Creating OERs for Philippine biodiversity

Consuelo D l Habito, Roberto Figueroa and Reinald Pugoy
University of the Philippines Open University
Los Baños, the Philippines

The protection and conservation of Philippine flora and fauna hinges on communication, education and public awareness (CEPA) of individuals, communities and institutions. It is highly important that Philippine flora and fauna information is made available for school children, their teachers, families and communities as a crucial early step in promoting more effective management of our endemic biodiversity. In this digital age, open educational resources (OERs) — or ‘technology-enabled, open provision of educational resources for consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes’ (UNESCO, 2002) — and open, distance and e-learning (ODEL), can enhance CEPA on Philippine biodiversity. The creation of OER materials on endemic Philippine flora and fauna is one way of contextualizing and disseminating biodiversity concepts for local communities. An informed society practising sustainable activities can contribute to preventing species extinction and habitat degradation. The UP Open University, as the centre of excellence for ODEL in the Philippines, can lead the development and use of these educational technologies in promoting more effective conservation of Philippine biodiversity by providing access to information through the swish of a finger on a mobile device. In this paper, the process of planning and curating OERs, as well as developing its mobile-friendly platform, is discussed. This includes the process of responsive Web design (RWD), and a series of steps for making Web applications readable and usable in most mobile devices. The importance of RWD in making the platform for containing these OERs mobile-friendly is explained, together with several other methods that can be used in generating a mobile app from a responsive Web platform that are relatively easy for non-programmers to understand and implement.