An Enabling Strategy For Free and Open Educational Resources at the University of the Witwatersrand

This strategy attempts to create an enabling environment for Wits academics, students and other staff to participate in the use, adaptation, creation, and sharing of educational and research resources as free and open educational resources (FOER). This new approach to old academic traditions is a global trend, led by some of the top institutions in the world, and as a world class, research-intensive university, Wits should keep abreast of these developments. The strategy provides examples of content types and recommends appropriate Creative Commons licenses for use when choosing to create FOER. In addition, the strategy provides for an open access institutional repository (IR) for research output, and provides means for researchers to add their papers to the IR. It also provides for the establishment and maintenance of a repository for academic presentations. The strategy grants explicit permission for Wits staff to participation in the creation of FOER, including courseware, and the deposit of research articles in an IR. It also establishes mechanisms to support and raise awareness of FOER and IR work at Wits. This will increase exposure of Wits researchers to other researchers around the world and to the media, contribute to increased citations, and enhance the already strong reputation that Wits enjoys internationally. It will also provide for a long-term archive for our research output. A number of projects and programmes of action will be used to implement this strategy.