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Finding Relevant OER in Higher Education: A Personal Account Lisbeth Levey
Abstract OER take-up and reuse depend critically on the practical and legal issues involved in searching and finding OER for particular purposes. In this chapter, these issues are addressed against the backdrop of an exhaustive search for OER to support a post-graduate university course in agriculture. After yielding almost no readily available OER, the search was broadened to include freely available — but copyrighted — resources on the Internet. This in turn led to considerations about how copyright and various forms of licensing inform understandings on key questions like: What is free? What is open? Clarification of these issues provides a foundation for discussion on strategies for searching and finding OER across all disciplines. A review of the environment for “openness” in Africa concludes with consideration of the role of users, funders and researchers in advancing the OER and open access agenda. Keywords: Africa, copyright, OER repositories, OER search strategies, open access
Setting the Stage The genesis of this chapter lies in work I did for the AgShare pilot project, an initiative facilitated by OER Africa and Michigan State University focusing on improving post-graduate training and research in the agricultural sciences in African universities.1 My job was to identify appropriate open educational resources (OER) to use for AgShare courses in agricultural economics; the dairy value chain, including management and veterinary sciences; and agricultural extension.
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