Reflecting on what it means to be a digital scholar in Africa

1. Reflections on what it means to be a digital scholar
in the African context
CJ Bruton Image from
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/new
s/africa-student-mobility-starting-soar-say-
scholars

2. Definition of “Digital Scholarship and digital scholar”?
Digital scholarship is the use of digital evidence, methods of
inquiry, research, publication and preservation to achieve
scholarly and research goals. It can encompass scholarly
communication using social media and research on digital
media.
Martin Weller has noted in “The Digital Scholar” (2011) that a
digital scholar can also be a well respected scholar with no
institutional affiliation because of the democratisation of the
online space to a wider group than only the academic arena.
She is someone who employs digital and networked
approaches to demonstrate specialism in a field.

3. Digital scholarship allow for the intersect of interdisciplinary
fields and concerns and “public scholarship”
.
• Scholars and researchers are sharing their knowledge
on public platforms such as
Facebook, Twitter and You Tube and are making
them accessible to the non-academic world.
This encourages public participation and
engagement
• Overlapped disciplines encourage a holistic approach
e.g. ergonomics and computer technology; political
science and sociology.
• The use of smart phones allows this data to more
easily be obtained and offers individuals a “voice”
Image from
Mandyktran.
wordpress.com

4. Sketchnote image acknowledgements: Nicola Pallitt 2015

5. In 2015 globalisation of communication can happen
across many media platforms
Some examples using video text, video or audio
• eJournals and eBooks
• Social bookmarking e.g. Delicious, Diigo
• Blogs
• You Tube, Wikipedia, Slide share, Cloud and iCloud, Scribd
• Social networks (Twitter, Facebook,
WhatsApp)
• Google + and Google Drive
• International online seminars and
conferences
Image credit:
http://www.allaboutcheddar.com/social-media-
platforms-and-the-viral-hall-of-fame/

6. The Open UCT Initiative
Digital Scholarship in Emerging Knowledge Domains
An example of this initiative is the
African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI)
• The world of South Africa academics is visible throughout the
research cycle
• Key individuals or expert scholars are able to network with other
scholars around the world in three emerging knowledge areas:
• Gender Studies, Climate Change and HIV/AIDS
• In South Africa, India, Brazil and Australia using digital,
networked and Open approaches.
Image resource: http://openuct.uct.ac.za/activities/
digital_scholarship_emerging_knowledge_domains

8. More about the OpenUCT
As a result of this three year funded UCT initiative, policy has
been developed, and scholarly articles, dissertation and theses
are encouraged to be deposited in open education resources.
Over 7500 resources had been added in December 2014 and
OER’s accessed over 70 000 times.
The project is now complete and the Repository
has now been handed over to UCT Libraries’
Access ad Visibility cluster.

9. Statistis from http://openuct.uct.ac.za/over-5-000-items-openuct-institutional-
repository

10. The Open UCT Guides
Four guides have been developed:
1. Academics’ online presence: a 4-step guide
2. Curation for participation – an 8-step guide
3. Open content licencing – a 3-step guide
4. Measuring impact – a 5-step guide for
scholarly units

11. Image credit: Laura Czerniewicz - http://lauraczerniewicz.co.za/2015/07/openuct-guides-reflecting-
journey/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=openuct-guides-reflecting-journey

12. Prof Laura Czerniewicz
• Professor Laura Czerniewicz has worked
in the field of educational technology
at the University of Cape Town for over a decade.
• She was the founding Director of the Centre for
Educational Technology and is currently the Director of
the OpenUCT Initiative and CILT (The Centre for
Innovation in Learning and Teaching).
• These initiatives are leading UCT to open up its
knowledge resources to all with internet connectivity
and engage globally with the open education agenda
and scholarly communication issues from a Southern
perspective. Prof Czerniewicz’s blog is
lauraczerniewicz.uct.ac.za and she tweets as @czernie

13. MOOCS: http://moocs.uct.ac.za/
Some of the huge advantages of offering online MOOCS
(Massive Open Online Courses) are
• UCT is being placed firmly in the global field and is
being advertised through their free online courses.
• UCT is able to show the capacity to “play in this
space” – usually occupied by the biggest best
universities in the world.
• The most successful institutions of higher learning in
the future will also be the ones most advanced and
proficient in online learning
• The MOOC facilitation team is based at CILT (The
Centre for Innovation in Learning and teaching)

14. ROER4D
• ROER4D: Research and Evaluation of Emerging
Technologies

15. 1. Build an empirical knowledge base
on the use and impact of OER in
education
2. Develop the capacity of OER
researchers
3. Build a network of OER scholars
4. Communicate research to inform
education policy and practice
5. Curate output as open content
ROER4D Objectives
Acknowledgement: Sarah Goodier’s presentation to P.G. Dip. students,
October 2015 and http://roer4d.org

16. “Teachers need to stop saying, ‘Hand
it in,’ and start saying ‘Publish It,’
instead – Alan November