3. TESSA: five distinct characteristics
• it is a global consortium, including
organisations like the
– BBC World Service Trust
– the Commonwealth of Learning
– the South African Institute for Distance Education
(SAIDE)
• Focusses on the needs of teacher education in
nine African countries.
4. Audience-specific OERs
• audience-specific OERs
• Teacher educator: centre of the initiative {vast
majority of the OER's have been created
collaboratively by teacher educators from
across Africa}
5. Different formats
• creatively exploring the use of OER audio
content.
• different formats - drama, interviews, features
- and modes of delivery including radio, CD
and use of mobile phones.
6. Implementation and use of the
resources
• Significant time and resources is being put into
the implementation and use of the resources, an
aspect given insufficient attention in many OER
initiatives (Atkins et al 2007).
• Project design: stress on issues such as
– adoption of the resources for different environments
and
– how best 'users' can be supported in understanding
ways of integrating the materials into ‘learning
pathways'.
Atkins, D. E., Brown, J. E. and Hammond, A. L. (2007) A review of the Open Educational resources (OER)
Movement: Achievement, Challenges and New Opportunities. Report to the William and Flora Hewlett
Foundation.
8. Why is OPAL Innovative?
• It extends the model of OER with the concepts
of quality and innovation into the concept of
open educational practices (OEP) where OER
are used in innovative educational scenarios
to raise quality for higher education (HE) and
adult education (AE)
9. OPAL: innovation and quality
It focuses on innovation and quality
through OEP and thus aims at impact
of OER use in the field of HE and AE.
Existing approaches for fostering the
use of OER have made achievements
by focussing on building access to
resources (e.g. MERLOT, MIT OCW,
Stanford iTunes, Openlearn, Rice
University, Opentrain UNESCO, OER
WIKI UNESCO etc.) and licence models
(e.g. creativecommons.org).
10. OPAL: multi-stakeholder environment
• It is building a multi-stakeholder environment
which is taking into consideration the OEP
governance community in order to root
quality and innovation in a deep consensus,
concert activities and provide a European
interface to international initiatives.
12. VUSSC
• Free Online Materials
• The Virtual University of Small States of the Commonwealth makes available a
number of free online course materials. They are aimed at students who have
completed their ‘A’ levels and who are at the first-year college level.
• Find free course materials that suit your needs.
• Online Courses by Subject
• Business
Gain the knowledge you need to take your business career to the next level.
• Education
Improve your online teaching skills for a successful career in distance education.
• Public Service
Learn public service strategies to help others in your community.
• Technology
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• Tourism
Develop skills that create opportunities in the expanding service sector.