Open textbooks are freely available, openly licensed educational resources with affordances for dynamic, collaborative approaches to textbook authorship, quality assurance and publishing. In addition to the cost-saving aspect, open textbooks provide a means through which to engage students as co-creators and share teaching and learning materials beyond the institution. The UCT Open Textbook Award is positioned with an explicit social justice agenda and recognises activities that support the university’s transformation efforts. In line with this approach, the award recognises open textbook development efforts which address any of the following criteria:
- Pedagogical innovation
- Curriculum transformation
- Decolonisation
- Inclusion of students as partners
- Profiling/inclusion of marginalised voices
- Relevance to local context
- Multilingualism
- Disability access
- Technical innovation
The winner of the 2024 Open Textbook Award is Disability Studies in Inclusive Education, edited by Judith McKenzie, Kofi Nseibo, Chantal Samuels and Amani Karisa from the Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Tailored to the local context, this textbook focuses on the needs of learners with disabilities in a South African context and provides a guide to educate and upskill teachers with expert recommendations and practical solutions on how to include learners with disabilities in the classroom.
WATCH: UCT Open Textbook Award video