, this means that it is sustainable.

 

May I suggest that we introduce some practical dimension to our discussions  a lot of us may not be very familiar with OER?s and may miss the very salient issues that have been raised in the discussions. Can we see links to sites where OER?s are being utilized? I have read about the MIT open courseware initiative (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm). For these discussions can we create a sample site for example in wiki educator and invite members to explore. Awareness may be the key to tapping into the great resources.

[Tunde Ipaye]

Dear ALL,

It is nice to note the rate of participation in the forum so far.  Pls keep it up.  Neil raised an important issue about OER in relation to print materials.  A basic question he left unanswered is the cost of producing print materials for free distribution.  If for example I am willing ot get a book freely disributed to users, who bears the cost of prduction, distribution and mailing.  Is it the author or is there a body or grant within OER-,Africa that can cover this?  How is it done?  electronic material is simpler to handle,  all you need do is upload it and it is there for all to use. Second, is a pool of such free print materials available? It will be useful for study materials developers in ODL to know.

 

Profesor Babatunde Ipaye

[Felix Olakulehin]

Dear All,

I like the issue being stressed by Adewale about the use of print
based open educational resources. This will enable many who have
limited access to internet connection to access OER. Another approach
which I think is likely to be more effective - and since we are
talking of sustainability of OERs - is the use of CD ROMs distribute
open content. This has the advantage of distributing a large number of
resources than is likely to be distributable in print version. Though,
this will make the resources available only in asynchronous format,
but the issue of internet restrictions may be minimized.

However, I have not heard anything being said about strategies for
making participation in OER development gainful to younger academics
amidst the 'publish or persih' ethos which characterises our higher
educational environment.
This issue has been raised by Prof Ipaye and Dr Reju and also alluded
to by nEil, but responses are not forthcoming. How are people in the
other societies able to overcome this challenge?

Best,

[Dr. Sunday A. Reju]

Dear All,

It is quite interesting reading the following line from Neil: " ... Printed materials could be made available under an open license and then distributed to learners using conventional distance education methods". This is openness in its entirety inrespective of media of instructional delivery. However, as I noted in my contribution early this morning, institutions and of course countries would need to put in place a good change management strategy to carry along many senior faculty who are presently resistant to the whole idea of open learning not to talk of making their print materials open resources.

Answering Neil's question partly, I think University of Education in Winneba, Ghana is taking some good strides in OER initiatives since last year - I hope Nicholas Kimolo from Kenya might soon join the forum to provide some more highlights on what is going on in some countries in Africa, having faciliated a number of workshops around, especially in some NOUN/RETRIDAL activities supported by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL).

Thanks

Sunday

[akina...@gmail.com]

CAPACITY BUILDING FOR OER IN AFRICA
Hello dear Facilitators and participants.
My name is Akin Adejimi, a lecturer of Architecture in Olabisi
Onabanjo University, Nigeria.
I was interested in OER as a result of my passion for mass education
hence I joined the clarion call to make education accessible to the
poor, to reduce poverty and to empower the youth as knowledge is power
and key to success. I got inspired on this matter when I participated
in the 2003/2004 NUCVIHEP and VIHEAF online programmes which are more
or less inactive as at now. There was an assignment then that we
should discuss the adaptability of our career specializations as
distance learning. However, adapting architecture (my career) as a
distance learning was being regarded as an impossibility and
architectural professionals always laugh at such statement. The
challenge tasked me and I was bent on taking it as a personal research
assignment. Since then, I have been searching, writing and presenting
this idea in conferences on the modern educational trend in the world
and ideas on making technical courses adaptable as distance education
in Nigeria. I have realized that technical courses could be taught at
distance if appropriate modern tools and technologies as well as
skills for such technologies are available. I believe that if the
gospel of OER should reach every corner of Africa, the better we will
be. It is the last hope we get to release our people from the bondage
of ignorance and poverty which are seriously things of the mind.
Especially now, as the conventional methods of teaching and learning
can no more cope with the galloping educational needs of the
continent, hence resulting into extremely uncontrollable large
classes.
My university is not fully aware of this educational development of
OER. The fact is that most universities are not aware of this. Even
those of them that run distance learning still do it conventionally.
The Nigeria’s National Universities Commission’s Virtual Institute for
Higher Education Pedagogy (NUCVIHEP) and the VIHEAF programmes which
started this campaign in the early 2000s are more or less in coma now.
Their programmes would have helped a lot if they had continued their
programmes to get more lecturers in higher institutions enrolled and
enlightened as they did. There is a need for more of such programmes.
And there is also a need to sponsor interested lecturers to undertake
courses in the modern teaching technologies and open education
courses. Universities should be carried along. The National Open
University should also start aggressive programmes to let candidates
have confidence in it. Finally, the OER project will however not
achieve its goal of capacity building for open education until we are
above some initial but perennial challenges facing e-learning which
include: Lack of e-teachers, Lack of e-facilities, Getting candidates
e-studentship ready, Lack of political will, Digital divide and Energy
problems. When all these impediments are removed, then Africa would
have been ready for OER and would have been ready for a total freedom
indeed.

