1 OERs and the South African HE policy Generation Open Symposium 20 October 2014

The Learning Resources Continuum 2

3 OERs come to the fore White Paper for Post- School Education and Training, Nov 2013 Distance Education Framework 2012 Quality Enhancement Project (QEP) 2014 Distance Higher Education Programmes in a Digital Era: Good Practice Guide (CHE) 2014 CHE Colloquium on ICTs in HE 2014

4 Distance Education Framework 2012 increased availability of high quality, relevant, need-targeted OERs can contribute to more productive students and educators White Paper for PSE&T 2013 the development of well- researched, high-quality national learning resources (made available as open education resources QEP 2014 focus on ICT infrastructure and access technology- enabled tools and resources CHE Good Practice Guide 2014 in reality most institutions now offer a blend of lectures, tutorials, practical sessions, field work and/or work-integrated learning/work-based education, and ICT-supported learning experiences OERs and South African HE policy

White Paper for Post-School Education and Training, Nov 2013 Opening learning through diverse modes of provision … include the development and availability of well-researched, high-quality national learning resources (made available as open education resources [OER]1), collaborative development of learning resources, more efficient use of existing infrastructure, and an increasing emphasis on independent study as preparation for subsequent lifelong learning. (Page XV) 5

White Paper for Post-School Education and Training, Nov 2013 A useful definition of open education resources is provided by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). They are “educational resources that are openly available for use by educators and students, without an accompanying need to pay royalties or licence fees” (UNESCO and Commonwealth of Learning, A Basic Guide to Open Educational Resources (2011: 5). (Page XV) 6

White Paper for Post-School Education and Training, Nov 2013 The DHET will: Provide support for the production and sharing of learning materials as open education resources at institutions in the post-school sector. In particular, all material developed by SAIVCET* will be made available as OER. Other potentially successful initiatives in the area of OER across the post-school education and training sector will be supported. Develop an appropriate open licensing framework for use by all education stakeholders, within an overarching policy framework on intellectual property rights and copyright in the post-school sector. In particular, the policy framework will seek to address the dissemination, adaptation and usage of education resources developed using public funds. Acquire electronic resources through the South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLIC) for the entire sector, to ensure equal access to learning material and information resources. * SAIVCET South African Institute for Vocational and Continuing Education and Training (Page 54) 7

Draft Policy Framework for the Provision of Distance Education in South African Universities Open Educational Resources (OER) are educational resources (including curriculum maps, course materials, textbooks, streaming videos, multimedia applications, podcasts, and any other materials that have been designed for use in teaching and learning) that are freely available for use by educators and learners, without an accompanying need to pay royalties or licence fees. OER is not synonymous with online learning or e-learning. Openly licensed content can be produced in any medium: text, video, audio, or computer-based multimedia. Page 5 8. Collaborative engagement in the creation of high quality open educational resources (OER) provides an opportunity to address access, quality and cost issues simultaneously. (Page 12) 8

Draft Policy Framework for the Provision of Distance Education in South African Universities The Ministry is of the view that increased availability of high quality, relevant, need-targeted learning materials can contribute to more productive students and educators. Because OER removes restrictions around copying resources, it holds potential for reducing the cost of accessing educational materials, both for distance education programmes and for the system as a whole. In many higher education programmes, royalty payments for text books and other educational materials constitute a significant proportion of the overall cost, while processes of procuring permission to use copyrighted material can also be very time- consuming and expensive. Whilst international organizations such as UNESCO and the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) have made significant contributions to raising awareness about OER and whilst the global OER community of contributors and users continues to grow rapidly, the concept of OER is not yet widely understood by higher education stakeholders in South Africa. (Page 26) 9

Quality Enhancement Project (QEP) Framework for Institutional Quality Enhancement in the Second Period of Quality Assurance – Focus Area 3: Enhancing the learning environment. – In this focus area, the intention is to focus on university-specific factors directly related to teaching and learning. These include spaces for teaching and spaces for students to learn, both individually and collaboratively, ICT infrastructure and access technology-enabled tools and resources, and library facilities. Given the urgency of addressing the problem of poor student success, it is important for information and resources for improving student success to be developed at both institutional and national level, and to be shared widely. 10

Distance Higher Education Programmes in a Digital Era: Good Practice Guide (CHE) This Guide recognises that in reality most institutions now offer a blend of lectures, tutorials, practical sessions, field work and/or work- integrated learning/work-based education, and ICT- supported learning experiences, as well as more independent self-learning and peer collaborative learning opportunities (which may be mediated in face-to-face sessions, or online, or a mix of both). (Page 1) 11

Distance Higher Education Programmes in a Digital Era: Good Practice Guide (CHE) What are OERs? OER comprise anything from single objects to complete programmes that are made available under an open licence that specifies upfront how they might be used or re-used for educational purposes. OER can facilitate the process of adaptation, being made available under a licence that explains the conditions under which the existing resource may be used or adapted. The most common licensing framework is that of the Creative Commons (CC) and the most commonly used licence conditions are attribution (acknowledge the original source), no commercial use (the resources can be reused for non- commercial purposes only) and share-alike (if the resource is adapted for use in a different context, the adapted resource should be shared back so that it can in turn be adapted by other users if needed). The original owner of the resources retains the copyright but through the application of an open licence helps potential users know in advance the conditions under which the resource might be used and/or adapted without needing to seek further permissions or pay any licensing fees. (Page 28) 12

Distance Higher Education Programmes in a Digital Era: Good Practice Guide (CHE) What are OERs? Where OER have been incorporated into distance education programmes, it is important that their selection and use has been guided by the same kind of quality design considerations as already discussed above, which we may in time be able to partly automate to improve the reliability of searches for good resources. Often institutions will use OER to supplement existing text-based resources with other media such as audio and video resources or animations or educational games that they lack the capacity to develop in-house. With resources being drawn from multiple contexts and providers, there is a danger of a loss of coherence and this needs to be carefully considered at the programme and course design levels. The issue of coherence will likely be nuanced slightly differently for different kinds of programmes. (Page 28) 13

The Learning Resources Continuum 14