Browsing by Author "Willmers, Michelle"

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    Open Access
    Alternative metrics in Africa: An Interview with Cameron Neylon
    (2011-12) Willmers, Michelle
    The Scholarly Communication in Africa Programme (SCAP) recently hosted Cameron Neylon on his first visit to South Africa for a week of activity and discussion around alternative metrics and research evaluation. Based at the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council, Neylon is a leading thinker in open science, open access and open data. He is one of the original authors of the Altmetrics manifesto, co-author of the Panton Principles for open data in science, and founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Open Research Computation. He visited UCT in his capacity as a member of the SCAP Advisory Panel and to participate in discussions around defining and measuring the impact of academic research – a core strand central to all SCAP activity. SCAP Research Lead Catherine Kell interviewed him briefly.
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    Altmetrics and Emerging Measures of Impact
    (2012-11) Willmers, Michelle
    The internet has transformed the way we seek and use information, enabling scholars to communicate research findings more rapidly, broadly and effectively than ever before. This evolution has placed scholarly communication at the centre of the research endeavor, raising challenging questions around how to optimally assess the impact of scholarship. This is particularly relevant as expressions of scholarship become more diverse. Traditionally published research articles are today increasingly accompanied by: The sharing of ‘raw science' like datasets, code, methodology and tools. Semantic publishing (or ‘nanopublication') where the citable unit is an argument or passage rather than an entire article. Widespread self-publishing via blogging, comments and annotation. This seminar will provide an introduction to the Altmetrics movement, which aims to expand our current view of what ‘impact' means and better understand what kinds of scholarship are making an impact. Exploring implications for both traditional and non-traditional outputs, it will introduce participants to new tools and approaches for impact analysis, and examine implications for traditional peer review and citation.
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    Building a global teaching profile: OER at UCT
    (2010) Paskevicius, Michael; Willmers, Michelle; Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl
    This resource is a slideshow on open educational resources and how academics can build a global teaching profile online. This slideshare slidecast includes slides and audio syncronized which can be used in part or fully to help academics understand the terrain of OER.
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    Case study: Cell-Life
    (2009-02-28) Willmers, Michelle; Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl
    This case study analyses the ways in which the Cell-Life initiative, a collaboration between the University of Cape Town's departments of Civil and Electrical Engineering and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, utilised technology-based solutions (in particular, cellphone technology) for the life management of patients living with HIV/AIDS.
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    Case study: Feminist Africa
    (2009-02-28) Gray, Eve; Willmers, Michelle
    This case study describes the use of ICTs in the publication of a journal, Feminist Africa, in the context of an academic department at the University of Cape Town. The journal is of particular interest, because, being situated in the African Gender Institute (AGI), it provides insights into challenges and opportunities that are faced when a university unit takes on the role of journal publisher. This case study is enriched by the fact that the journal aims to pull together the research dimensions of the AGI’s interests in the development of curriculum and teaching materials for African feminist studies in the context of its outreach work through the GWS African feminist network. The case study reveals the difficulties faced by volunteer editors in a university departmental context. While the journal received donor support, the main difficulty transpires as the lack of support from the university for publishing activities. This leads to a level of ‘invisibility’ except when it comes to bureaucratic control and to levels of overwork in dedicated staff trying to juggle multiple roles.
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    Case study: Open Data in the governance of South African higher education
    (2014-04-01) van Schalkwyk, Francois; Willmers, Michelle; Czerniewicz, Laura
    The availability and accessibility of open data has the potential to increase transparency and accountability and, in turn, the potential to improve the governance of universities as public institutions. In addition, it is suggested that open data is likely to increase the quality, efficacy and efficiency of research and analysis of the national higher education system by providing a shared empirical base for critical interrogation and reinterpretation. The Centre for Higher Education Transformation (CHET) has developed an online, open data platform providing institutional-level data on South African higher education. However, other than anecdotal feedback, little is known about how the data is being used. Using CHET as a case study, this project studied the use of the CHET open data initiative by university planners as well as by higher education studies researchers. It did so by considering the supply of and demand for open data as well as the roles of intermediaries in the South African higher education governance ecosystem. The study found that (i) CHET’s open data is being used by university planners and higher education studies researchers, albeit infrequently; (ii) the government’s higher education database is a closed and isolated data source in the data ecosystem; (iii) there are concerns at both government and university levels about how data will be used and (mis)interpreted; (iv) open data intermediaries increase the accessibility and utility of data; (v) open data intermediaries provide both supply-side as well as demand- side value; (vi) intermediaries may assume the role of a ‘keystone species’ in a data ecosystem; (vii) intermediaries have the potential to democratise the impacts and use of open data – intermediaries play an important role in curtailing the ‘de-ameliorating’ effects of data-driven disciplinary surveillance.. The report concludes as follows: (i) despite poor data provision by government, the public university governance open data ecosystem has evolved because of the presence of intermediaries in the ecosystem; (ii) by providing a richer information context and/or by making the data interoperable, government could improve the uptake of data by new users and intermediaries, as well as by the existing intermediaries; and (iii) increasing the fluidity of government open data could remove uncertainties around both the degree of access provided by intermediaries and the financial sustainability of the open platforms provided by intermediaries.
