OpenEdInfluencers Induction and Training 2020

Open Education Influencers (OEIs) at MandelaUni is a student-driven advocacy and empowerment programme in and for Open Education, launched in 2018 at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa. #OpenEdInfluencers started as an initiative to empower, capacitate and strategically deploy students as advocates for transformation in education, across university campuses, and has now gained inclusion in the Siyaphumelela project funding for a 3 year cycle to develop and expand the concept and reach of OEIs, both nationally and abroad. The #OpenEdInfluencers increase awareness of Open Educational Resources, and facilitate better adoption and creation of OER at the institution. All the while, #OpenEdInfluencers energetically advocate for the use of Open Textbooks across purpose, faculties and schools; conducting research into student experiences with OER and textbooks.

In 2019, the MandelaUni OpenEdInfluencers project expanded into an initiative to develop an advocate empowerment programme, uniquely co-created by students and staff, named ‘Becoming an Open Education Influencer’ (BOEI) course. 2020 sees a new cohort of OEIs inducted and empowered into the Open community, and OEWeek is a perfectly timed event to initiate newcomers into the world of Open activities.