Defining innovation: using soft systems methodology to approach the complexity of innovation in educational technology

This paper explores what educational technologists in one South African Institution consider innovation to be. Ten educational technologists in various faculties across the university were interviewed and asked to define and answer questions about innovation. Their answers were coded and the results of the overlaps in coding have been assimilated into a definition. Soft systems methodology (SSM) was used as a method to make visible the complex nature of innovation in educational technology in one setting. The initial definition formed the 'situation definition' in SSM terms. The method proved useful in producing a picture (based on rich pictures drawn by each person) and a root definition (based on CATWOE, a mnemonic that enables the interviewer to ask each participant to identify processes and role players). Participants discussed changes in processes, structures and attitudes at the institution

An OER framework, heuristic and lens: Tools for understanding lecturers’ adoption of OER

This paper examines three new tools – a framework, an heuristic and a lens – for analysing lecturers’ adoption of OER in higher educational settings. Emerging from research conducted at the universities of Cape Town (UCT), Fort Hare (UFH) and South Africa (UNISA) on why lecturers adopt – or do not adopt – OER, these tools enable greater analytical insights at the institutional and cross-institutional level, and hold the potential for generic global application. The framework – the OER Adoption Pyramid – helps distinguish and compare the factors shaping lecturers’ OER adoption which are both immediate (over which they have personal control) and remote (over which they have less or no control). The heuristic – the OER Readiness Tables – derives from the Pyramid and provides a visual representation of the institutions’ obstacles and opportunities for OER engagement. The lens – of “institutional culture” – nuances these comparisons so that the analysis remains attentive to granular, idiosyncratic variables shaping OER decisions. We believe this research will have value for scholars interested in researching OER adoption, and institutions interested in promoting it

Institutional Culture and OER Policy: How Structure, Culture, and Agency Mediate OER Policy Potential in South African Universities

Several scholars and organizations suggest that institutional policy is a key enabling factor for academics to contribute their teaching materials as open educational resources (OER). But given the diversity of institutions comprising the higher education sector—and the administrative and financial challenges facing many institutions in the Global South—it is not always clear which type of policy would work best in a given context. Some policies might act simply as a “hygienic” factor (a necessary but not sufficient variable in promoting OER activity) while others might act as a “motivating” factor (incentivizing OER activity either among individual academics or the institution as a whole). In this paper, we argue that the key determination in whether a policy acts as a hygienic or motivating factor depends on the type of institutional culture into which it is embedded. This means that the success of a proposed OER-related policy intervention is mediated by an institution’s existing policy structure, its prevailing social culture and academics’ own agency (the three components of what we’re calling “institutional culture”). Thus, understanding how structure, culture, and agency interact at an institution offers insights into how OER policy development could proceed there, if at all. Based on our research at three South African universities, each with their distinct institutional cultures, we explore which type of interventions might actually work best for motivating OER activity in these differing institutional contexts

Digital Open Textbooks for Development: Collaborative, sustainable models for transformation and student involvement

This is a panel presentation by the Digital Open Textbook for Development (DOT4D) initiative members Dr Glenda Cox and Michelle Willmers at the Siyaphumelela Conference in June 2022

Open textbook authorship, quality assurance and publishing: Social justice models of participatory design, engagement, co-creation and partnership

This is a presentation that was given by the DOT4D team as part of the CHED seminar series in June 2022. The presentation demonstrates how academics at UCT are embarking on open textbook initiatives in response to a largely mutual set of social injustices they witness in their classrooms related to affordable access, curriculum transformation and multilingualism. With a focus on student co-creation and inclusion, it presents models that address social (in)justice in the classroom and explores ways in which institutions can address sustainability in order to support open textbook development activity

Open Textbooks, Intuitive Pedagogy and Social Justice

The Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) project is a grant-funded research, advocacy and implementation initiative based in CILT. This presentation provides insight into the DOT4D project’s recent work at UCT exploring the nexus between social (in)justice in the classroom, the textbooks and resources used in teaching and learning, and the pedagogical approaches of open textbook authors

Open Textbooks for Curriculum Change and Student Co-Creation: Collaborative models of open textbook production and student co-creation (Workshop 2)

This is the second of two workshop presentations by the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) initiative team as part of the Siyaphumelela Workshop Series in September 2022. This session introduced participants to practical ways in which to initiate open textbook production and engage students in authorship, quality assurance and publishing processes