The course takes place from 1 to 5 July 2019 in Vipava, Slovenia, providing participants with the knowledge, practical advice and hands-on experience for their own design of Open Educational Resources (OER). *
The OpenEdInfluencers @MandelaUni team’s presentation and poster proposal for the Open Education Consortium’s OEGlobal 2019 conference in Milan, Italy, this year, has also been accepted. Fransman started the Open Education Influencers (#OpenEdInfluencers) initiative at the University as a member of the Global Open Educational Resources Graduate Network (GO-GN).
Fransman is the BOEI project leader with Dr Robert Farrow from The Open University in the UK as the project mentor and guide supporting the initiative. Dr Farrow is a Research Fellow in the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University (OU-UK) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
The UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals focus on ending poverty, ensuring inclusive and quality education for all, promoting lifelong learning, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment, and promoting just, peaceful and inclusive societies.
OpenEdInfluencers, or OEIs, are advocacy ambassadors, increasing the awareness and use of Open Educational Resources, and who are influencers that facilitate the adoption, creation and licensing of OER.
OEIs advocate for the use of Open Textbooks across purpose, faculties and schools and conduct research into student experiences with textbooks and with OER. They also assist educators with the finding of Open materials to use in teaching and learning.
The OpenEdInfluencers at Mandela University are Kirsty Meyer, Kelly Liberty and Sumaya Daffala.
Both Kirsty and Kelly are final year humanities students, certified English as second language instructors and aspiring authors. Kelley also studied abroad at St Cloud State University, USA and is passionate about equality for women and children in developing countries.
Sumaya Daffala is an LLB graduate currently studying towards completing the Attorneys Admissions examinations with the Law Society of South Africa. She is passionate about human rights and social justice.
* Open educational resources (OER) are freely accessible, openly licensed text, media, and other digital assets that are useful for teaching, learning, and assessing as well as for research purposes. There is no universal usage of open file formats in OER.
The term OER describes publicly accessible materials and resources for any user to use, re-mix, improve and redistribute under some licenses.
The development and promotion of open educational resources is often motivated by a desire to provide an alternate or enhanced educational paradigm.