SP4 Visit to Hyderabad, India to Observe SP3 Workshop

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The members of sub-project 4 – Glenda Cox and Henry Trotter from the University of Cape Town – recently went to Hyderabad, India to observe colleagues in the ROER4D project who conducted a research workshop on Open Educational Resources (OER) with Indian educators from the Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU). They attended the workshop – hosted by the members of sub-project 3 Sanjaya Mishra, Meenu Sharma and Atul Thakur – so that they can eventually replicate parts of it in the course of their own research efforts in South Africa in early 2015.

Since the research of SP3 and SP4 are both focused on teachers’ attitudes towards the creation and use of OER – in India and South Africa, respectively – both teams have structured their research to mirror each other so that they can compare the results of their work. Thus the inaugural workshop in Hyderabad acted as the template which would guide the research engagements of both projects going forward.

The workshop covered a number of topics:
· The history of the OER movement
· Teachers’ current attitudes toward OER in India
· Copyright and open licenses
· Barriers to using and/or creating OER
· Quality implications for OER
· How to search for OER on the internet
· How to create and share OER

The 30 participants were highly engaged with the presentations and learned a lot about this changing field of teaching practice. The SP4 duo also learned a lot, especially about the specific challenges facing Indian scholars regarding the adoption of OER. They agreed that the workshop was a success and that they look forward to carrying out similar workshops in South Africa, based on the excellent example provided by SP3.

But the SP4 team enjoyed far more than just the workshop in India. They explored the sites and sounds of Hyderabad, visiting the Golkonda Fort, Qutb Shahi Tombs, Charminar monument, Salar Jung Museum and Hussain Sagar Lake. They also rode around the city on tuk-tuks (auto rickshaws), buying bangles at the bazaar, eating fresh confectionaries at the famous Karachi Bakery and searching endlessly for Indian Premier League cricket jerseys.

Glenda and Henry feel fortunate that they were able to include this type of collegial experience with their ROER4D counterparts and look forward to further collaborative experiences with the network.

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