Browsing by Author "Trotter, Henry"
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- ItemOpen AccessCultural-historical factors influencing OER adoption in Mongolia’s higher education sector(African Minds, International Development Research Centre & Research on Open Educational Resources for Development, 2017-09-12) Batbold, Zagrdagchaa; Trotter, Henry; Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams; Patricia ArintoThe research presented here investigates the strategies and practices of educators from six public and private higher education institutions (HEIs) in Mongolia in order to understand the role of Open Educational Resources (OER) in their work. It addresses the question: Which cultural–historical factors shape OER activities in Mongolia’s higher education sector? In addition, the study sets out to determine whether OER has the potential to move beyond a niche innovation advocated and funded by international donors to one that is broadly adopted, implemented and disseminated by local educators. The study employed a sequential exploratory model in which qualitative interviews comprised the first stage of data collection, followed by quantitative surveys. The interviews were conducted with 14 participants recruited using a convenience sample from four Mongolian HEIs, two government organisations and three non-governmental organisations. In total, eight educators and six administrators were interviewed. A follow-up survey was conducted with 42 instructors and administrators at six HEIs, also recruited through convenience sampling. The study utilised Cultural Historical Activity Theory as a framework to analyse the data. Findings indicate that despite recent efforts to promote OER by funding agencies and the government, OER awareness remains modest amongst higher education instructors and administrators. It is therefore not surprising that OER adoption rates in Mongolia are low. As a result, a culture around OER engagement has not yet emerged, with only isolated individual educators adopting OER. In contrast with many academics who often worry about the quality of OER, Mongolian educators appear to be more concerned about a particular sub-component of quality, which is relevance. In addition, many study participants expressed reservations about the potential value and utility of OER.
- ItemOpen AccessFactors shaping lecturers’ adoption of OER at three South African universities(African Minds, International Development Research Centre & Research on Open Educational Resources for Development, 2017-08-18) Cox, Glenda; Trotter, Henry; Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams; Patricia ArintoThe research presented here focuses on understanding the obstacles, opportunities and practices associated with Open Educational Resources (OER) adoption at three South African universities. It addresses the question: Why do South African lecturers adopt – or not adopt – OER? In trying to answer this, the authors also attempt to identify which factors shape lecturers’ OER adoption decisions, and how lecturers’ institutional cultures influence their OER use and creation choices. This study employed a qualitative research approach through in-depth personal interviews with 18 respondents at three different universities which together broadly represent the characteristics of South Africa’s university sector. Unique analytical tools – the OER adoption pyramid and OER adoption readiness tables – were developed to help with analysing and synthesising the data. Findings indicate that whether and how OER adoption takes place at an institution is shaped by a layered sequence of factors – infrastructural access, legal permission, conceptual awareness, technical capacity, material availability, and individual or institutional volition – which are further influenced by prevailing cultural and social variables. This study has value and application for researchers and institutions pursuing an OER agenda, policy-makers seeking tools to assess OER readiness in institutional contexts, and funding agencies aiming to boost institutional OER engagement. The dataset arising from this study can be accessed at: https://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za/dataportal/index.php/catalog/555
- ItemOpen AccessInstitutional Culture and OER Policy: How Structure, Culture, and Agency Mediate OER Policy Potential in South African Universities(Athabasca University Press, 2016) Cox, Glenda; Trotter, HenrySeveral 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.
- ItemOpen AccessThe OER Adoption Pyramid(2016-04-18) Trotter, Henry; Cox, GlendaThis Pyramid was developed in the course of a research paper focusing on why South African academics adopt OER or not. We understood that numerous factors shaped their choices, but it became apparent that some factors were "essential" to OER activity while others were merely "influential". To clarify which factors were required for any type of OER activity, we developed the OER Adoption Pyramid, which consolidates the factors into six hierarchically related categories: access, permission, awareness, capacity, availability and volition. Under these terms we can place numerous other sub-factors which emerge in the OER literature, such as quality, relevance, localisation, licensing, self-confidence, etc. Going from bottom to top, these categories move from factors that are largely externally defined to factors that are more personally determined. This pyramid reveals that, ultimately, only academics or institutions that possess all six of these attributes at the same time (even if in some modified or attenuated fashion) can engage in OER activity. If even one of these elements is missing, they cannot participate in OER activity.
