SPECIFIC AIMS OF THE CHAIR
- Collaboratively develop a map of the landscape of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Multimodal Learning initiatives in South Africa, and indicate how this corresponds to international initiatives;
- Promote a national OER Network in collaboration with local organisations and universities with clear links to the international OER community;
- Develop and support a network of Multimodal Learning researchers for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region;
- Train lecturers on OER and Multimodal Learning in the SADC countries who will become empowered and capable of instructing others online;
- Produce and disseminate research on OER and Multimodal Learning; and
- Provide consultancy and advisory services.
IDENTIFIED RESEARCH THEMES OF THE CHAIR
- Promote research on the development, as well as the use and affordances of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Self-Directed Multimodal Learning through the adaptation of materials for use in both formal and informal learning contexts;
- Build, maintain and extend an OER community in South Africa and link it with other OER initiatives to support the international OER network;
- Build and expand capacities in the region notably by training OER and Self-Directed Multimodal Learning cadres in the SADC countries to become empowered and capable of instructing others online;
- Produce and disseminate research on OER and Self-Directed Multimodal Learning and related issues such as access and multiliteracies; and
- Cooperate closely with UNESCO and existing UNESCO Chairs on relevant programmes and activities;
- Strengthening inter-university cooperation and international partnerships.
PROJECTS
Ted-SOEP: Transforming STEM teacher education in South Africa through Self-Directed Open Educational Practices (Feb 2025 – Jan 2027). Funded by the European Union. NWU is the coordinator of the project.
- Empowering Sustainable Development through Game-Based Learning: A Case Study Using the OER Game 'Prosper' in the GREAT Project (2024 – 2026) as a case study of GREAT: Games Realising Effective & Affective Transformation (2023 – 2026). Funded by the European Union. NWU is an associate partner.
- Establishing open educational practices to foster self-directed learning (2024 – 2028). Funded by the Research Unit Self-Directed Learning.
- A multimodal heuristic to develop and monitor in-service teachers’ self-directed professional competence in selected UDL programmes (2024 – 2028). Funded by the Research Unit Self-Directed Learning.
- Self-directed learning development through a Massive Open Online Course for higher education: Implications and recommendations (2023 – 2024). Funded by the Commonwealth of Learning.
Open educational practices for self-directed learning (2021 - 2023)
- Multimodal multiliteracies in support of self-directed learning (2018-2020). Funded by the National Research Foundation.
- Trilingual glossary for multimodal learning: English-Setswana-Afrikaans (2018-2019). Funded by the PUK-Kanselierstrust.
- Exploring situated and culturally-appropriate self-directed multimodal learning (2019).
- Mapping of multimodal self-directed learning and OER at higher educational institutions in Southern Africa (2019-2021).