“An area of HE activity that is highly inequitable is the provision of expensive fully copyrighted print-based textbooks” (Cox, Masuku and Willmers: 2020).
Open educational resources (OER) have gained traction in many parts of the world, through their expression as open textbooks. South Africa is no exception when it comes to proclaiming their commitment to such open practice. The Open Learning Policy Framework for South African Post-School Education and Training commits higher education (HE) to such pursuits (Department: Higher Education and Training, 2017). As well as this national commitment, literature clearly demonstrates that open textbooks have the potential to disrupt the trajectory of exclusion in South African Higher Education by addressing issues of cost.
Open textbooks are also seen as a solution to variable quality of educational resources as well as addressing social injustice through increased access to learning materials (Cox et al., 2020; Hodgkinson-Williams & Arinto, 2017). The Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) Project found that open textbooks “addressed economic, cultural, and political in justices faced by their students, issues not considered by traditional textbooks” (OER Africa, 2024). However, not much is known about the use of open textbooks in South African Higher education, especially in Accounting education and more specifically taxation education. Taxation is the focus of this study because of its content uniqueness to specific countries based on regional tax law.
In addition to the geographical uniqueness annual amendments to Tax Acts necessitate the continual updating of some content. Most universities in South Africa prescribe textbooks for undergraduate taxation modules (Department: Higher Education and Training, 2020). For all the reasons provided above and others reported in literature on open textbooks, this study aims to explore the use of open textbooks in Taxation. The challenge is that for the use of a taxation open textbooks to be sustainable, someone needs to take responsibility for updating for annual changes. Currently this function is performed by various commercial publishers who pay authors to do this.
The paper will report on a study focused on exploring the use of open textbooks in tax education. The paper will first report on a scoping review on the use of open textbooks in business education globally. The overarching question was: How are open textbooks used in business education? Following the scoping review, the study surveyed undergraduate taxation lecturers at South African universities to garner their perceptions regarding the use of open textbooks with the intention of introducing the use of open textbooks in tax education. The paper will report on the findings of this survey and more specifically identifying the challenges that need to be mitigated so that open textbooks or a sustainable alternative that speaks to increased access to learning materials and lower costs, can be introduced in the South African taxation education arena.
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[Session 10A]: Practice and Policy in OEReferencesCox, G., Masuku, B., & Willmers, M. (2020). Open textbooks and social justice: Open educational practices to address economic, cultural and political injustice at the University of Cape Town. Department: Higher Education and Training. (2017). Open Learning Policy Framework for Post-School Education and Training. (). https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201704/40772gon335.pdf Department: Higher education and Training. (2020). Students' Access to and Use of Learning Materials. Survey Report 2020. (). Pretoria: Department of Higher Education and Training. https://www.usaf.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/DHET_SAULM-Report-2020.pdf Hodgkinson-Williams, C., & Arinto, P. (2017). Adoption and impact of OER in the Global South. African Minds. OER Africa. (2024). What are the benefits of open textbooks in the Global South? OER Africa. Retrieved 19 May 2024, from https://www.oerafrica.org/content/what-are-benefits-open-textbooks-global-south
Author KeywordsOpen Textbooks, OER, Accounting (Taxation)Education, Higher Education