- ItemOpen AccessOER and OEP in the Global South: Implications and recommendations for social inclusion(African Minds, International Development Research Centre & Research on Open Educational Resources for Development, 2017-12) Arinto, Patricia; Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl; Trotter, Henry; Michelle WillmersThe Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project was undertaken to provide a better understanding of the uptake of Open Educational Resources (OER) and their impact on education in the Global South. The 18 sub-projects that comprise the larger project investigated the extent of OER adoption by educators and students; the factors influencing OER adoption; and the impact of OER adoption on access to educational resources, the quality of teaching and learning, and some of the costs of education provision in 21 countries in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and Southeast Asia. The findings of each of the sub-projects are discussed in the various chapters comprising this volume, and a meta-synthesis of these findings is presented in Chapter 2. Using a social realist lens, the meta-synthesis provides a comparative analysis of OER use, adaptation and creation across the research sites, and identifies the structural, cultural and agential factors that enable and constrain these Open Educational Practices (OEP). It points out disjunctures in adoption processes in the countries and institutions studied, and draws insights regarding the extent to which OER adoption can expand access to educational materials, enhance the quality of educational resources and educators’ pedagogical perspectives and practices, and improve the affordability and sustainability of education in the Global South. This concluding chapter explores the implications of the main research findings presented in the meta-synthesis for the attainment of social inclusion, which lies at the heart of the Open Education movement. The Paris OER Declaration of 20121 explicitly calls upon states to “[p]romote and use OER to … contribut[e] to social inclusion, gender equity and special needs education [and i]mprove both cost-efficiency and quality of teaching and learning outcomes”2 (emphasis added). The Ljubljana OER Action Plan of 20173 likewise recognises that, “[t]oward the realization of inclusive Knowledge Societies ... [OER] support quality education that is equitable, inclusive, open and participatory”. Understanding how OER, OEP and Open Education more generally, can help to achieve social inclusion is particularly critical in the Global South where increased demand, lack of resources and high costs limit the capacity of education systems to provide accessible, relevant, highquality and affordable education. This chapter aims to contribute to this understanding the potential of OER and their accompanying OEP through a critical exploration of the ROER4D findings in terms of whether and how OER adoption promotes equitable access, participatory education and empowerment of teachers and students, and thus helps to achieve social inclusion. The chapter begins with a brief overview of the relationship between OER and social inclusion, details the implications of ROER4D’s findings as they pertain to social inclusion, and concludes with recommendations for advocacy, policy, practice and further research in OER and OEP in the Global South.
- ItemOpen AccessAn OER framework, heuristic and lens: Tools for understanding lecturers’ adoption of OER(Open Praxis, 2017-06-01) Cox, Glenda; Trotter, HenryThis 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.
- ItemOpen AccessOnline teaching in response to student protests and campus shutdowns: academics’ perspectives(2019-12-20) Czerniewicz, Laura; Trotter, Henry; Haupt, GenevieveAbstract During the period 2015–2017, student protests and university shutdowns rocked the higher education sector in South Africa, with key issues being raised regarding student exclusion based on financial, epistemological and cultural grounds. In this highly politicised and contested environment, some universities decided to use blended and online delivery as a strategy to enable the academic year to be completed and all curriculum to be covered, despite the disruptions. This was a controversial decision politically and a challenging one practically. From the perspective of the academics at the University of Cape Town (UCT), this paper draws on interviews with educators in three broad disciplinary areas to explore their views, practices, and experiences regarding the use of online materials in these unique circumstances. Activity Theory provides a framework to consider the issues systemically and to identify the tensions and contradictions in the system.
