Ground-breaking Computer Science Resource Wins 2021 UCT Open Textbook Award

University of Cape Town Deputy Vice-Chancellor Lis Lange has announced that the 2021 UCT Open Textbook Award goes to Associate Professor Maria Keet for her groundbreaking resource, An Introduction to Ontology Engineering.

The award, which recognises outstanding open textbooks written by UCT staff and students, is an initiative of the DVC in collaboration with the DOT4D and carries a value of R30 000.

The UCT Open Textbook Award is a symbol of institutional commitment to supporting the production of open educational resources that promote social justice and innovation. In line with this approach, the award recognises open textbook development efforts that address any of the following areas: curriculum transformation, pedagogical innovation, inclusion of students and marginalised voices, disability access, relevance to local context, multilingualism and technical innovation.

Associate Professor Keet, based in the Department of Computer Science at UCT, has produced the first textbook of its kind globally in the ontology engineering subfield. Tailored to the South African student context, it aims to fill the gap in educational material for ontology engineering and addresses issues related to localisation, multilingualism, disability access and technical innovation.
Read more about Associate Professor Keet’s open textbook journey here.