The document summarizes the use of open educational resources (OER) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa. It discusses UCT's involvement with OER through various projects from 2007-2013. It also identifies barriers like lack of policy, incentives and technical expertise, as well as enablers like grants, technical support and management of OER. Finally, it proposes processes to promote OER adoption at international, national, institutional and departmental levels through activities such as research, policy development, recognition in hiring/promotion, and identifying key courses for OER development.

1. OER – Teaching and Learning
Materials at UCT
Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams
Centre for Educational Technology
University of Cape Town
Seminar on Open Learning in South African Universities
23 July 2013

2. View of the use of OER in South
African universities
• SA universities should (ideally)
– not merely be USING existing OER, but being
active CONTRIBUTORS – least we become mere
consumers
– Find ways to collaborate on the development of
OER with each other and international institutions
– especially for “at risk courses”
– Find ways to lobby for more open access to
journal articles which are the “educational
resources” at post-graduate level

3. UCT’s involvement in OER
Research project on open access, OER & “open community”
DVC signs Cape Town Open Education Declaration
UCT OER implementation project & Health OER project
Launch of UCT OpenContent directory & Scholarly Communication in Africa Project
OpenUCT initiative & VC signs Berlin declaration & small OER grants
OER grants for staff & students and re-development of UCT OpenContent directory
OER adaptation team & international research on OER in the Global South
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013

4. Barriers & enablements to OER adoption
Organisational
Vision
Management
Champions
Incentives - grants
No policy
No rewards
No income
stream
Technical
UCT OpenContent
directory
IP Advice
Graphic design
Limited technical
expertise
Academic
Willingness
Collaboration
Research
Lack of time
Lack of design
skill
  
  

5. Processes and mechanisms to enable
the adoption of OER
International
•Research on current
adoption
•Research on current
needs
•Support for OER
aggregators
•Better ways to deal
with derivative
work – hosting and
citing
•Lobby for more
open access to
journal articles
National
•Policy aligned with
revenue stream
•Collaboration with
other universities
•Lobbying and
brokering
relationships
between other
“open”
stakeholders – open
access, open
data, open science
•Lobby for more
open access to
journal articles
Institutional
•Policy and strategy
development
•Recognition in
appraisal process
•IP advice
•Technical support
•Design support
•Grants
•Management of
OER
•Liaison with other
open initiatives
•Frame OERs within
a broad open
agenda
Departmental
•Identify key “at
risk” courses
•Identify unique
disciplinary
contributions
•Workload planning
•Identification of
senior students to
assist with OER
adaptation

6. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5
South Africa License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/za/ or send a letter to Creative
Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
Prepared by: Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams
Contact:
cheryl.hodgkinson-williams@uct.ac.za
Presentation:
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