UNIMA finds itself in a situation where very few students have access to the approved textbooks and readings, nullifying the prescribed book lists. Resources in the reserve section of the college libraries are in great demand, and popular books undergo rebinding many times in their life cycle.
It is against this background that UNIMA embarked on a strategy to exploit Open Education Resources (OER).
As guest editors of this Special Issue of Distance Education, this issue harnesses the opportunity to profile African innovations in the areas of open and distance learning, and e-learning. The contributions assembled provide a balanced and engaging series of articles and reports on the kinds of empowerment and development that are extending and enhancing educational opportunity in African schools and universities. Importantly, they also demonstrate that African experiences – positive and negative – have global relevance.
The report provides an analysis of the project’s overall achievement in terms of the main objectives of the study. For the COL project team, the report provides an analysis of the project activities, achievement of high quality, relevant and effective materials and an analysis of the potential for increased quality of education in countries where OERs are used and where teachers’ professional capacity was extended to the use of technology.
