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From the DVC’s Desk

Nominations for the 2022 UCT Open Textbook Award

13 May 2022 | Acting DVC Prof Harsha Kathard

Dear colleagues

The UCT Open Textbook Award aims to incentivise innovation in teaching and learning, recognise efforts of open textbook authors, and promote the creation and reuse of open educational resources.

The award, launched in 2020, was shared between Professor Johan Fagan for his Open Access Atlas of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Operative Surgery and Dr Michael Held for his Orthopaedics for Primary Health Care textbook in its first year. In 2021, the award was won by Associate Professor Maria Keet for her ground-breaking textbook, An Introduction to Ontology Engineering.

Open textbooks are openly available, scaffolded collections of teaching and learning content published under Creative Commons licenses. Like traditional textbooks, open textbooks are written by academics and disciplinary experts, and are subject to usual quality assurance methods. They are increasingly digital, although they can be designed to be or include versions that can be printed on demand and distributed to students who are constrained in terms of internet connectivity and digital access.

The UCT Open Textbook Award has a social justice focus and aims to recognise activities that support the university’s transformation efforts. In line with this approach, the award recognises open textbook development initiatives which address any of the following criteria:

  • curriculum transformation/decolonisation
  • pedagogical innovation
  • inclusion of students and marginalised voices
  • disability access
  • relevance to local context
  • multilingualism
  • technical innovation.

The award may be made to single or multiple authored books. No restriction is placed on disciplinary orientation, language or format in which the book is written. There is also no restriction in terms of the publication date of the work. All nominated works must carry a Creative Commons or similar open license.

The UCT Open Textbook award carries a value of R30 000 and may be shared between more than one recipient.

Nominations are now open for the 2022 UCT Open Textbook Award. Nominations can be submitted either by open textbook authors or by a third party. The deadline for nominations is 15 August 2022.

Sincerely

Professor Harsha Kathard
Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning

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