Institutional Open Educational Resources (OER) and the OER platform will play a supportive role in ensuring quality higher education in the country, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has said.
The OER policy will also be instrumental in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and building a developed and prosperous Bangladesh by 2041.
UGC member Dr. Md. Sazzad Hossain made the remarks while presenting his keynote address at the inauguration ceremony of a five-day workshop on the OER jointly organised by UGC and Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia on Monday.
It is necessary to ensure easy and free access of students to education-related resources by ensuring the use of technology in order to take the country's higher education sector further ahead, the UGC member added.
Institutional open education resource policy has to be prepared in all public and private universities of the country to this effect, he said.
“Once the OER policy is finalised, teachers, researchers, and students in the higher education sector will be able to easily exchange various teaching materials including class lectures, texts, and research papers,” he continued.
UGC member Md Abu Taher, UGC secretary (additional charge) Ferdous Zaman, CEMCA director Madhu Parhar and senior programme officer (education) Manas Ranjan Panigrahi spoke at the function conducted by Mohammad Maksudur Rahman Bhuiyan, managing director (additional charge) at UGC’s IMST department.
Prof Taher said the universities and UGC are working together to formulate open education resource policy at the institutional and national levels.
UGC Secretary (Additional Responsibilities) Dr. Ferdous Zaman said the OER policy would serve as an important tool in conducting online education and blended learning higher education activities during the Covid-10 pandemic.
Some 200 teachers and staff from 20 public and private universities participated in the workshop while treasurer and OER specialist at the Open University of Bangladesh Mostafa Azad Kamal joined the workshop as a resource person.
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