Over 2 Million Open Educational Resources Domiciled In 153 Universities ― NUC

The management of National Universities Commission (NUC) says its Open Educational Resources (OER) repository established in 2017, currently has over two million resources in form of courseware, lecture notes, textbooks, videos, maps, podcasts, and conference presentations, and journals.

According to the Commission, the OER repository was established as part of efforts to revitalise the academic content of the nation’s Universities as well as improve the quality of teaching and learning.

Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Abubakar Rasheed, stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, at a two-day high-level Sensitization Workshop on mainstreaming OER in higher education in Nigeria, organised by the commission in collaboration with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL).

Rasheed who was represented by NUC’s Deputy Executive Secretary, Chris Maiyaki, said the facility which is maintained by the Commission is currently held by 153 Nigerian universities.

He further revealed that the commission established the repository and named it the Nigerian University System Open Educational Resources, NUSOER, in its bid to fully encourage the institutionalisation of the use of OER.

He said the repository is maintained by the Commission to serve as a gateway to Open Resources which have been held by 153 universities in Nigeria since 2017, adding that in the course of the workshop, the National OER Repository will be formally unveiled and presented among other functions.

He said NUC, in its effort to galvanize the universities and assess their full commitment to the OER movement, will continue to evaluate and rank Nigerian Higher Education Institutions, HEIs, as part of efforts to give them visibility and place them on the world OER map.

He said the workshop was conceived and carefully designed to bring to the fore, the benefits of OER in Higher Education.

Rasheed expressed NUC’s readiness to always organize capacity programmes to improve the executive capacities of top university leaders and ensure that all higher education institutions are seen to be operating at full strength with some considerable reputational capital.

He added that the Commission would do this in collaboration with relevant agencies.