Consultation questions
Comment from Rassie Louw
Paraphrased from personal email querying whether the point raised is appropriate for the consultation of strategic goals. I deem the points raised to be an important issue for our strategic planning process and have documented them below.
- I want to ask a question about the strategic plan that may not fit in the discussion. It would be very helpful to us here in South Africa (I do not know what the case may be in other regions across the globe) if we could promote OERu activities on a national or regional level, particularly with regards to national requirements and associated structures for accreditation etc. Now for the question: May we consider regional collaboration within the OERu network as one of the strategic initiatives in the strategic plan? (I do not know in which one of the four goals it will fit the best).
Response to Rassie
A key feature of the OERu collaboration is the ability for learners to earn formal academic credit. This requires institutions which are formerly recognised by the appropriate quality assurance and accreditation agencies operating within the structures and requirements of the national agencies and appropriate regulations. The OERu network needs to figure out how national requirements impact on virtual mobility so that we can plan accordingly to maximise reuse of OERu courses within the national context.
Clearly regional collaboration is an important component in the OERu credit transfer and course articulation ecosystem and I agree that this should be incorporated as a strategic objective. Given the growth in membership of the OERu network we already have a number of countries which can (and should imo) establish regional collaborations, for example Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, USA and Europe. These national collaborations could extend beyond accreditation issues to include, for example professional development and other areas of mutual interest.
Excellent suggestion Rassie - I think this should be included as a strategic objective under the rephrased Goal 2 of "Improve processes for efficient and scalable OERu operations."
Afterthought
Been thinking a little more about this - given the importance of national and regional OERu collaboration - I think this may warrant its own strategic goal (with corresponding sub goals, eg accreditation and virtual mobility, regional networking, professional development support.)
What do folk think?
