OER Development Models: Opening Post-School Education in South Africa through a Coordinated OER Strategy

Abstract

Given the many challenges facing higher education – such as the massification of the sector, rising student costs, high textbook prices, a growing digital divide and the undersupply of Global South learning materials – open educational resources (OER) have been proposed as one of a number of elements that can help address these challenges. As openly licensed educational resources that can be used, adapted and shared by anyone (Butcher 2010), OER are a versatile innovation that can open up learning by disrupting static intellectual property (IP), publishing and funding regimes.

This is especially true in South Africa where, over the last decade, open education advocates have been making the case for greater OER engagement at national higher education institutions (HEIs) (Hodgkinson-Williams & Arinto 2017). They have made the case that OER can reduce education costs for students, increase resource relevance in the South African context and increase collaborative opportunities between educators and students (Masuku et al. 2021).