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eLearning Africa 2024

In June 2024, the eLearning Africa Conference took place in Kigali, Rwanda. The conference brought together experts, practitioners, and policymakers from across Africa and beyond to discuss the latest trends and innovations in technology-enhanced learning. First of all, a big thank you to all participants for the interesting insights and discussions… We had the opportunity to conduct a full-day workshop on “Creating Sustainable and Extendable Open Educational Resources (OER) as Interactive Online Classrooms”.

Open Source Community Projects on GitHub versus Traditional Publishing Models for OER

In this post, I will aim to make a case for Git and GitHub by comparing how “traditional” publishing models (for OER) can be improved through dynamic, flexible, and transparent open-source community projects. So, what can OER learn from open source and how can it be applied? GitHub promotes collaborative development and the global exchange of educational materials, supported by powerful tools like Git. The platform enables broad quality control through open review processes and facilitates the organization and management of educational projects through specific organizations.

LiaScript - WorldMap

This idea was motivated by the OER-World Map in order to to visualize the distribution of educational content that was created with LiaScript or events and meetings. Our map is based on the OpenStreetMap and uses the Leaflet library to display the markers. Blue is associated to projects, while future events are displayed in green and past events in transparent gray. visit the world-map All information about the projects is stored within a static YAML-file:

Offene Bildungsmaterialien an Hochschulen verankern

Die Förderung von Open Educational Resources (OER) an Hochschulen gewinnt durch die Entwicklung und Implementierung spezifischer OER-Policies an Struktur und Sichtbarkeit. Hierfür wurde ein OER Policy Kit mithilfe von LiaScript entwickelt und veröffentlicht. Dieser Handlungsleitfaden bietet neben einer allgemeinen Orientierung auch konkrete Tipps, Beispiele und hilfreiche Ansätze. Interessierte können das OER Policy Kit direkt online einsehen und sich tiefergehend mit den Materialien auseinandersetzen. Link zum OER Policy Kit Oder über das offene Git-Repository einsehen, nachnutzen und mitentwickeln:

Data and Analytics for Research Training (DART)

The DART program offers free, open-source educational resources aimed at empowering working biomedical researchers with data science skills to enhance their work. It aligns with the National Institutes of Health’s focus on boosting research reproducibility, transparency, and rigor through instructional modules that teach data science and related abilities. The program adopts a modular educational strategy, allowing learners to tailor their training by choosing from various modules to create a personalized learning pathway.

Podcast: Data Management Training at the University of Vienna

This podcast delves into the University of Vienna’s innovative data management training program, developed by a diverse team of data stewards for a wide audience including PhD students and technical staff. It emphasizes the importance of general data management skills and specialized knowledge for specific infrastructures, alongside their methodical evaluation of the program’s impact. The project aims to support researchers with data management and promote FAIR data practices, driven by their personal interests ranging from web preservation to facilitating custom solutions for scientific inquiries.