22 Jun 2022

Open Educational Resources (OERs) have been described as a new phenomenon in the education space that provides a great impact, especially during crisis situations.

Speaking during the SADC-Open Educational Resources national and institutional policy workshop in Gaborone on Monday, Minister of Education and Skills Development, Dr Douglas Letsholathebe said OERs provided students with expanded access to learning and augmented existing content.

“OERs have proved to be crucial in crisis situations, of late during the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced closure of schools globally,” he said.

He hailed OERs for promoting high-quality teaching and training, saying that those who had contact with the resources, were able to demonstrate innovation and talent.

Dr Letsholathebe said the main strength of OERs was their capacity for various content and accessibility to a large number of users over a short period of time at very little to no cost.

He also commended the Commonwealths of Learning (COL) saying it was an inclusive organisation that promoted the welfare of marginalised members of societies such as girls, women and

people with disabilities.

For his part, Botswana Open University, vice-chancellor, Dr Daniel Tau said the objective of the workshop was to promote adoption of OERs through development of national and institutional policies.

He said the development of quality educational resources called for collaboration, sharing of expertise and skills, co-creation and co-development of content as well as other resources that could

be shared.

Dr Tau explained the SADCCentre for Distance Learning was an open and distance learning centre of excellence, established in 2005 following extensive consultations between Botswana and COL.

SADC ministers of education and training approved the institute as a regional trainer, he said. He added the centre’s mandate was to promote collaborative initiatives for capacity building towards regional best practices on open and distance learning, with a view to accelerating human resources development.

The two-day COL-funded workshop was attended by delegates from SADC countries. ENDS