UCT OpenContent Launch

12 February 2010

What is “Open Content”?Open Content / Open educational resources (OER) / Open Courseware are educational materials (usually digital) that can be:

Shared

Shared freely and openly

for …

Used

Improved

Redistributed

… use by anyone to … … adapt / repurpose/

improve under some type of license in order

to …

… redistribute and share

again.

Example of Open Content

Original diagram in a PhD thesis …

Adapted for the Portuguese context … Translated

into Greek …

Adapted and translated to Spanish …

The concept of Open Content …

• … is based on the philosophical view of

knowledge as a collective social product and the desirability of making it a social property (Prasad &

Ambedkar cited in Downes 2007:1).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jordigraells/2098331968/

Open Content part of the“Open Movement”

The Open Movement

Open Source Software in the Open Movement

Open Content part of the“Open Movement”

The Open Movement

Open Source Software

Open Access in the Open Movement

The Public Library of Science is a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource.http://www.plos.org/

The SHERPA/RoMEO service provides a listing of publishers' copyright conditions as they relate to authors archiving their work on-line.http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/

OpenDOAR is an authoritative directory of

academic open access repositories.

http://www.opendoar.org/

The Directory of Open Access Journals indexes

free, full text, quality controlled scientific and

scholarly journals.http://www.doaj.org/

Open J-Gate is an electronic gateway to global journal literature in open access

domain.http://www.openj-gate.com/

Open Content part of the“Open Movement”

The Open Movement

Open Source Software

Open Access

Open Licences in the Open Movement

http://creativecommons.org/

Creative Commons

GNU General Public License

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

Open Content part of the“Open Movement”

The Open Movement

Open Source Software

Open Access

Open Licences

Open Science in the Open Movement

The OpenScience Project is dedicated to writing and releasing free and Open Source scientific software.http://www.openscience.org/

The Open Dinosaur Project was founded to involve scientists and the public alike in developing a comprehensive database of dinosaur limb bone measurements, to investigate questions of dinosaur function and evolution.http://opendino.wordpress.com/

The Open Science Grid aims to promote discovery and collaboration in data-intensive research by providing a computing facility and services that integrate distributed, reliable and shared resources to support computation at all scales.http://www.opensciencegrid.org/

Advised by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt and others, government are opening

up data for reuse. The dat.gov.uk site seeks to give a way into the

wealth of UK government data and is under constant development.

http://data.gov.uk/home

Open Content part of the“Open Movement”

The Open Movement

Open Source Software

Open Access

Open LicencesOpen Science

Open Society in the Open Movement

Our Water Commons seeks to transform societal decision making for water stewardship towards participatory, democratic, community-centered systems that value equity and sustainability as a strategy.http://ourwatercommons.org/

Open Everything is a global conversation about the art, science and spirit of 'open'. It gathers people using openness to create and improve software, education, media, philanthropy, architecture, neighbourhoods, workplaces and the society we live in: everything. http://openeverything.wik.is/

Web of Change connects the foremost thinkers and do-ers in social media, technology, and social change. They are growing a community of leaders working for transformation of organizations and the world.http://webofchange.com/

Open Content part of the“Open Movement”

The Open Movement

Open Source Software

Open Access

Open LicencesOpen Science

Open Society

What has enabled OER?

Enabler of open content:Change in philosophy

• The Open Source Software movement led the way in showcasing the value of openness and the

‘architecture of participation’ (O’Reilly 2003)

Enabler of open content:Affordances of the Internet

Openness has been stimulated by the Internet which has provided an opportunity for information and services to be shared, used and re-used in ways not conceivable (or affordable) in a paper-based environment.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiouslee/3485479724/

Enabler of open content: Alternative copyright licensing

Previously copyright was binary: All rights retained or public domain

Copyright©

Public domain

Now alternative licensing options such as the GNU General Public License and Creative Commons provide a range of options where some rights are reserved

Copyright©

Some rights reserved Public domain

Enabler of open content: A range of financial models

• Donor funding – e.g. Hewlett Foundation, Shuttleworth Foundation

• Marketing budget – e.g. Open University• Commission – e.g. MIT and Amazon• Endowment – e.g. Stanford Encyclopedia of

Philosophy• Membership – e.g. Sakai Consortium• Government – e.g. UK £7.8 million grant

Openness in higher education The emergence of openness

in higher education in the 21st century is part of the much larger social movement towards ‘opening up’ what was previously ‘closed’ to most except a limited number of people who paid for access to or use of information and services.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11461909@N06/3925035856/

The paradox of sharing • The OECD reflects that

"although learning resources are often considered as key intellectual property in a competitive higher education world, more and more institutions and individuals are sharing digital learning resources over the Internet openly and without cost, as open educational resources (OER) (2007:9).

