Browsing by Subject "opening scholarship"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Open Access
    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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    Open Access
    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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    Open Access
    Case study: Interactive spreadsheets
    (2008-11-30) Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl
    This paper describes how the Department of Statistics at the University of Cape Town (UCT) currently uses interactive spreadsheets to assist students in analysing and preparing summaries of data. It explores some of the potential benefits of making such resources more freely available to others as Open Educational Resources (OER), and outlines the key issues which would need to be resolved in order to do so. To this end, this paper discusses the pedagogical needs that led to the lecturers using the spreadsheet program MSExcel to encourage students to engage actively with statistical processes. It describes how the lecturers and students use these interactive spreadsheets and examines how well these interactive spreadsheets seemed to have worked, so that others who may have similar pedagogical needs can be alerted to the advantages and disadvantages of using this type of technology. In addition, this paper explores the possibility of these interactive spreadsheets being offered as OER first to other departments at UCT and then to a broader community.
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    Open Access
    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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    Open Access
    Case study: The Health and Human Rights Programme
    (2009-02-28) Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl
    This case study provides an overview of the Health and Human Rights Project (HHRP), which was established and run collaboratively by the University of Cape Town’s School of Public Health and Family Medicine and a human rights NGO, the Trauma Centre for Survivors of Violence and Torture from 1997 to 1999, to devise a submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on health-related issues. The HHRP subsequently assisted the organisation of the commission’s health-sector hearings. This collaboration resulted in the publication of a book based on the submissions and stimulated the inclusion of human rights in undergraduate teaching. After the project closed in 1999, the focus of the department shifted to research on human rights issues and the training of university educators of health professionals. The HHRP provided the basis for the development of the Health and Human Rights Division within the School of Public Health and Family Medicine.
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    Open Access
    National environmental scan of South African scholarly publishing
    (2009-04-30) Gray, Eve
    Undertaken as part of the OpeningScholarship project at the University of Cape Town (UCT), this position paper reviews the national environment for the use of ICTs for research dissemination and publication in the South African higher education sector. Taking UCT as a case study, the paper reviews the use of ICTs for scholarly communications for research, teaching and learning, and community engagement in the university against the background of international developments and best practice.