Browsing by Author "King, Thomas"

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    Open Access
    Changing Research Communication Practices and Open Scholarship: A Framework for Analysis
    (University of Cape Town. Scholarly Communication in Africa Programme, 2014-04) Czerniewicz, Laura; Kell, Catherine; Willmers, Michelle; King, Thomas
    "It is important that academics’ research communication practices are explored to complement these system approaches. How do we think about these issues in order to investigate and illuminate changing forms of knowledge creation and communication? The project from which this paper is drawn was interested to answer three interrelated questions: • What are the research communication practices of academics? • What enables or constrains the flow of research communication within these practices? • How closed or open are academics’ scholarly communication practices? This paper describes our thinking as we developed the analytical framework that would enable us to answer these questions. The analytical framework was developed from the conceptual framework we used to shape our study through an iterative process with the data collected."
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    Open Access
    Costs and Benefits of Open Access: A Guide for Managers in Southern African Higher Education
    (2014-02) Swan, Alma; Willmers, Michelle; King, Thomas
    In most institutions, researchers will typically enter into a wide range of publishing relationships with commercial and other publishing entities, depending on disciplinary dynamics, considerations around journal reach and impact, likelihood of acceptance, cost of publication, and other factors. It is important that researchers feel empowered to make independent decisions on what and where to publish, but institutional support is required to manage payment and other logistical issues entailed in the publishing process. Institutional support is also needed in the form of one or more "champions" to take a decisive lead on delivering change.
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    Open Access
    Dimensions of open research: critical reflections on openness in the ROER4D project
    (Open Praxis, 2016) King, Thomas; Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl-Ann; Willmers, Michelle; Walji, Sukaina
    Open Research has the potential to advance the scientific process by improving the transparency, rigour, scope and reach of research, but choosing to experiment with Open Research carries with it a set of ideological, legal, technical and operational considerations. Researchers, especially those in resource-constrained situations, may not be aware of the complex interrelations between these different domains of open practice, the additional resources required, or how Open Research can support traditional research practices. Using the Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project as an example, this paper attempts to demonstrate the interrelation between ideological, legal, technical and operational openness; the resources that conducting Open Research requires; and the benefits of an iterative, strategic approach to one’s own Open Research practice. In this paper we discuss the value of a critical approach towards Open Research to ensure better coherence between ‘open’ ideology (embodied in strategic intention) and ‘open’ practice (the everyday operationalisation of open principles). This paper first appeared in Open Praxis, Volume 8 Number 2.
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    Factors influencing Open Educational Practices and OER in the Global South: Meta-synthesis of the ROER4D project
    (African Minds, International Development Research Centre & Research on Open Educational Resources for Development, 2017-12) Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl; Arinto, Patricia; Cartmill, Tess; King, Thomas
    This chapter provides a meta-synthesis of the findings from the Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) empirical studies based on the 13 sub-project chapters in this volume as well as other sub-project research reports. It does so by analysing how three phases of Open Educational Resources (OER) adoption – OER creation, use and adaptation – are observed in the studies as forms of Open Educational Practices (OEP), identifying where there are most likely to be disjunctures that inhibit optimal OER adoption processes and their longer-term sustainability. It compares the open practices reported in the ROER4D sub-project studies to an idealised or maximal set of open processes, modelled as the Open Education cycle framework. It draws upon social realist theory to uncover agential decision-making about OER creation, use and adaptation in relation to structural and cultural environments, and seeks to answer the ROER4D project’s overarching research question: Whether, how, for whom and under what circumstances can engagement with OEP and OER provide equitable access to relevant, high-quality, affordable and sustainable education in the Global South? This chapter interrogates findings from the ROER4D empirical studies using a metasynthesis approach. Following a review of sub-project research reports (including, in some cases, primary micro data), the authors used a literature-informed set of themes to create the meta-level conceptual framework for claims about OER and OEP in relation to access, quality and affordability; the Open Education cycle; and structural, cultural and agential influences on the potential impact on access, quality and affordability. Nvivo software was used to help reveal literature-informed and emergent themes in the studies, identifying the most frequently occurring themes