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    Case study: South African Review of Sociology
    (2009-02-28) Gray, Eve; Willmers, Michelle
    This case study describes the use of ICTs in the publication of a scholarly society journal, the South African Review of Sociology, in a context in which the Scientific Editor is a senior member of an academic department at the University of Cape Town. It provides insights into the challenges and opportunities that are faced in society publishing in a South African context.and explores the problems faced when editorship of a journal is held by a senior academic who receives little or no institutional support in the publishing endeavour. The case study reveals the difficulties faced by small society publishers struggling to ensure the survival of established journals that represent significant knowledge capital, but which are undermined by an environment characterised by a lack of national and institutional support for scholarly publishing; rapid technological development; shrinking library budgets and increasing international competition.
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    Case study: UCT Press
    (2009-07-31) Gray, Eve; Willmers, Michelle
    The University of Cape Town (UCT) Press was established in 1994. The modern-day university press presents an interesting mix of challenges and conflicting agendas. The OpeningScholarship project chose UCT Press as a subject for case study in the hope that an examination of the operations and dynamics of such a press would throw some light on the tensions inherent in the academic publishing exercise. UCT Press is unique among South African university presses in that it is owned by a private company – namely, Juta and Company Ltd. Private ownership of a university press which enjoys a close, synergistic relationship with its parent institution is not unique in the global academic context, but it does present interesting challenges in terms of commercial and non-commercial entities working side by side, often with very different markers of success.
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    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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    Collaborative open textbook creation: Perspectives on student involvement
    (Digital Open Textbooks for Development, 2022-10) Cox, Glenda; Willmers, Michelle; Masuku, Bianca
    This is a presentation given by members of the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) initiative at the Open Education Conference in October 2022.
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    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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    Decolonizing Learning in the Global South: Opportunities and Challenges in Higher Education
    (Digital Open Textbooks for Development, 2022-10) Cox, Glenda; Masuku, Bianca; Willmers, Michelle
    A panel presentation for the Open Education Conference 2022 by the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) team at UCT with collaborators from Yusuf Maitama Sule University in Kano, Nigeria and Chinoyi University of Technology in Zimbabwe.
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    Digital Open Textbooks for Development Apereo19
    (Digital Open Textbooks for Development, 2019-04) Willmers, Michelle
    Presentation by Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) Publishing and Implementation Manager, Michelle Willmers, to the Apereo Africa Conference 2019, University of Cape Town.
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    Digital Open Textbooks for Development OER19
    (2019-04) Cox, Glenda; Willmers, Michelle; Masuku, Bianca
    This presentation reports on preliminary findings from DOT4D research, providing an overview of the project’s working conceptual framework which draws upon Nancy Fraser’s theorising on social justice (2005) and Margaret Archer’s (2000) conceptualisation of agency. It will also provide early insights gained from the project’s grants initiative and advocacy interactions, addressing the question of what interventions are required within the South African higher education system to promote open textbook production that supports curriculum transformation, intersectionality, affordable access and long-term sustainability.
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    Digital Open Textbooks for Development: Broadening access and supporting curriculum transformation at UCT
    (Digital Open Textbooks for Development, 2018-07) Cox, Glenda; Willmers, Michelle
    A presentation by Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) Principal Investigator, Glenda Cox, and Publishing and Implementation Manager, Michelle Willmers, at the UCT Teaching and Learning Conference in July 2018.
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    Digital Open Textbooks for Development: Collaborative, sustainable models for transformation and student involvement
    (Digital Open Textbooks for Development, 2022-06) Cox, Glenda; Willmers, Michelle
    This is a panel presentation from the Siyaphumelela Conference that took place in June 2022 titled “All About OER Textbooks”
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    Digital Open Textbooks for Development: Collaborative, sustainable models for transformation and student involvement
    (Digital Open Textbooks for Development, 2022-06) Cox, Glenda; Willmers, Michelle
    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.
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    Digital Open Textbooks for Development: Research and implementation to advance equitable access at UCT
    (2018-11-07) Cox, Glenda; Willmers, Michelle
    Open access enables a freer exchange of how learning and teaching materials are developed and shared. Open access is about opening up access not only culturally and politically, but also to differently abled students. It has huge potential for saving costs and for transforming the curriculum.
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    Digital open textbooks for social justice: Collaboration and student co-creation
    (Digital Open Textbooks for Development, 2023-03) Cox, Glenda; Masuku, Bianca; Willmers, Michelle
    This is a presentation by members of the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) initiative, Dr Glenda Cox, Bianca Masuku and Michelle Willmers, at the UCT Open Textbook Conversation event as part of Open Education Week in March 2023.
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    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.