Open education initiatives

The Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) enjoys a long-standing history of more than a decade in hosting large-scale research and implementation initiatives addressing open approaches to knowledge dissemination. There has been a focus on open access and open educational resources (OER) but also on open data and open scholarship in general. In conducting this work, the unit has established specialised expertise in designing and conducting open education research, as well as in overseeing and undertaking a wide range of technical implementation initiatives.

The work has been supported by grant funders, such as Canada’s International Development Research Centre and the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and undertaken in collaboration with various parties, such as UCT Libraries, the UCT Intellectual Property Unit, and the Open African Innovation Research (OpenAIR) network. 

CILT plays an ongoing role in advocacy work, engaging institutional managers and policy-makers at UCT and other institutions in higher education as well as in government to promote a deeper understanding of open education policy issues in the South African context.

CILT was the primary intermediary in establishing UCT’s membership of the Open Education Consortium (OEC), a non-profit, global, member-based network of open education institutions and organisations which provides advocacy and leadership around the advancement of open education. The Director of CILT has been a member of the OEC Board from 2017 to 2019. 

The unit hosts visitors, presents seminars and runs workshops on open education, OER, open education practices, open scholarship, as well as copyright and open licensing. It also provides support and advice to individual academics interested in pursuing more open approaches to knowledge-sharing.

CILT has hosted the following open education initiatives:

• Digital Open Textbooks for Development (2018–2020)
• The Vice-Chancellor’s Open Educational Resources Adaptation Project (2013–2016)
• Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (2012–2018)
• OpenUCT Initiative (2011–2014)
• Scholarly Communication in Africa Programme (SCAP) (2010–2014)
• OER UCT (2008–2009)
• Opening Scholarship (2007)

Useful resources

• Creative Commons Licensing and Open Education Resources at UCT
• UCT Creative Commons Open Licensing Support Resources
• UCT Open Content Finder

For more information on CILT open education agenda and support services, contact Dr Glenda Cox.