Empowering Educators Across Borders

At Free Knowledge Africa, we believe that education thrives when knowledge is open, accessible, and shareable. Our recent OER Educator Training Program reflected this commitment, bringing together over 50 educators from Nigeria, Uganda, and the UK for an intensive six-week virtual training. Participants explored the full spectrum of Open Educational Resources (OER), from understanding open education principles to creating, publishing, and promoting their own resources.

The program was designed to equip educators with practical skills to implement open resources in their classrooms and communities. In Week 1, participants learned about the history and philosophy of open education, explored different types of open content such as OER, open data, and open access, and discussed the benefits of OER in Nigeria. The session included group reflections and examples of global and local projects, with a homework assignment to read the Creative Commons primer and submit a short reflection.

In Week 2, participants delved into copyright, licensing, and the public domain. They gained an understanding of intellectual property, explored Creative Commons licenses, and learned how to find and use public domain materials. Practical exercises, including license analysis using real examples, helped participants apply their knowledge.

Week 3 focused on discovering and evaluating OER and public domain materials. Educators learned where to find high-quality resources, how to assess their relevance, and tools for adapting and remixing content. Guided explorations of repositories such as Wikimedia Commons and publicdomain.ng allowed participants to curate resources for their subject areas, which they submitted as homework.

During Week 4, the focus shifted to creating and designing OER. Participants explored pedagogical design for inclusive, accessible, and localised content, learned to use tools like Google Docs, Canva, and H5P, and reviewed best practices for formatting, attribution, and accessibility. Workshop sessions enabled participants to start drafting their own OER lessons or resources, which were submitted as homework with open licensing.

Week 5 covered publishing, sharing, and promoting OER. Educators learned about platforms for publishing their work, metadata, tagging, and file formats, as well as strategies for building communities and collaborating with peers. Participants uploaded their OER drafts for peer review and finalised their content for public sharing.

In Week 6, participants prepared their capstone projects, focusing on objectives, audience, and delivery. They learned to monitor and evaluate OER impact and pitched their projects for seed funding, culminating in the selection of five outstanding projects that were awarded funding to implement innovative OER solutions in schools and communities.

The program not only built practical skills in content creation, instructional design, digital literacy, collaboration, and advocacy but also fostered a vibrant international network of educators. Participants formed connections across Nigeria, Uganda, and the UK, exchanging ideas and best practices that will continue beyond the training.

Celebrating the Funded Capstone Projects

The funded capstone projects demonstrate the creativity and practical impact of the participants:

• Phonics and Early Year Literacy – Targeting children aged 3–9 years, this project strengthens foundational literacy through phonics-based learning, helping young learners develop reading and communication skills.

• Digital and Oral Storytelling for Multilingual Literacy and Creative Expression – Designed for teenagers and young adults (ages 13–29), as well as teachers, youth facilitators, and community-based educators, this project empowers youth to develop storytelling skills through written, oral, and digital formats, integrating local languages and cultural identity to enhance literacy and creative expression.

• Guidance & Counselling Educational Videos – Focused on tertiary students studying Guidance & Counselling, this project provides pre-recorded video and audio resources explaining counselling theories. Content is shared on Internet Archive, OER Commons, and YouTube to address accessibility gaps for visual and auditory learners.

• Folktales & Oral Traditions Archive – This project preserves Nigerian folktales and oral traditions, engaging community elders and storytellers as contributors. Students, educators, researchers, and cultural enthusiasts can access the archive for learning, teaching, and research purposes, bridging generational knowledge gaps.

• French Language Communication Resources – Tailored for teachers, this project provides high-quality materials and tools to improve French language teaching, supporting interactive and effective lessons.

These projects showcase the diversity of applications for OER, spanning early literacy, youth empowerment, tertiary education, cultural preservation, and language learning.

To support continued learning, all participants and interested educators can access training videos on YouTube and course materials and resources.

The success of the program demonstrates the transformative potential of open education. By equipping educators with knowledge, practical skills, and funding, Free Knowledge Africa is cultivating a culture of collaboration, innovation, and knowledge-sharing that will continue to impact classrooms and communities across Africa and beyond.

Learn more about future programs and get involved, join the FKA Community or send us a message if you have any questions.