Harnessing the Benefits of Open Educational Resources (OER): Prospects and Challenges for National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN)

Abstract

In this 21st century, the potential benefits of OER cannot be neglected by any tertiary institution of repute. The OER initiative in Nigeria is thus a welcome development towards bracing up with current trends in the “open knowledge movement”. Acquisition of resource materials by academics is crucial to the development of intellectual capacity in the academia. Several pilot studies by MIT revealed that academics are favourably disposed to sharing knowledge with other people at no cost. Expectedly, a host of self-learners abound ready to embrace this facility. However in Nigeria, open and distance education is yet to harness the full benefits of OER. Being the foremost and leading single-mode open-education institution in Nigeria, NOUN has a total of 195,675 self –learners in 52 study centers all over the Federation. She provides them highly accessible and quality education through cost-effective flexible learning. This paper looks at the specific roles NOUN has played in maximizing this opportunity (OER) for her learners and academics. It equally considers the major challenges (training, inability to access online educational resources, and financial issues) encountered in the process, as well as, her contributions towards the initiative, the benefits of OER and the prospects therein. // Paper ID: 397