to provide a more comprehensive and classified interpretation of the findings across the empirical studies. Insights and recommendations were then distilled according to Archer’s (2003; 2014) social realist theoretical framework which assesses social change – and its counterpart, stasis – according to dynamically interactive and structural, cultural and agential factors. The authors used these three factors to guide their analysis of the ROER4D findings, as understood in relation to the three broad phases of OER adoption (creation, use and adaptation) proposed in the Open Education cycle. Findings show that in the Global South contexts studied, the ideal or maximal Open Education cycle is incomplete in terms of optimising the benefits of OER adoption. There are five key points of disjuncture: (1) the dependence on copying of existing OER and the corollary failure to localise; (2) the adaptation of OER, but with inconsistent curation and rehosting of derivative works on publicly available platforms or in repositories, limiting access to the derivative OER; (3) limited circulation of derivative OER due, in part, to the absence of a communication strategy; (4) inconsistent quality assurance processes; and (5) a weak feedback loop for continuous improvement of the original or derivative work. The chapter concludes with a critical exploration of the range of influences of OER and associated practices on access to educational materials, the quality of educational resources, educators’ pedagogical perspectives and practices, and student performance as well as the overall affordability and sustainability of education in the Global South. It argues that full participation in the OER movement in the Global South requires that certain structural factors be put in place – including a minimum level of infrastructural support, legal permission to share materials and OER curation platforms – to curate curriculum-aligned OER in local languages. However, these structural adjustments alone are insufficient for the full value proposition of OER to be realised. While individual educators and some institutions are sharing OER, this willingness needs to be bolstered by a much stronger cultural change where communities of educators and students are given technical and pedagogical support to enable OER uptake – especially the creation and adaptation of OER produced in the Global South.
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    Open Access
    Illustrating Impact: Applying Altmetrics to Southern African Research
    (2014-02) Neylon, Cameron; Willmers, Michelle; King, Thomas
    Universities are under growing pressure to illustrate the "impact" of research they produce, perhaps especially institutions in the developing world, which are expected to balance social responsiveness with the rigours of a competitive global higher education environment. Institutions worldwide are engaging with more sophisticated business intelligence for the purposes of better governance and funder engagement. In higher education, Altmetrics – "alternative metrics" – are being used to measure and track scholarship in new ways. A key question is whether institutions in sub-Saharan Africa are in a position to meet demands for the improved measurement and dissemination of research outputs. The Scholarly Communication in Africa Programme (SCAP) explored the state of scholarly communication at four Southern African universities, and probed the alignment between their mission statements, the values of their academic communities, and the reward and incentive frameworks that govern academic careers.
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    Impact Beyond Citation: An Introduction to Altmetrics
    (2014-02) Neylon, Cameron; Willmers, Michelle; King, Thomas
    A fundamental concern for higher education institutions worldwide is improving their efectiveness and efficiency. #is is often expressed as a need to maximise the "impact" of funded research. "Impact" is intended to mean the e!ects of research beyond the research community, and may include in$uence on policy, improvements in health and living standards, cultural enrichment or an improved environment. Di!erent forms of impact – and the framework by which impact is assessed and rewarded – should depend on the mission and goals of the institution. In a political environment that places high value on transparency, accountability and demonstrable return-from-investment, and with intensifying competition in global higher education, universities are under pressure to provide evidence of the value of services they provide. While the value of teaching services has been straightforward to measure, this has not been the case for research. #e commercial publishing sector provides citation-based analysis – the ISI Impact Factor – that is the dominant metric for research evaluation. But the ISI Impact Factor's methodology, equitability and ability to measure the range of scholarship have been criticised. The Altmetrics movement, a body of scholars that seeks to create tools allowing scholarship to be measured and tracked in novel ways, is challenging the ISI Impact Factor. The Scholarly Communication in Africa Programme investigated "alternative methodologies for a more Afrocentric approach to research evaluation".
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    Open Educational Resources at the University of Cape Town: introducing copyright and Creative Commons
    (2014-11-04) King, Thomas
    On 13 March 2014, OpenUCT and the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) held a workshop day with UCT Libraries on open educational resources (OERs) at UCT. Thomas King's presentation covered open educational resources and open licensing.
