Welcome to the AVU Teaching Commons! One of the primary goals of this Teaching Commons is to foster the development of authentic OER by African. This is an important step toward attaining the Millennium Goals of providing universal access to quality education in Africa.
The AVU is making History! For the first time, Mathematics and Sciences content and learning tools conceived and developed in Africa are posted on this site as Open Education Resources.
The AVU Teaching Commons is sustained by a community of educators, professionals and students dedicated to improve the quality of teaching and learning with online resources. With the support of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the United Nation Development Program (UNDP),the project has involved 12 universities in 10 Sub-Saharan African countries, and over 200 authors and experts. It is in this context that the AVU Teaching Commons would like to showcase his expertise and experience in coordinating the development of OERs adapted to an African context.
What is the AVU “TEACHING COMMONS”
Open Education Resources have the potential to increase access to education, especially in Africa where availability of relevant content has been identified as one of the factors hindering access to quality education.
In order to attain socio-economic development through education, it is quite urgent to provide teachers and students with programs and learning tools that will support existing curricula. Furthermore, it is estimated that Africa’s contribution to the global knowledge is less than 1%. There is therefore a need to increase access to local content and that of African academics to participate in contributing to global knowledge.
The AVU is now filling this gap by addressing the above need through the AVU Teaching Commons.
The AVU is Pan African organization whose mission is to be the leading Open Distance and eLearning network. Its mission is to facilitate the use of effective Open Distance and eLearning in African Tertiary Education Institutions. One of its strategic objectives is to increase access to higher quality eLearning resources that are relevant to Africa. The AVU Teaching Commons is fulfilling this mission. For more about the AVU OER Story, Click Here.
The AVU Teaching Commons website exemplifies the The Carnegie Foundation's idea of a "teaching commons" which provides a collaborative space for the community of educators and students committed to increasing their knowledge, productivity, and professional effectiveness through sharing of pedagogically exemplary practices, exchanging ideas and resources, and engaging in scholarship of teaching and learning. The website is an open educational resource for everyone to use.
What will you find in the AVU Teaching Commons?
The AVU Teaching Commons community is working to:
- Showcase African Authored Online Resources that provide the best African context for teaching and learning in Mathematics, Biology, Physics, Chemistry and ICT Integration as well as share African expertise with the world.
- “Links to the Rest” of a wide range of online resources, lesson plans, pedagogical strategies and advice that Mathematics and Sciences teachers can quickly and easily discover and use to meet their own needs.
- “Recommend the Best” blend of discipline specific educational online teaching resources, lesson plans, pedagogical strategies, and advice that African teachers can use successfully in their schools.
- Communications Services to help you get and stay connected to peers, educators and students who share the goals, challenges, and passion for education like you.
THE AVU TEACHER EDUCATION OER STORY
The AVU teacher education and training programme focuses on increasing the quantity and quality of Mathematics, Science and ICT teachers through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The programme that is contributing to attain the Millennium Development Goals and is funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and partly by the UNDP and is being implemented in Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Senegal, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Through the Program, 73 modules for 4 Bachelor of Education curricula in Mathematics, Science, Physics and Chemistry have been developed by African academics using Open Content. The AVU overcame all possible barriers and developed the materials within an agreed quality assurance framework. And in order to give back to society, the AVU will release the 73 modules through the AVU Virtual Consortium Project as Open Educational Resources.
This is an exciting achievement for the AVU and indeed an exceptional success story for the Open Educational Resources movement in Africa because the materials were prepared by African Academics.
Read more.
Our Partner: the Merlot Africa Network
The goal of MAN is to facilitate Communities of eLearning Expertise and Capacity Building for Open Education, Scholarship, and Development in Africa. The organization has the following five strategic Objectives:
- Build strong networked partnerships between African, US educational institutions and global eLearning providers
- Extend the MERLOT Community of Practice
- Build African expertise in the successful use and development of Open Education Resources (OER) and Open Access (OA)
- Conduct educational research
- Organize expert meetings
Read More at http://man.merlot.org.
Join the AVU Teaching Commons Community
Click here to to follow the simple and free steps to join and benefit from the OER@CVA community – You're not alone!
Want to stay in touch with the AVU Teaching Commons Community? Join the Web2.0 community
The AVU Teaching Commons Community Conversations uses MERLOT Voices to provide you free and open access to online community communication tools to start and sustain forums for your fellow AVU Teaching Commons colleagues to share successes, ask questions, pose problems, and for the AVU Teaching Commons community members to respond to your needs in a timely and simple manner.