History

The College of Health Sciences (CHS) is the first of KNUST’s six colleges to launch an OER initiative, supporting the production and use of Open Educational Resources.

In November 2008, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation sponsored a project to develop health OER through collaboration between African institutions. The 2009 Health OER project was a joint effort between OER Africa (which is an initiative of the South African Institute for Distance Education, ‘SAIDE), and the Colleges of Health Sciences at KNUST, the University of Ghana, the University of Cape Town, the University of the Western Cape and the University of Michigan. In the late 2009, the partner institutions submitted a successful two-year follow on grant proposal to the Hewlett Foundation and launched an African Health OER Network, to foster a continent- wide network to share knowledge, address curriculum gaps and use OER to advance health education.

In February 2008, the President of University of Michigan (UM), Mary Sue Coleman visited KNUST and met with the then Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. K. K. Adarkwa, to hold discussions on possible areas of collaboration between KNUST and the University of Michigan. Between April 2008 and September 2008, subsequent meetings were held and Dr. N. Cary Engleberg from UM Medical School came to the KNUST Department of Clinical Microbiology as a visiting professor and also to facilitate the OER development process in KNUST and UG (supported by Hewlett and Gate Foundations).

In November 2008, Professors Peter Donkor and Ohene Opare-Sem from KNUST and Aaron Lawson and Kobina Nkyekyer from UG visited University of Michigan on the use of simulation in their respective medical schools but simultaneously familiarized themselves with the use of OER in the University of Michigan.

January 2009 marked the commencement of Health OER Design Phase Project funded by Hewlett Foundation involving KNUST and UG in Ghana, University of Cape Town and University of Western Cape in South Africa and the University of Michigan. OER Africa was introduced to play an advisory role in helping the universities to navigate this process. In March 2009, a committee was set up to develop draft policy for the development and use of OER in KNUST. Prior to this, two workshops were organized for faculty members as well as staffs from Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi by the University of Michigan.

In April 2009, the complete draft of the policy was submitted to the College of Health Sciences and subsequently, to the University’s various review committees and boards. The OER policy for KNUST was approved in August 2010.

Over the past two years, a skilled team of staff and faculty from within CHS and across other colleges for OER production and advocacy have been assembled. They have drawn in individuals who could speak to the multiple dimensions involved in developing openly licensed learning materials, including policy, content development, media production, content review and web support.

The content on this page has been adapted from "Growing an Institutional Health OER Initiative: A Case Study of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology", by Kathleen Ludewig Omollo, published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)