- ItemRestricted‘Open Textbooks in South African Higher Education’ Roundtable Report(Digital Open Textbooks for Development, 2021-09) Trotter, Henry; Willmers, Michelle; Cox, Glenda; Masuku, BiancaThis is a report by the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) project team from a virtual round table event that took place in July 2021. The event was held with higher education managers, librarians and academic development practitioners and provided an opportunity for these stakeholders to have an exploratory conversation around possible areas of collaboration and identify practical, implementable steps that can be taken to support this area of work going forward.
- ItemOpen AccessReady or Not? OER workshops at 3 South African Universities(2017-07-27) Cox, Glenda; Trotter, HenryThis presentation focuses on workshops conducted at three South African universities on the subject of Open Educational Resources, as part of Sub-project 4 of the Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project.
- ItemOpen AccessROER4D First Technical Report - June 2013-August 2014(2014-08-27) Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl; Cartmill, TessThis 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.
- ItemOpen AccessScholarly Communication at the University of Botswana: Case Study Report(2014-05) Trotter, Henry; Kell, Catherine; Willmers, Michelle; Gray, Eve; Totolo, Angelina; King, ThomasThis 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.
- ItemOpen AccessScholarly Communication at the University of Cape Town: Case Study Report(2014-05) Trotter, Henry; Kell, Catherine; Willmers, Michelle; Gray, Eve; King, ThomasThis 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.
- ItemOpen AccessScholarly Communication at the University of Mauritius: Case Study Report(2014-05) Trotter, Henry; Kell, Catherine; Willmers, Michelle; Gray, Eve; Beeharry, Girish Kumar; King, ThomasThis 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.
- ItemOpen AccessScholarly Communication at the University of Namibia: Case Study Report(2014-05) Trotter, Henry; Kell, Catherine; Willmers, Michelle; Gray, Eve; Kingo Mchombu; King, ThomasThis 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.
- ItemOpen AccessSeeking Impact and Visibility: Scholarly Communication in Southern Africa(2014-05) Trotter, Henry; Kell, Catherine; Willmers, Michelle; Gray, Eve; King, ThomasThe 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.
- ItemOpen AccessWhy Southern African Scholars Conduct Research: A Comparative Study of Values(2014-08-14) Trotter, HenryWhy do scholars conduct and disseminate research? This is a foundational question in academia, though one that is usually taken for granted in the literature on scholarly values and attitudes. Most studies – which typically focus on scholars from the global North – tend to assess academics’ feelings about research-related issues such as academic peer review, dissemination outlets for scholarly outputs, perceptions of journal quality, digital and Web 2.0 technologies, open access publishing and academic identity. They shed light on scholars’ attitudes toward elements of their research and communication practices, but they do not get at the more basic question of why scholars conduct research in the first place. In Africa, where most universities have only recently incorporated a research mission into what have long been teaching-oriented institutions, the question of why scholars conduct research is a pertinent one, and the answers cannot be assumed. Moreover, the purpose of university research on the continent is shaped by more than just the desires of the scholars themselves, but by those of their national governments, their institutions’ managers, students, overseas funders, local NGOs and community stakeholders. Thus all of these competing interests impact how scholars view the research enterprise. As part of its work of mapping scholarly communication activity systems in Southern Africa, the Scholarly Communication in Africa Programme (SCAP) tried to answer this foundational question by examining regional scholars’ motivations for conducting and disseminating research. Between 2010 and 2013, it engaged with four different faculties in four different universities (the Universities of Botswana, Cape Town, Mauritius and Namibia) so that the regions’ scholarly research and communication activities would be assessed with an eye for how disciplinary, institutional and national factors impacted scholars’ research values. In this paper, we explore the scholarly values motivating the production and dissemination of research in these four Southern African universities.