With support from the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) at The University of the West Indies (UWI) in St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, hosted a four-day workshop on integrating open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP) in higher education. The workshop is part of an ongoing collaboration under the COL VUSSC Initiative to build capacity and develop policy leading to the advancement and use of OER.

From 20 – 23 November 2023, 30 faculty and academic managers engaged in a series of interactive sessions in which they learned how to access, create and share quality educational content using OER and OEP. The workshop covered questions such as:

• What are OER and OEP, and why are they important for higher education?
• How do we find, evaluate and use OER in teaching and learning?
• How do we create and share OER using various tools and platforms?
• How do we integrate OER and OEP into teaching scenarios and learning resources?
• How do we assess the impact of OER and OEP on student learning and engagement?

At the opening ceremony, Dr LeRoy Hill, Director of the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), highlighted the benefits of OER for enhancing the quality, equity, and innovation of education:

“Today, we have an opportunity to take our passion to the next level by embracing the power of OER and OEPs. These are not just tools; they are expressions of our values, our vision, and our voice. OER empowers us to access, create, and share knowledge in ways that were unimaginable before.”

COL Education Specialist: VUSSC, Dr Mairette Newman commented, “The UWI St Augustine has signalled its commitment to OER as a means to address inequities and foster education that is inclusive, open and participatory and COL supports it in this endeavour. We look forward to the first ten course modules being available early in 2024.”