[Oer-community] A reflection

[Dr.N.BALASUBRAMANIAN Narayanaswamy]

Dear Friends,Greetings.  The reply given to Helen by Mr.Bernard is quite interesting to read.  Besides agreeing with him, I wish to supplement him by saying that OER could very well be useful to the students of Open and Distance Education.  Myself being an Ex. Director of Distance Education of an Indian University, I know  the difficulties involved in bring out the study materials that too in Self Instructional Manual pattern again within the stipulated time framework.  I have a suggestion for the academics at the international level that if we jointly take ventures in developing the study materials for the learners of Open and Distance Education preferably availing OERs, we can easily bring out quality study materials that too supported with multimedia applications besides reducing the cost and time involved.  Efforts could  also be taken up for the production of such materials at all levels of education again for all subject disciplines. 
Thanking you,Sincerely yours,
Dr.N.BALASUBRAMANIAN,

Prof. and Head,

Dept. of Education,

Bharathiar University,

Coimbatore 641 046,

Tamil Nadu,

India.

Ph:914222428210 (Off.)

   914222423757 (Res.)

Mobile:+91 9443703756

--- On Thu, 15/11/12, Bernard, NKUYUBWATSI <nkuyubwatsi at khi.ac.rw> wrote:

From: Bernard, NKUYUBWATSI <nkuyubwatsi at khi.ac.rw>
Subject: Re: [Oer-community] A reflection
To: "oer-community" <oer-community at athabascau.ca>
Date: Thursday, 15 November, 2012, 10:32 AM

If mapping OERs is the answer
> what is the educational problem we are trying to address?

Dear Helen,

Thank you for the interesting question.

I see two educational problems we might be finding solution with the
help of OER Map.

1. Quality education: Since closely copyrighted books are too
expensive for learners in many developing countries, many institutions
do not require students to buy books because they are aware that only
the small minority from the rich class will afford the books (Rwanda
is an example whire there is no such a requirement). Such a
requirement would be promoting exclusive education for the rich (rich
in Rwandan setting) and exclude learners from economically
disadvantaged families (the overwhelming majority). Also,
institutional libraries do not have enough copies for students. I
personally recall having tried to borrow a book from my undergraduate
institution library for months, but I could not find most of the books
I needed to complete my dissertation because they were always on loan.
 Maping OERs would contribute significantly to equalization of access
to learning matirals (although probably not entirely) and reduce the
restriction of many developing countries' students' learning to
teachers' notes.

2. Access to education: OER can also be accessed and used in informal
learning. If there are effective open access strategies, the location
and use of OER would help expand access to formal education. The OERu
endeavour seems to respond to this problem.

Best regards,

Bernard
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