Harnessing OER Practices to Drive Pedagogical Improvement: The Role of Continuing Professional Development - Case Study

OER Africa aims to support African universities to understand and harness the concept of open educational resources (OER). There are several practical constraints to achieving the widely anticipated potential of OER to create greater equity within higher education in Africa. Harnessing OER practices effectively (rather than propagating OER to replicate rote learning and top-down content transmission) depends heavily on the educational skills of participating academics. Despite this, OER Africa’s work has suggested that these skills are at much lower levels than assumed, regardless of the subject matter expertise of academics.

Consequently, in mid-2017, OER Africa commenced a series of interrelated research activities to explore in more detail the relationship between educationally effective use of OER and Continuous Professional Development (CPD) of African academics, which are brought together in a summary report. The purpose of this work was to move beyond the rhetoric of the OER community to determine what effect the OER movement has had in educational systems and how sustainable this has been.

In parallel with this reflection on the impact of OER practices, the OER Africa project team performed a literature review on CPD needs and practices in African academia, with a focus on developing competencies in teaching and learning. These two lines of enquiry provided a platform for practical work with universities, which had two priorities. First, to learn more about academic CPD needs by conducting surveys amongst academics and collating the results. Second, to develop and test a range of professional development activities and approaches that might respond to these needs. The results of these processes are summarized in this case study.