The OER UCT blog has been quiet hasn’t it? In fact it fell off the list of top blogs here at UCT. Although the blog has been quiet, OER activities on campus and abroad have continued and we are excited as ever about openness on campus.
October brought the return of Open Access Week as institutions all around the world celebrated the changing nature of scholarly activities. The internet has enabled us to collaborate and share our research and teaching practices with the global community quickly and easily. Open Access Week is a chance for researchers and scholars to share their experiences with Open Access, explore the benefits of being an open scholar, share what they’ve learned from other colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research.
“Open Access” to information – the free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and re-use those results as you need – has the power to transform the way research and scientific inquiry are conducted. It has direct and widespread implications for academia, medicine, science, industry, and for society as a whole.
UCT joined the international research community in celebrating Open Access week arranging a series of workshops to raise awareness of openness on campus. Janine Dunlop spoke about the launch of the DigiTool online platform for sharing media collections which is coming to UCT. Local social media guru Dave Duarte gave a talk about the Open Access movement and why strategically UCT should be embracing this new philosophy. We also had a short workshop where participants could learn about Creative Commons licences, DigiTool and UCT OpenContent.