Thanks.

Akin Adejimi

On Jun 6, 11:03 am, "Dr. Sunday A. Reju" <sunnyar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> It is quite interesting reading the following line from Neil: " ... Printed
> materials could be made available under an open license and then distributed
> to learners using conventional distance education methods". This is openness
> in its entirety inrespective of media of instructional delivery. However, as
> I noted in my contribution early this morning, institutions and of course
> countries would need to put in place a good change management strategy to
> carry along many senior faculty who are presently resistant to the whole
> idea of open learning not to talk of making their print materials open
> resources.
>
> Answering Neil's question partly, I think University of Education in
> Winneba, Ghana is taking some good strides in OER initiatives since last
> year - I hope Nicholas Kimolo from Kenya might soon join the forum to
> provide some more highlights on what is going on in some countries in
> Africa, having faciliated a number of workshops around, especially in some
> NOUN/RETRIDAL activities supported by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL).
>
> Thanks
>
> Sunday
>

> > *From:* acde-2008-onlin...@googlegroups.com [mailto:
> > acde-2008-onlin...@googlegroups.com] *On Behalf Of *Dr. Sunday
> > A. Reju
> > *Sent:* 06 June 2008 01:43 AM
> > *To:* acde-2008-onlin...@googlegroups.com
> > *Subject:* Re: ACDE Forum - capacity building and OER introduction: for

> > On 6/5/08, *Felix Olakulehin* <felixkay...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Thanks so much for your comments Neil.
> > Actually the University has also organised a capacity building
> > workshop on copyright issuesfor academics in 2005 in preparation for
> > course writing actvities. The OER/eLearning capacity buidling workshop
> > which held in Cameroon in sept last year and the follow  up training
> > done in feb this year at NOUN, Lagos dedicated sections of the
> > training to licensing issues. There were discussions on the GNU Free
> > dcumentation adnd the creative commons licenses.
> > On another level, NOUN has currently instroduced a new dimension to
> > content sharing by making the instructional materials for its courses
> > and programmes free online in a portable downlaodable format. So
> > learners of NOUN and others from other parts of the world can access
> > these 'free content'.
>
> > regards,
>

> ...
>
> read more »- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Ayanniyi Bako Alhassan]

Hello, Forum Facilitators and Participants

I am Ayanniyi ALHASSAN. I work with the School of Education in the
National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).

The impediments identified by Akin Adejimi are some of the continents’
infrastructural challenges to Open and Distance Learners as stated in my
earlier contribution. But we cannot wait until all these impediments are
removed: The ACDE Forum is on the right track – providing opportunity for
the generation and implementation of creative ideas towards building
stronger institutional capacity in African higher education.

Thanks.
Ayanniyi ALHASSAN

> The Nigeria?s National Universities Commission?s Virtual Institute for