Digital Open Textbooks for Development
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The University of Cape Town (UCT), like many other African universities, is grappling with how to respond to the need for more locally relevant curricula. Some of the curriculum is dated and lacking in modern pedagogical practices.Más información
The University of Cape Town (UCT), like many other African universities, is grappling with how to respond to the need for more locally relevant curricula. Some of the curriculum is dated and lacking in modern pedagogical practices. Added to the imperative of curriculum transformation, the cost of textbooks is increasingly prohibitive. The average cost of a textbook in South Africa is 12% of the average annual salary. The #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall political movements encapsulate this complex set of interrelated challenges, calling for both cultural recognition and socio-economic redistribution.
Open textbook production is a crucial area of investigation in terms of pursuing a better approach to the provision of teaching and learning materials and the high cost of education that limits access in developing country contexts. The Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) project investigates the current ecosystem of open textbook publishing at the University of Cape Town, as a case study, and provides implementation support in open textbook publishing. It also aims to support policy-makers and other stakeholders in the development of institutional and national policy frameworks that govern open textbook publishing and address long-term sustainability. Located in the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at UCT, the project aims to contribute a developing-country perspective on the global debate around open textbook publishing.
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Resultados de la investigación Opens in new tab
Students of first-year Engineering Drawing (ED) in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of Cape Town (UCT, 2017-2018) were forced to choose between buying an expensive and (perhaps) ill-suited textbook or ignoring it at their peril. Through the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) project, head tutor, Kensleyrao Apajee set his mind to creating an alternative in the form of an open textbook. The Open Textbook Journeys series tells about open textbook initiatives, teaching and publishing processes, and what inspires people to do the work of open textbook production.
This interview schedule was developed by the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) project at the University of Cape Town (2019) as part of its open textbook research process. The interview explores authors’ goals in terms of their envisioned open textbook development initiatives; the injustices related to race, gender and culture that occur within classroom contexts; the different ways to address these injustices, their conceptions of curriculum transformation and decolonisation; and as well, the manner in which they situate open textbook production work in relation to broader global power dynamics and epistemic positioning.
Claire Blackman’s Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) story is heavily shaped by the parameters of the project lifecycle. The challenges of production and time limitations are key facets of this case study. To many of Claire’s students, the high price of their algebra course textbook was unaffordable. As teaching of tertiary mathematics emphasizes helping students develop necessary thinking skills, Claire was hopeful her textbook would be useful beyond South Africa. Features of PreTeXt open-source XML means easy inclusion of runable code within HTM. This enables students to check answers online and interact with the textbook.
This paper provides insight into content development, open licensing, and other processes involved in open educational resources. After years of refining her course notes Professor Windapo published online, “Fundamentals of Construction Management.” This case study discusses the open textbook journey that Abimbola Windapo embarked on with Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) to make her textbook accessible to students and educators, as well as to industry professionals. Windapo chose to publish with an external commercial publisher because of its open access approach, which allows students to use its textbooks for free.
By developing content using various formats and methods, Juan Klopper has explored the use of online platforms and social media for broadening access to knowledge, particularly as it relates to health care in South Africa. In February 2019, Juan received a grant from the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) project to support the development of The Open Surgery Textbook, openly licensed and freely accessible online. Juan believed that the tiered and equal-partner design of the open textbook had the benefit of built-in quality assurance. However, he was unable to finish the project within DOT4D time constraints.