The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN)

The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) has shown a strong determination to become a full-fledged OER-based Open University with a measured share for MOOCs. It seems fair to say that NOUN is the first OU in the world implementing such an ‘all-inclusive’ OER strategy and profile, and at pretty high speed. NOUN already launched its first 40 OER-based courses and its first 3 OER-based MOOCs. Hopefully NOUN can serve as an inspiring and promising exemplar for other (open) universities.

In December 2013, during the 7th Pan Commonwealth Forum, NOUN’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Vincent Ado Tenebe, declared NOUN’s intention to fully embrace OER. That was quite remarkable, given the reservations in the world of open universities to date with going that far. Only two years later, in December 2015, NOUN launched its first 40 OER-ized courses and its first 3 MOOC-ified courses plus a portal housing the courses and services. This outstanding achievement is due to NOUN’s strong OER determination and pertinent implementation attention, flanked by inspiring UNESCO involvement and guidance and expert support from the Dutch OER UNESCO Chair team. In August 2014 an OER Unit was established, headed by Dr. Jane-Frances Agbu. Two sensitization and two instrumentation workshops were organized. The launch event in December 2015 marked the dissemination within NOUN and beyond. The Vice Chancellor announced that by the end of 2017 half of NOUN’s complete course base should be in OER and about 20 MOOCs should serve pressing learning needs in Nigeria.

Embracing OER is quite natural for NOUN given its mission to “provide highly accessible and enhanced quality education anchored by social justice, equity, equality and national cohesion …”. One could expect from NOUN indeed, being a government-funded university, to serve Nigerian society, learners, and colleague universities by an ‘all-inclusive’ OER agenda. This approach can reach out to many learners, in particular to the huge number of potential students who simply cannot get a ‘seat’ at a Nigerian university, which goes up to around 1.2 million out of an average of 1.5 million qualified youngsters annually (80%!).

NOUN is heading for a full-fledged OER-based Open University with a special niche for MOOCs, the first OU of this kind in the world. Hopefully NOUN can become an inspiring and promising exemplar for other (open) universities.

Explore more about this award…

• National Open University of Nigeria by Christine Ofulue in Handbook of Open Universities Around the World (2025)
• National Open University of Nigeria (Wikipedia)