Openness and lecturing

All lecturers walk into a class setup with the same purpose: we want to convey information and a way of taught to our students.  This way of taught doesn’t necessary means that we want all the students to copy or mimic our ideas.  We want our students to be able to think academically and be able to defend their ideas on an academic level.

Our focus during lecturing is the transfer of knowledge.  This process of transferring knowledge enables the student to become a possible master in his/her field.  To transfer knowledge, we need a tool.  PowerPoint could be such a tool.  While compiling PowerPoint slides, we don’t necessary think of ownership, we focus on the transfer of knowledge.  Some of us don’t even know who owns our PowerPoint slides.  It was interesting to see the different responses in our PBL group when we started talking about ownership.  For some academics it was strange to hear that I don’t have ownership of my PowerPoint slides.  My academic institution reserves the right on all my material developed to teach my modules.  They supply me with the necessary course material and my slides are just an interpretation of their material to obtain my goal of transferring knowledge to the student.

We, as academics, are supposed to share our ideas on an academic level.  Unfortunately, we are sometimes hesitant to share ideas.  The main reason for this, is possibly the fear of losing our ideas to other academics.  We can’t claim ideas to be our ideas, until we’ve published them in either an academic journal or in a printed version.  But on the same level, we use other academics published ideas in our PowerPoint slides without the proper referencing.  Is that not a form of stealing ideas?


For me personally, the best way is to be open with my ideas but still closed.  I know it sounds impossible, but it is possible.  Only make that that you’re willing to share, open.  Keep the rest of your ideas closed (safe) until you have published them.  I don’t mind sharing ideas, PowerPoint slides or any lecturing tools with my fellow lecturers from other campuses.  I do keep my research or developing ideas more closed until I can share them on a safe way and get the acknowledgement for them that is deserved.  Open, but closed…

Comments

  1. Unknown9 November 2017 at 14:21

    Hi, thanks for sharing this. It sounds like a very clever balance.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lars Harrysson12 November 2017 at 23:52

    Thanks Sanet. It is a battle to accept the existence a non-competitive academic environment, because it does not really exist, yet. By sharing your slides with not only your students, but a broader public (for example by allowing your google slide show to be visible to all), you are a part of an opening up process. This will not breach or violate any copyright boundaries as you attribute the slide show correctly to yourself as a member of your faculty.
    Still, your argument really hits a nerve, namely that there seem to be a conflict of interest when, I am reading between the lines here, you are not only forced to produce the teaching and material connected to it, but also research output from it. In such a context, if true, it becomes harder to release things in an early stage, despite the fact that a lot of research is better when fulfilled in collaboration with others. Perhaps we accept the wrong things here, perhaps it is the openness argument that should be at the forefront, thus making us enter the battlefield of changing old-fashioned academic thought and, as a positive consequence views on learning.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Betty from Betty's Bay13 November 2017 at 02:22

    Hi Sanet

    Great reading your blog, I also lecture at VC Cape Town. I really struggled with this concept of openness as we are in this environment were openness is not really encouraged, well they say it is but you have to ask your self how open VC is. I totally understand that they are a business, but it is difficult for us to be open if we are not encouraged to be open.

    I also share freely with students and other lecturers, but will not send to someone outside the VC environment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sanet du Plessis13 November 2017 at 03:19

      I agree Doulette. We're open in the VC circle, but closed to the outside.

      Delete
    2. Lars Harrysson14 November 2017 at 06:33

      Do you feel as if that circle is big enough? It sounds like "no", but sometimes the smaller context is very productive. What do you expect to find outside the circle?

      Delete
    3. Sanet du Plessis14 November 2017 at 07:41

      No Lars, it is definitely not big enough. Our small circle only reaches 6 campuses. I'm trying to make it one of my goals to be more open and share more ideas. I've already decided that my students are going to all be more digitally engaged in the courses I'm lecturing. I also think that my blogging is not going to stop once we're done with ONL172!

      Delete
    4. Lars Harrysson16 November 2017 at 01:33

      I am very happy to read that? I will follow your blog if invited.

      Delete
  4. Victoria21 November 2017 at 04:55

    Some very interesting insights Sanet. I encourage you to continue with your journey into greater academic openness, the gift of openness returns in myriad ways, so many of which I am just learning about now.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unknown22 November 2017 at 11:36

    I agree that the discussions of ownership over materials really questioning my basic view of ownership of materials. I agree with you, I have received and given away power point slides, so I am not sure if I have any that are really my anymore, because I change and develop them with inspiration from others. I one live I would not mind if the university came me materials when I start teaching a new course. But, the payment system (we have in Sweden at least where we receive teaching hours depending on the amount of students in a class), really doesn´t encourage developing new materials and to dry and work with new technologies. Those hours are not considered in the time budget. So, if I want do develop materials because I consider it interesting to do so, I do it in on my spare time. If the university owned it all, I think the interest in doing my interest in developing new material would decrease. Are you encouraged to develop new materials and technologies in courses?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sanet du Plessis23 November 2017 at 01:04

      It is an unfortunate situation, Pia. We are encouraged to make our lectures interesting by using technology. We're not really asked to develop the course/module further. We have to stick within the course design and module outcomes during our lectures. If we choose to use technology, it would be to enhance our instruction time with the student.

      Delete
  6. Unknown4 December 2017 at 08:07

    If we are taught at a young age that ideas are not unique, nor our own, it is very strange to believe that at some magical point of education unique ideas can be had. In that case, losing control of PowerPoint slides as capitalist (or socialist) as it seems makes much more sense. On the other hand, if the effort and the structure is yours (even if adapted) then surely it is uniquely yours, as much as DNA, fingerprints or even your voice is uniquely yours.

    I suppose a conundrum to leave you with :)

    Ryan

    ReplyDelete
  7. Unknown4 December 2017 at 09:07

    Very good blog. I believe in a process of quid pro quo. The problem with that is that once information goes into cyber space it becomes fair game.

    ReplyDelete

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