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Africa/OER
| Area | 30,221,532 km2 |
|---|---|
| Contains | Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo Democratic Republic, Congo Republic, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Réunion, Rwanda, Saint Helena and Islands, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Western Sahara, Zambia, Zimbabwe |
| Population | 1022234000 |
Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30,221,532 km² (11,668,545 sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area, and 20.4% of the total land area. With more than 1,022,234,00 people (best guess as of 2010) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.
There are 46 countries including Madagascar, and 53 including all the island groups. For countries and other entities in Africa, see Category:Africa.
OER in Africa: Map
Total number of Open Education Initiatives in Africa on Wednesday, 15 May 2024 at 08:51 = 13 , of which:
- 3 are MOOC
- 10 are OER
For a tabulation see Open Education Initiatives in Africa
OER in Africa: Narrative
Policies Survey notes:
- In Africa, countries appear to be most active in tertiary education, with 29% of respondents noting most OER activity in that subsector.
- Several South African institutions are reportedly involved in OER projects. For example, the University of the Western Cape is a member of the OpenCourseWare (OCW) Consortium and runs its own OpenCourseWare projects, the South African Institute for Distance Education (Saide) runs the OER Africa initiative and the Department of Basic Education manages the education resource portal (Thutong) with free and open resources for schools.
- In Namibia, there is no national OER strategy but the Namibian Open Learning Network Trust (NOLNET) is pursuing the development and expansion of OER following the second National Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Conference, whose theme was “OER and the opportunities for expanding ODL,” in October 2011. In addition, the Namibian College of Open Learning worked with COL to produce OER in five subject areas under the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation/COL OER for Open Schools project (OER4OS). These materials are due to be released in 2012.
- Zambia is participating in the OER4OS project. This experience has allowed the country to develop most of its school-level materials in an electronic format and make them available as OER. Zambia identifies this initiative as responding to the challenge of supplying material to schools and other educational institutions.
- Countries such as Mauritius, Botswana and Seychelles appear to be involved in the OER movement through projects such as the OER4OS project and the Virtual University of Small States of the Commonwealth (VUSSC) programme. Other OER projects mentioned are run through donor funding, as well as one ministry-supported teacher-level project in Seychelles.
- Other countries responding to the questionnaire are not yet active in the OER movement or appear to be in the early stages of OER adoption.
- For example, in Rwanda, OER are largely the initiative of individuals who use them to enhance educational materials at the higher education level. In Nigeria, the National Teachers’ Institute presented a memorandum entitled Promoting the Use of OER for Quality HE Delivery in 2011, and it was expected that this will be ratified in 2012. However, some countries that are not yet active expressed great interest in OER. For example, Tanzania noted that it would consider adopting an OER strategy or policy.
Reports
- Open Practices in Higher Education: Trends and Possibilities for Africa, by Neil Butcher, http://www.oerafrica.org/resource/open-practices-higher-education-trends-and-possibilities-africa, published March 2015