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    Opening Access to Southern African Research: Recommendations for University Managers
    (2014-02) Swan, Alma; Willmers, Michelle; King, Thomas
    Open access to research is no longer a fanciful notion promoted by a small group of advocates: it has become a mainstream concept embraced by governments, funders, institutions and researchers. It is an enabler of knowledge societies. UNESCO and the World Bank have endorsed the potential benefits of open access to the whole world. Open access has been shown to increase the impact of research on other sectors, notably the small business, education and health sectors. It improves effciencies in the research process wherever it is undertaken – in academia, in industry and commerce, in the cultural heritage sector and by independent researchers. Research moves more quickly and more effciently if there are no barriers to locating and accessing information. Open access also saves money and this, coupled with effciency gains, means that the future system of scholarly communication will be cheaper and better, with payoffs for producers of research and for those who can – given free access – use it.
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    Postgraduate students as OER capacitators
    (Open Praxis, 2017-06-01) King, Thomas
    A comprehensive theoretical, legal and practical basis for OER has been developed over the past fifteen years, supported by the expansion of open source curation platforms and the work of advocacy groups and international bodies. OER’s potential has been sufficiently documented; the question remains how best to support, integrate and normalise OER activity within the academic community in a sustainable fashion. This paper draws on the experiences of the Vice Chancellor’s Open Educational Resources Adaptation project in the University of Cape Town, which explored whether postgraduate students, with their blend of developing subject knowledge, greater time resources, and experience of teaching artefacts from both a learner’s and educator’s perspective, may be a valuable resource for lecturers or institutions eager to engage in OER but lacking the requisite support structures. It was found that postgraduates were best employed as capacitating agents, focusing on the non-pedagogical elements of OER adaptation.
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    Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) Infographic - June 2014
    (2014-09-18) Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl; Carstens, Rondine; Cartmill, Tess; Walji, Sukaina; King, Thomas
    Infographic depicts the Research in Open Educational Resources for Development in the Global South (ROER4D) project showing global coverage of sub-projects and research themes. This includes the general research objective which is to improve educational policy, practice and research in developing countries by better understanding of the use and impact of OER. The infographic includes the names and logos of host institutions and funders, the ROER4D logo and website link.
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    Research on Open Educational Resources for Development in the Global South: Project landscape
    (African Minds, International Development Research Centre & Research on Open Educational Resources for Development, 2017-12) Arinto, Patricia; Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl; King, Thomas; Cartmill, Tess; Willmers, Michelle
    The Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project was proposed to investigate in what ways and under what circumstances the adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) could address the increasing demand for accessible, relevant, high-quality and affordable education in the Global South. The project was originally intended to focus on post-secondary education, but the scope was expanded to include basic education teachers and government funding when it launched in 2013. In 2014, the research agenda was further expanded to include the potential impact of OER adoption and associated Open Educational Practices (OEP). ROER4D was funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the Open Society Foundations (OFS), and built upon prior research undertaken by a previous IDRC-funded initiative, the PAN Asia Networking Distance and Open Resources Access (PANdora) project. This chapter presents the overall context in which the ROER4D project was located and investigated, drawing attention to the key challenges confronting education in the Global South and citing related studies on how OER can help to address these issues. It provides an abbreviated history of the project and a snapshot of the geographic location of the studies it comprises, the constituent research agendas, the methodologies adopted and the research-participant profile. It also provides an overview of the other 15 chapters in this volume and explains the peer review process.
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    Research Publishing Models: A Guide for University Managers
    (2014-02) Swan, Alma; Willmers, Michelle; King, Thomas
    How does an institution begin to engage with new forms of scholarly communication and begin the task of capturing – and therefore leveraging – its knowledge output? Scholarly communication requires institution-wide engagement by a range of stakeholders, in ways that are largely contingent on historical and contextual factors within the institution. !erefore, while there are extensive publicly available guides on scholarly communication, institutions need to articulate strategies based on their objectives, capacity, infrastructure and other factors. An institutional policy can provide a scaffolding to guide implementation, inform governance, identify revenue streams for capacity development, and make explicit the contributions of various stakeholders. An open access policy typically forms the overarching structure for engagement, complemented by other policies such as repository and intellectual property policies. Librarians are ideally placed to facilitate knowledge access across an institution, and to play an active role in disseminating and facilitating the re-use of knowledge.
