EDULINK - SideCAP Project Presentation to Faculty Deans – 28 April 09

1. EDULINK - SideCAP Project Presentation to Faculty Deans – 28 April 09 Louise Vakamocea & Alanieta Lesuma-Fatiaki

2. About the SideCap Project • Other institutions • Core & Other Activities • Way Forward • Faculty Involvement • Discussion • Web links Overview

3. About the SideCap Project • SideCap stands for, Staff Improvement in distance education for Carribean, African and Pacific universities • EU funded project – 32 months • 5 institutions; OU, UHI, UM, UWI & USP • Led by Professor Robin Mason, OU

4. About the SideCap Project • Overall objective • Promote multilateral activities amongst European and ACP partners through practical activities, networking and hands on exercises to improve the quality of teaching and support for students. • Specific objective • Repurpose existing Open Content teaching material and adapt it to local contexts using appropriate technologies

5. Defining OER • OER – Open Educational Resources • First adopted at UNESCO 20002 Forum of Open Courseware for HE in Developing Countries • educational materials and resources offered freely and openly for anyone to use and under some licenses to re-mix, improve and redistribute. • Learning Content • Tools • Implementation resources (Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_resources)

6. OER Sites

7. 1- Project website setup & maintenance (UHI) 2 - Preparation of background reports (All) 3 - Kick-off meeting at the OU 4 - Establish ACP Researchers Network 5- Open Content activity 6- Open Content in DE workshop in UM 7 – Technology Training 8 – Drafts of Teaching Material 9 – QA Workshop in UWI 10 – Cascading Activity 11 – Final Dissemination Event in USP 12 – Final Evaluation Report Project Activities

8. University of Mauritius (UM) Participants; Prof. Alain Senteni & Mohammad Santally Heavily involved in setting up of technology based applications University of the West Indies (UWI) Participants; Roger Powell & Stewart Marshall Setting up of Open Campus University of Highlands & Islands (UHI) Millenium Institute Co Principal Researcher - Frank Rennie OU Lead Researcher - Prof. Robin Mason Other institutions

9. Core & Other Activities

10. Way Forward • Complete pilot courses by proposed deadline June 2009 • Dissemination of information about project through cascading events • Write a chapter towards the book on 'how to repurpose Open Content for distance education in developing countries.' • ‘Prototype-run’ at least one from each partner with a few students and peers to evaluate and see responses etc in each partner’s context.

11. Way Forward • UHI – Technology Training (22-26 June 2009) • UWI – Quality Assurance (November 2009) • USP – Final Dissemination Event (8-12 Feb 2010)

12. Faculty involvement • Cascading events • Pilot run of study skills package • Identify DFL champions from each faculty to make presentations • ACP Researchers Network • OER course development @ USP

13. Discussion

14. Web links • SideCap Project site: http://sidecap.wetpaint.com/?t=anon • SideCap Group hub: https://sidecap.grouphub.com/login • SideCap Project blog: http://www.sidecap-project.blogspot.com/ • OpenLearn site: http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/home.php • Cohere: http://cohere.open.ac.uk • OU site: http://www.open.ac.uk/ • UM: http://www.uom.ac.mu/index.asp • UM, VCILT: http://vcampus.uom.ac.mu/vcilt/index.php • UWI: http://www.uwi.edu/ • UWI, Open Campus: http://www.uwi.edu/vicechancellery/uwioutreach/default.aspx • UHI: http://www.uhi.ac.uk/ • UHI, Lewis Castle College: http://www.lews.uhi.ac.uk/ • OIL site: http://oil.otago.ac.nz/oil/module1.html