Case Study: OCW Facilitates Transnational Collaboration

Scenario:

For many countries of Africa, access to high-quality educational materials is very limited and presents a challenge for those wanting to access quality education.. In order to tackle this barrier, higher education leaders from various institutions from several countries in Africa believed in the power of opencourseware (OCW) and how this movement can provide an answer to this challenge. The African Virtual University (AVU) developed a strategic objective to increase the availability of high-quality, free educational resources that are relevant to African countries.

Course of Action:

In 2005, AVU in partnership with the African Development Bank and 12 universities in 10 African countries started developing math, science and teacher education resources for release as OCW courses. In October 2010, AVU formed a partnership with the OpenCourseWare Consortium to invest in the creation of a shared body of open educational resources. In January 2011, AVU created a portal of open educational resources that contains quality educational resources developed in collaboration with the various universities. The portal’s free resources allow academics from across the continent to share, distribute and disseminate their resources and contribute toward the economic development of Africa through higher education.

Results:

As a result of the success of the open education portal launched in January 2011, AVU is considering a second phase of its multinational project, which includes a teacher education program in math and science, as well as additional courses in computer sciences, food security, renewable energy, and a peace and security program.