BY Gami Tadanyigbe
The Regional Training and Research Institute for Distance and Open Learning (RETRIDOL) of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) has organised a 3-day training on Open Educational Resources (OER) material Development for Academic staff from universities in Nigeria
The workshop organised in collaboration with Commonwealth of Learning (COL) will be facilitated by experts and other relevant stakeholders in the education sector.
It is aimed at highlighting the global importance of the use of (OER) as a tool to mitigate the rising cost of educational materials.
Declaring the workshop open in Abuja yesterday, the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu commended NOUN for championing the course for the initiative.
Represented by the executive secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC) Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, the Minister pledged to continue to support the success of distance learning in the country.
“I must congratulate the Vice Chancellor of NOUN, director of RETRIDOL and other key stakeholders within NOUN for this Initiative.
“We shall continue to give you all the support you have to ensure the penetration of Open and Distance learning in the West Africa and beyond,” he said.
The permanent representative of Nigeria to the ECOWAS Commission, Ambassador Babatunde Nurudeen said so many benefits abound in OER for the teaching staff.
“As we have all discovered, OER can supplement and even add value to the existing curricula in place in virtually all our tertiary institutions while for the students, it can also reduce the cost of education by serving as substitutes to the use of expensive textbooks.”
According to him, the permanent Mission of Nigeria to the ECOWAS Commission is already partnering with RETRIDOL with the aim of ensuring that the activities of the centre are expanded beyond the Anglophone West Africa.
In his welcome address, the Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu said the institution is also trying to encourage ODL beyond the level of higher education.
On his part, the director of RETRIDOL, NOUN, Prof. Patrick Eya said the workshop, apart from training participants on OER application in the development of learning materials, also serve to awaken the NUC and other relevant agencies of the Federal Ministry of Education on the need to quicken action on National OER policy and National OER Repository.
