The Durban University of Technology (DUT) Library together with the E-Learning Project hosted an exciting talk by Professor Alex van der Merwe at the BM Patel Library, ML Sultan Campus, last week.

Prof Merwe spoke about ‘developing DUT’s economics modules as open educational resources’ at the Open Access Week Public Lecture. Open Access refers to free access to research materials for research and publication. Open Access comes in two degrees, one being gratis open access which is free online access and libre open access, which is free online access plus some additional usage rights. With open educational resources expanding rapidly, academics, researchers and students are keen to learn how to make open educational resources work for their respective universities.

Prof van der Merwe,  a senior lecturer from the Department of Public Management, Law and Economics at DUT’s Riverside Campus, spoke about what open access means to the institution and also gave insight into his upcoming book called the Introductory Economics Textbook which will help develop DUT’s economics modules. “The book is the University’s first ever openly licensed prescribed textbook which is in the form of an eBook and can be downloaded in a pdf format,” said Prof van der Merwe.

He also  mentioned that the book has features. Allowing people with new and advanced information to be given the opportunity to replace any outdated information that may exist in the book. “Students as well as educators will also be given permission to photocopy the book. This will help reduce costs that students face when they have to buy expensive books. There are different types of licences and this particular one that I am working on allows for free sharing of the material. So you (DUT students and staff) can copy and redistribute it without any restrictions in place,” he said.

Prof van Der Merwe also reiterated that open licensing does not mean one is signing away the copyright. “People think open licensing means you are signing away your copyright or right to the material. You are not, you still need to be attributed for the work that you do. Just because the book is free,  it does not mean its context has less value. A lot of money and time has been invested into making this project a success,” he said.

– Siphephelo Sibiya

Pictured : Prof Alex van der Merwe at the Open Access Public Lecture.