Capacity Enhancement Programme for ODL Teachers on Creation of OER for Blended Learning

New Delhi, April 07, 2017: Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) and Bangladesh Open University (BOU) under their joint OER initiatives convened a three-day “Capacity Enhancement Programme (CEP) on Open Education Resources for BOU academics” at BOU eLearning Center, Gazipur Bangladesh. This activity is a part of implementation of CEMCA-BOU Project entitled “OER Policy and Implementation of Blended Approach for teaching-learning at Bangladesh Open University (BOU)”. Earlier, the project convened three workshops for policy-makers, officials and academics and Master Trainers (MT) respectively. This workshop was different from the previous one because MTs trained earlier were resource persons in this one. Mr. Abu Naser Md. Tofail Hossain, Lecturer, English, Ms. Kazi Sharmin Pamela, Lecturer, Marketing and Ms. Romana Kader, Lecturer, Management facilitated the training programme. Thirty ODL teachers of BOU participated in the hands on training on searching and creating OER for blended learning.

Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi of CEMCA facilitated the hands on training along with Master Trainers of BOU. In the inaugural session, Dr. Panigrahi expressed deep concerns related to OER practice for better learning at BOU. He said that the university authority should encourage the faculty members to develop OER culture in the university and scale up further to academic counselors, tutors at regional centers and study centres of the university. Prof. Sufia Begum, Chair of the Session, cited that on one hand everything is going online and on the other hand, opponents of distance education have been disregarding the degrees earned through eLearning. “….We need to popularize the concept (of OER). Today’s gathering shall not only orient (you – the participants) towards OER activities; it will make you the ambassador of OER”, said she. Md. Mizanoor Rahman, the Team Leader of the CEMCA-BOU OER Project stated the objectives of the CEP for academics and presented the progress of the project.

In the inaugural address Sabina Yeasmin, BOU mentioned that the “Pedagogical transformation through open Educational resources at Bangladesh Open University is not an option, it is imperative to be incorporated in the BOU system. Open Educational Resources are valuable for BOU and students in terms of energizing teaching and learning at low cost and laying the groundwork for Higher Education (HE) programmes that meets employers’ needs. The BOU is practicing usage of OER. So, CEMCA’s initiatives will help BOU build a new dimension of our success agenda”. BOU is going to launch the OER-enabled Master of Business Studies programme next academic session under the current activities.

The workshop focused on the Concept of OER, OER policy statements of the university, open licenses including creative commons, reuse and remix of OER and contribution and strengthens of BOU OER repository. Resource materials provided by CEMCA and Resource persons were made available to the participants during the workshop. Three-day workshop comprised of various hands on practice sessions including the pre-workshop and post-workshop test.