Modern College of Business & Science (MCBS) to conduct workshop on Open Educational Resources on May 2 - Oman - Muscat Daily

"Modern College of Business & Science (MCBS) will conduct a major workshop on introduction of ‘Open Educational Resources (OERs) and Digitisation of Learning’ on May 2 at the college premises. The workshop, which will be held between 9am and 4pm, is aimed at introducing academics and educational planners to the worldwide Open Educational Resources, which are different types of educational materials in the public domain that can be used free of cost. Participants will get the necessary knowledge and skills to instructional strategies that successfully integrate OER, which include open textbooks, open courseware, open simulation and open practices, at their institutes. This will help reduce cost but also improve quality and efficiency. Dr Khalaf al Tell, associate professor of MCBS, who has been involved in the Open Educational Resources movement for the last 15 years, will be conducting the workshop. Dr Tell has conducted numerous workshops, training and consultancy work in Oman and Jordan. Those who participate in the workshop will be able to conduct an effective search to find open educational resources, adopt open textbooks for their curriculum and change to student-centred learning and digitisation of learning. Further, participants will get access to open sources for educational purposes, gain knowledge and experience in finding, adopting open quality educational resources from the best universities across the world and select and adapt top quality open textbooks and supporting materials. Other major advantages of participants include experience in using open digital tools in order to improve the quality and bring education to the 21st century requirements and educational institutions will gain the know-how to join the worldwide OER movement, which was advocated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and other international organisations. Dr Tell has received his PhD and MSc from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York, US. He worked at Jordan University, Yarmouk University in Jordan and New Mexico State University in the US and at the Ministry of Manpower (Technological Education) of Oman. Participants will receive a copy of the workshop record and soft copies of all materials used."