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Tony Mays reports on a workshop conducted at the Africa Nazerene University, Kenya exploring the possibility of using open educational resources (OER) and open, distance and e-learning (ODeL) in their educational provision.
Africa Nazarene University (ANU) is a Private Christian University sponsored by the Church of the Nazarene International, which follows the Wesleyan Holiness Tradition. The Church of the Nazarene established the Africa Nazarene University to prepare leaders for the Church both at ministerial and laity level to address the challenges that the Church saw in Africa. ANU has experienced sustained, significant growth over its fourteen-year history. The student population has grown from 63 in 1994 to over a 1000 in 2008 to close to 4000 in 2012. More than half of the current enrolled students are pursuing non-traditional learning pathways through evening classes, school-based learning and distance learning. There are currently 328 registered distance students. ANU plans a 20% annual growth rate over the five-year period 2012 to 2017 and to increasingly make use of resource-based e-learning.
Since 1994, the programmes have increased to 39, with four graduate programmes, 12 undergraduate programmes, nine diploma programmes, ten certificate programmes, four short courses and two professional courses. The University is continually developing new programmes to meet the demand for higher education.
To expand its facilities and cater for a more diverse student population, in addition to the main campus located at Ongata Rongai, the university has opened other centres.
These campuses include: the Nairobi Campus located in the heart of Nairobi City. This is seen to be the future for the evening programmes. It places ANU within a competitive market and therefore requires that the university stays in tune with the needs of the market. The campus attracts working students who attend classes in the evening as well as day-time diploma students.
The other campuses include Meru Campus which is ideally located to attract students from Isiolo, Nanyuki, Embu and Meru and caters particularly for teachers and bankers working in these areas. The university also has several other centres across the country such as Machakos, Kisii, Eldoret, Mwingi, Migori which are ideally placed to cater for teachers from these regions. ANU also has a satellite campus in Lilongwe, Malawi catering for training in Christian Ministry.
Saide’s OER Africa Initiative recently entered into an MoU with ANU to explore the possible use of OER at ANU and to support its ODeL provision.
The initial planned engagement comprised three phases: a pre-visit ODeL quality self-review by ANU using an instrument supplied by OER Africa; a two-day on site review of current ODeL provision working with a cross-institutional team and a two-day OER orientation workshop; 1.5 days was then spent on writing up a report to suggest strategies for expanding quality ODeL provision using OER.
The objectives were:
- Assist ANU to undertake a self-evaluation of its current ODeL provision and verify and build on this by engaging directly with provision on-site
- Orientate ANU staff to the nature and potential of OER
- Alert ANU staff to the ways in which policy can support OER integration
- Provide guidelines for the strategic integration of OER as a mainstream activity in ANU’s educational planning going forward.
As preparation for the in-country engagement, a self-review template was developed based on the Nadeosa quality criteria, a set of powerpoint slides and supporting resources for the OER orientation workshop. The OER resources were saved onto ANU’s server to assist them with further in-house OER orientation workshops.
Most of the first day was spent in engaging with ANU’s printed resources (policies, plans, learning materials etc.), in a site tour and a systems orientation and in interviews with staff.
The second day was spent in discussion with the distance learning core team, drawn from across all operational areas and focus group interviews with distance provision tutors and students.
The third day focused on OER orientation which was built around the following key questions:
- What are OER and where can we find them?
- How can we evaluate OER?
- How can we adapt OER?
- How can we publish OER?
The fourth day explored the potential of OER, anticipated stakeholder concerns and the development of OER-friendly policy. Certificates of participation, prepared by the OER Africa office in Nairobi, were presented by the vice-chancellor who both opened and closed the week-long activities, indicating support at the highest level for the initiative.
A detailed report was prepared which included some ideas on ways in which OER Africa might further support ANU’s engagement with OER. The workshop and report were well-received by ANU staff and Mary Ooko, Director of the Institute for Distance Learning at ANU. The report was to be tabled at a Senate meeting towards the end of 2013 to determine how the relationship between OER Africa and ANU moves forward. |
