This handout explains the motivations, approach, and impact of the African Health Open Educational Resources Network (http://www.oerafrica.org/healthoer). This case study was provided as a handout at ICTD2012 at this workshop: http://ictd2012.org/opensessions/306. This presentation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.

1. The mission of the African Health Open Educational Resources (OER) Network (est. 2008) is to
advance health education in Africa by creating and promoting free, openly licensed teaching materials
created by Africans to share knowledge, address curriculum gaps, and support health education communities.
Challenges to Health Education in Africa Approach
The African continent represents the lowest percentage of the global
1 healthcare workforce, has the lowest relative health expenditures,
and ranks among the highest percentage of global disease burden.
2 Basic sciences face scarce, aging, and emigrating teaching staff.
Qualified students are turned away from health degree programs since there are
3 not enough instructors or classroom spaces to accommodate them.
Health educators are typically overburdened with repetitive instructional
4 responsibilities in addition to clinical, research, and administrative tasks.
Due to large lectures and crowded wards, students are regularly in learning
5 situations where they cannot hear, cannot see, and cannot ask questions.
Textbooks are usually expensive, out-of-date, and lack contextually
6 appropriate scenarios, equipment, or images.
Journals often have licensing fees priced so high that many hospitals and
7 university libraries cannot afford subscriptions.
Where instructional materials are available, policy (e.g. copyright, privacy)
8 and technological barriers (e.g. power outages and surges, unreliable “African universities struggle to have access to information. If we
Internet connections) often limit access.
have information, why do we not also share it as part of a pool of
universities? Using open licenses, our institutions are prepared to
exchange information for the purpose of improved learning.”
Prof. Peter Donkor, Pro Vice-Chancellor, KNUST (Ghana)
www.oerafrica.org/healthoer
healthoer@oerafrica.org
Crowded conditions during rounds interfere with students’ ability to learn. Open Educational
Resources enable students to review materials before and after each session to reinforce learning.

2. Local Materials + Open Licenses = Accomplishments*
Greater Access, Visibility, and Use of Knowledge Worldwide 160
individuals trained in materials
development and open licenses
Egypt: Medical videos from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science individuals from 12 institutions
Nigeria: Medical 115 created openly licensed materials
and Technology and University of Ghana have received over 12,000
residents used gynecology original materials created by
views in Egypt, 35,000 in Saudi Arabia, and 41,000 in India
surgery videos from 339 Africans and shared as part of
University of Ghana 135 learning modules
Ethiopia: The minutes of instruction in a
Ministry of Health 906 collection of 144 videos
Ghana: University of
distributed a Caesarean
Ghana students used 466,000 total views of videos on YouTube
section learning module
an obstetrics module
by University of Ghana
from Kwame Nkrumah 620 newsletter subscribers worldwide
University of Science and
Uganda: Six East African
Technology institutions include students to
universities used a disaster 2 develop materials, freeing up
management module from instructor time for other activities
Botswana: University of Botswana Makerere University
* as of February 2012
created a collection of pre-clinical
supplemental resources using materials Malawi: University of Malawi
from University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins adapted midwifery materials
University, Tufts University, and others from Michigan State University Disciplines Represented
South Africa: University of Cape Town created Mozambique: Universidade Eduardo • medicine
an occupational health module that has been used Mondlane used open journal articles by University • public and community health
on three continents (Africa, Europe, and South of Stellenbosch, Federal University of São Paulo,
• pharmacology
America) and has been translated into Spanish University of the West Indies, and others
• health services administration
• informatics
“We have limited resources but because of the Internet, we can share. The South
• behavioral sciences
has diseases [the Global North] knows nothing about. Our materials are relevant
to us and in the North.” A Network Participant from South Africa
www.oerafrica.org/healthoer healthoer@oerafrica.org
© 2012 The Regents of the University of Michigan. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/>.