The opportunities and challenges of
Open Educational Resources in the developing world.

What are OER? “teaching, learning
and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. Open licensing is built within the existing framework of intellectual property rights as defined by relevant international conventions and respects the authorship of the work” -UNESCO

How might OER impact education
in the developing world?

Opportunities

OER foster the exchange of
global knowledge.

OER help forge south-north and
south-south linkages.

Online collaborative OER development supports
capacity building in the developing world, thereby bridging the digital divide.

Since course development is so
resource intensive, OER help developing countries save both course-authoring time and money.

Collaborative OER development encourages the
preservation and dissemination of indigenous knowledge.

The availability of high-quality OER
can raise the quality of education at all levels.

Challenges

Lack of a sophisticated internet
infrastructure… and reliance on mobile.

Questions about intellectual property rights
and licensing.

Unequal power distributions risk casting
developed countries as producers and developing countries as consumers.

A majority of OER are
in English.

Cultural imperialism subverting the growth
of domestic knowledge ecologies.

How can we realize the
potential of OER and avoid the pitfalls?

Credits: Slide 1 - Kimberly
Burns/USAID - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Uganda_students.jpg Slide 5 - Patrick Gage Kelly - https://flic.kr/p/6GjMcy Slide 6 - Yogendra Joshi - https://flic.kr/p/fo9LLD Slide 7 - Nicolas Raymond - https://flic.kr/p/cMaGa1 Slide 8 - Mary Beth Griffio Rigby - https://flic.kr/p/bvo5FR Slide 9 - Masae - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teacher_in_Laos.jpg Slide 10 - Lemurbaby - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diego_Suarez_Antsiranana_urban_public_primary_school_(EPP)_Madagascar.jpg Slide 12 - Ken Banks - https://flic.kr/p/5Q5g4D Slide 13 - Oisin Prendiville - https://flic.kr/p/6EmWZ1 Slide 14 - Leo Reynolds - https://flic.kr/p/5nziYc Slide 15 - Tomasz Sienicki - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Miniature_DNF_Dictionary_055_ubt.JPG Opportunities adapted from: Kanwar, A., Kodhandaraman, B., Umar, A. (2010). Toward sustainable open education resources: A perspective from the Global South. The American Journal of Distance Education, 24(2), 65-80.

Paul Gordon Brown @paulgordonbrown www.paulgordonbrown.com
paulgordonbrown@gmail.com