OER Champion: MIT

OER Champion: Rice University

OER Champion: Carnegie Mellon

OER Champion: Open University

OER Champion: Open University

University of Michigan

Yale University

Indiana University

Delft University of Technology

Universidad de Sevilla, Spain

Korea University

Keio University

Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico

University of Southern Queensland

OpenCourseWare Consortium

Aggregating content: OER Commons

Aggregating video: Academic Earth

Aggregating podcasts: Steeple

OER in South Africa: University of the Western Cape

Collecting OER in Africa: OER Africa

Four “open” projects at UCT

Funded by the Shuttleworth Foundation

Funded by the Shuttleworth Foundation

Funded by the Hewlett Foundation

Opening Scholarship projectJuly 2007- Dec 2008

UCT signs Cape Town Open Education Declaration April 2008

Opening Scholarship outputs

Health OER projectJan 2009-Dec 2010

OER UCT projectFeb 2009-Feb 2010

OER UCT project blog

The UCT OpenContent directory

– Lists and describes the growing collection of open educational content at UCT

– Links this collection to international platforms and act as a mechanism for increasing the visibility of UCT-produced open content

– Facilitates reporting around questions such as:• Which OERs have been published by person X in my

department?• What OER content is available from my department?• How many OERs are in the UCT Collection?• To what extent is my department’s OER output promoting us

globally?

UCT OpenContent: Contributor

Ed RybickiMolecular and Cell Biology

Introduction to Molecular Virology

Published: 2007

Format: Website/HTML

Link

UCT OpenContent: Contributor

Kevin WilliamsHigher & Adult Education Studies & Development Unit (HAESDU)

Guide For Tutors In Disciplines In The Humanities And Social Sciences

Published: March 26, 2009

Format: PDFLink

UCT OpenContent: Contributors

Laurel Baldwin-Ragaven and Leslie LondonSchool of Public Health and Family Medicine

• Training Trainers for Health andHuman Rights

Published: April 14, 2009

Format: PDFLink

UCT OpenContent: Contributors

Tony Carr, Shaheeda Jaffer & Jeanne SmutsCentre for Educational Technology (CET)

Facilitating Online

Published: May 6, 2009

Format: PDF + Companion website Link

UCT OpenContent: Contributors

Jean-Paul van BelleDepartment of Information Systems

NGO ICT and e-Readiness Self-Assessment Tool Discovering Information Systems Office XP for Business

Published: October 14, 2009

Format: PDF Ngo Guide: Link Office XP: Link Info Sys: Link

UCT OpenContent: Contributors

Michael Paskevicius & Michelle WillmersCentre for Educational Technology

Open Teaching in a Digital Age

Published: November 2009

Format: PowerPoint on SlideShare

366 views in 4 months!

http://www.slideshare.net/mpaskevi/open-teaching-in-a-digital-age

UCT joins the OCWCCheryl Hodgkinson-Williams

and Michelle Willmers submit the application to OCWC

UCT launches OpenContent12 Feb 2010

Sharing open content needs a change in values

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2732/4097078733_dd8527d319.jpg

Conclusion

‘Today, a confluence of events is creating the perfect storm for significantly advancing education. With a growing inventory of openly available educational tools and resources, and with an increasingly engaged and connected community, transformative opportunities for education abound. (Iiyoshi & Kumar 2008:2)

Thanks to• Prof Jo Beall• Prof Danie Visser• Prof Martin Hall• Eve Gray• Laura Czerniewicz• OER UCT team

– Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams– Stephen Marquard– Michelle Willmers– Michael Paskevicius– Roger Brown– David Horwitz– Shihaam Donnelly

– Nolu Tyam– Ermien van Pletzen

• Telamenta• Health OER team

– Greg Doyle

• University of Michigan– Kathleen Ludewig

• OER Commons• Creative Commons SA

– Tobias Schonwetter– Andrew Rens

• University of the Western Cape– Philipp Schmidt

• Shuttleworth Foundation– Karien Bezuidenhout

Thanks to• All the UCT academics who have contributed

resources

Matumo RamifikengLana Van Niekerk Graeme CopleySean KaliskiCorne van WalbeekEve GrayCheryl Hodgkinson-WilliamsMichelle WillmersMichael PaskeviciusLaurel Baldwin-RagavenLeslie London

Ed RybickiKevin WilliamsDesiree McKie

Jane NashJean-Paul van Belle

Mike EcclesLisa Seymour

Tony CarrShaheeda Jaffer

Jonny MyersStephen Jeffrey

Peter de Jong

References• Attwood, R (2009) Get it out in the open. Online:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=408300 24 September

• Downes S (2007) Models for sustainable open educational resources. Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge and Learning Objects 3: 29-44.

• Iiyoshi, T & Kumar, MSV (Eds) (2008) Opening Up Education: The collective advancement of Education through Open Technology, Open Content, and Open Knowledge. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

• O’Reilly, T (2003) The Architecture of Participation. Available online: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3017 (Checked 4 October 2009)

• Yuan, L, MacNeill, S and Kraan W (2008). Open Educational Resources – Opportunities and Challenges for Higher Education. JISC CETIS. Available at http://wiki.cetis.ac.uk/images/0/0b/OER_Briefing_Paper.pdf [Accessed 4 February 2009].

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/z

a/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco,

California, 94105, USA.

Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williamscheryl.hodgkinson-williams@uct.ac.za