Abstract - GRID W2013

For talk given in March 2013 to GRID: http://ictd.si.umich.edu

Title: Open practices and regional social networks to enable multi-directional knowledge sharing

Details: Thursday, April 11th, 1:10 - 2:20 pm, 2245 North Quad

Slides: http://openmi.ch/grid-w13

Abstract: Higher education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa are unable to meet increasing student demand for education. Qualified students are turned away from degree programs since there are not enough instructors or classroom spaces to accommodate them. Educators are typically overburdened with repetitive instructional responsibilities. Due to large class sizes, students are regularly in learning situations where they cannot hear, cannot see, and cannot ask questions. Available learning materials and research articles are usually expensive, out-of-date, lack contextually appropriate scenarios, and may not be available to those without Internet access.

Since 2008, University of Michigan Medical School has assisted African universities in using simple, low-cost technology to create multimedia-rich learning materials that were lower cost and more contextually relevant than previously available educational resources. The processes and learning materials from these partnerships have been shared as Open Educational Resources to serve as templates for other institutions worldwide. University of Michigan has already seen numerous examples of content developed through these projects that has been used, translated, or otherwise adapted by students and instructors at institutions in other countries.

This presentation will define open practices; address how can open practices can contribute to making education more accessible, adaptable, and affordable; promote collaborative regional networks as an essential component of knowledge transfer; present case studies from health and engineering projects with partner universities in sub-Saharan Africa; and invite students to contribute by creating, adapting, or translating open educational resources.

Speaker: Kathleen Ludewig Omollo is the International Program Manager for the Office of Enabling Technologies within Medical School Information Services at the University of Michigan. She is a 2010 graduate of the dual Master of Science in Information and Master of Public Policy program with the School of Information and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. She has been a core member of the Open.Michigan Initiative (http://open.umich.edu/) on campus since 2008.

Suggested background reading (all publicly accessible links): 


 * Hoosen, S. and K.L. Omollo. (2010) The African Health OER Network: Advancing health education in Africa through open educational resources. African Journal of Health Professions Education, December 2010, Vol. 2, No. 2. License: CC BY NC 3.0. http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/94545 (2 pages)
 * Carroll, M.W. (2013) Creative Commons and the Openness of Open Access in  N Engl J Med 2013  ; 368:789-791. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1300040. (3 pages)
 * Radtree, L (2012). Does 'Openness' Enhance Development? http://lindaraftree.com/2012/03/20/does-openness-enhance-development/ (4 pages)
 * Naicker et al. (2009) Shortage Of Healthcare Workers In Developing Countries in Africa in Ethnicity &amp; Disease, Volume 19, Spring 2009. http://www.ishib.org/journal/19-1s1/ethn-19-01s1-60.pdf. (5 pages)

Further Reading:


 * Omollo, KL, Rahman, A. and C. Yebuah. (2012) Producing Open Educational Resources From Scratch: The Case Of Health Sciences At University Of Ghana And Kwame Nkrumah University Of Science And Technology in PERSPECTIVES ON OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING: Open Educational Resources and Change in Higher Education: Reflections from Practice. Commonwealth of Learning. License: CC BY 3.0. http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/91617 (15 pages)
 * Wolfenden, F, Buckler, A. and F. Keraro. (2010) OER adaptation and reuse across cultural contexts in sub Saharan Africa: lessons from the TESSA consortium. In: OER10, 22-24 March 2010, Cambridge, UK. http://oro.open.ac.uk/id/eprint/27188. (18 pages)
 * Santos, A. (2010) Cross-border e-learning: linguistic, cultural and technological problems. In: GUIDE International Seminar on Virtual Higher Education, 14-15 Oct 2010, Florianis, Brazil. http://oro.open.ac.uk/id/eprint/27030 (1 page)