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    Rethinking Impact: Applying Altmetrics to Southern African Research
    (2014-02) Neylon, Cameron; Willmers, Michelle; King, Thomas
    A fundamental concern for institutions around the world is maximising the efectiveness and efficiency of their investment in delivering their mission; this is perhaps most acutely the case for institutions in the developing world that are forced to balance challenging social responsiveness agendas with the rigours of the increasingly competitive global higher education environment. This is often expressed as a concern to maximise the "impact" of funded research, where impact is intended to mean the e!ects of research beyond the research community. This might include influence on policy, improvements in health and living standards, cultural enrichment, or an improved environment. The emphasis on di!erent forms of impact (and the framework by which that impact is assessed and rewarded) should depend on the goals and mission of the institution.
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    ROER4D First Technical Report - June 2013-August 2014
    (2014-08-27) Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl; Cartmill, Tess
    This technical report covers the first year of the Research on Open Educational Resources for Development project, outlining the progress of the central project network and the twelve sub-projects as they fulfill their research objectives. Core areas of this report include the development of ROER4D's research capacity enhancement programme; the communications policy, networking activities, and the curation framework. It also includes reportbacks on some of the difficulties experienced in the initial stages of an international, multi-continental and multi-lingual project and includes recommendations to address some of these problems. This document was produced as part of the International Development Research Centre's requirements for the projects it funds.
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    Scholarly Communication at the University of Botswana: Case Study Report
    (2014-05) Trotter, Henry; Kell, Catherine; Willmers, Michelle; Gray, Eve; Totolo, Angelina; King, Thomas
    This report, "Scholarly Communication at the University of Botswana", is one of a series of four institutional case studies. It provides an overview the scholarly communication activity system at UB.
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    Scholarly Communication at the University of Cape Town: Case Study Report
    (2014-05) Trotter, Henry; Kell, Catherine; Willmers, Michelle; Gray, Eve; King, Thomas
    This report, "Scholarly Communication at the University of Cape Town", is one of a series of four institutional case studies. It provides an overview the scholarly communication activity system at UCT.
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    Scholarly Communication at the University of Mauritius: Case Study Report
    (2014-05) Trotter, Henry; Kell, Catherine; Willmers, Michelle; Gray, Eve; Beeharry, Girish Kumar; King, Thomas
    This report, "Scholarly Communication at the University of Mauritius", is one of a series of four institutional case studies. It provides an overview the scholarly communication activity system at UoM.
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    Scholarly Communication at the University of Namibia: Case Study Report
    (2014-05) Trotter, Henry; Kell, Catherine; Willmers, Michelle; Gray, Eve; Kingo Mchombu; King, Thomas
    This report, "Scholarly Communication at the University of Namibia", is one of a series of four institutional case studies. It provides an overview the scholarly communication activity system at UN.
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    Seeking Impact and Visibility: Scholarly Communication in Southern Africa
    (2014-05) Trotter, Henry; Kell, Catherine; Willmers, Michelle; Gray, Eve; King, Thomas
    The Scholarly Communication in Africa Programme (SCAP) was a three-year research and implementation initiative that took place between March 2010 and August 2013. Hosted by the University of Cape Town, the programme engaged the Universities of Botswana, Namibia and Mauritius in a process aimed at better understanding the dynamics around scholarly communication in the Southern African higher education environment and advancing the open access agenda for the purpose of increasing the visibility of African research. This work was made possible by a grant from the Canadian International Development Research Center (IDRC). This report synthesizes research and findings from the four institutional case studies conducted at the Universities of Botswana, Cape Town, Mauritius and Namibia. It provides an overview the scholarly communication activity systems at work in these four Southern African universities.
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    UCT Open Education Week 2015
    (2015-04-07) King, Thomas; Cox, Glenda; Makwande, Tinashe; Kawana, Monde
    On 13 March 2015 the Vice Chancellor's Open Educational Resources Adaptation project hosted an event which focused on the Open Educational activities underway at the University of Cape Town. Emeritus Professor Martin Hall provided the keynote address with '50 Shades of Openness', giving the audience some feedback on the history of the Open movement and sharing insights from his time as XXXX of Jisc, the British library consortium. He was followed by Mark Horner, talking about Open Textbooks in South African schools; Tobias Schonwetter, who provided a brief look at the legal frameworks behind open licensing; Sukaina Walhi, reporting on UCT's MOOCs project; Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams, talkiing about the Research on Open Educational Resources for Development project; Jill Claassen, the manager of the OpenUCT repository; and Juan Klopper, sharing his experiences of providing Open Education.