Quenching the Thirst: OpenEducational Resources in Supportof Drought Mitigation at theInternational Crops ResearchInstitute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
2013
v balaji | w d dar
Drought threatens the economic well-being of hundreds of millions of peopleand can have a long-term impact on the ecology in many places across the globe.Recent inter-governmental efforts reveal that preparedness is more effective thanrelief in mitigating drought?s impact. To foster drought preparedness amongstrural communities, highly focussed learning and support processes and systemsare required. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropicsestablished a group of relevant activities under the rubric of the Virtual Academyfor the Semi-Arid Tropics. These activities are anchored by a set of practices forlearning content creation that are premised on creating and/or using OER inthe form of reusable learning objects. The intended groups of learners are ruralwomen whose exposure to the classroom milieu is nil or limited at best. Theprocess of content creation and the support systems for content delivery weredesigned to accommodate these learners? requirements. This chapter providesa number of the details of this process, then presents and discusses the results.What emerges is a picture of a value-chain wherein OER from highly regardedtechnical resources is created for the intended audience, iterated for quality anddelivered via rural information centres to the learners; these learners becomethe new contact points for hundreds of farmers to consult as sources of expertiseto solve a range of production-related problems in drought situations. Speciallydeveloped techniques involving a geographic information system are also brieflydescribed
Show more [+] Less [-]W D Dar, V Balaji, 'Quenching the Thirst: OpenEducational Resources in Supportof Drought Mitigation at theInternational Crops ResearchInstitute for the Semi-Arid Tropics', pp.187-196, Commonwealth of Learning and OER Asia, 2013
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