“Open Education for Nigerian Schools: Strategies, Techniques, and Policies” is the title of the Open Ed 2021 session presented by Blessing Ngozi Igudia, a Ph.D. student from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. Igudia spoke about the importance of quality education for all and educational resources that are accessible. They spoke about Open Educational Resources and the opportunities for promoting access in Nigeria. Igudia did a qualitative exploratory study. They started with a historical overview of the concept of open education. In developing countries, Igudia mentioned, open education is an important way of providing equal opportunities. They spoke about the UNESCO 2002 open and distance learning possibilities on opening access to learning. The challenges mentioned included how to assess quality education. They also mentioned the safety of children and access to educational resources in both rural and urban areas. The pandemic has highlighted the need of technical and human support needed for learning to “adopt an innovative way of planning and delivering education.” Providing devices was mentioned as a way of providing open education. Igudia called for “curricular adjustments” to make sure the content is appropriate and relevant to open educational needs. The impact of the pandemic and use of different platforms did point out how open education has tremendous potential, according to Igudia. Recognition of integration of open educational practices should be promoted, according to Igudia. Using research from the Australian Research Data Commons, Igudia called for relevant policies and efforts. They concluded that Open Educational systems are still relatively new in Nigeria. I thought that the integration of open education in both primary and secondary levels of education in Nigeria was intriguing, as it seems from the discussion and their research that Igudia focused on primary levels of education. I think this is the second session I watched by Igudia. I am now curious what the third version will be!
