Open University

Launched in 2005, the Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa (TESSA) project has since grown to become an internationally-recognized exemplar of OER for teacher training in SSA. From 2005 - 2009 the project primarily focused on developing country-specific versions of the TESSA materials, while activities from 2009-2012 focused on program implementation, the production of supplementary materials, and research to understand how teacher educators were using TESSA. To understand the project's progress to date against its original goals and determine ways in which the program could be improved, a formative evaluation of the project was conducted from May to September 2012. This proposal follows up on the recommendations made in the evaluation, which primarily addressed sustainable approaches to pedagogic change within teacher training institutions using TESSA (in other words, ways in which TESSA could be more deeply embedded within training institutions). Three strands of work will focus on documenting, extending, and scaling TESSA across multiple contexts. The first strand includes documentation of the policy and organizational structures of two organizations where TESSA is used extensively (one distance and one campus university). The second will explore replication of TESSA use from one training institution to three other teacher colleges in Ghana (which use a face-to-face model of instruction), and the third will attempt to scale TESSA use by encouraging National Certificate of Education Supervisor use of TESSA Nigeria on a mobile platform. The aim of this project is to expand and embed the use of TESSA OER in partner institutions, leading to sustainable pedagogic change.

For the past six years the Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa (TESSA) project has grown from a seed of an idea to an internationally-recognized and acclaimed model of collaborative OER development and implementation. Its attempts to address the need for more qualified teachers in Sub Saharan Africa have been met with great interest, and countries beyond the original 13-member consortium have expressed interest in piloting TESSA or adopting TESSA where there are few teacher training programs or none. This evaluation project will explore the strengths and opportunities for TESSA program development, and will provide information about the impact of TESSA on teacher training practices in a select group of countries.

This grant would enable the OER Research Hub to study the impact of OER use on student outcomes and teacher performance and practice. To strengthen the evidence base related to these topics, the research team aims to partner with OER projects across a range of sectors and issues worldwide.