Adoption and Diffusion of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Education : A Meta-Analysis of 25 OER-Projects

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Author : Daniel Otto

The concept of open educational resources (OER) is becoming increasingly prominent in education. However, research circles around defining OER, content and forms of OER, technological features of OER, and the importance of the issue or lack thereof.

Vital aspects such as the notion of the adoption of OER by educational practitioners remain underdeveloped. In order to shed light on the question of how to adopt OER in education, the article presents findings of a meta-study which critically reviewed 25 state-funded OER projects located in Germany. All projects aimed to anchor OER across educational areas, such as school, higher, continuing, and vocational education.

The meta-analysis disclosed a mixed bag of results. Although interest and willingness to deal with OER can be confirmed, reservation is rooted in the complexity of the topic and especially the legal concerns. However, the findings demonstrate that OER can by no means be ignored in the context of teaching and learning in a digital world.

Integrating OER as an aspect of existing educational training should, therefore, be encouraged. Concerning future design recommendations, to conflate OER with other pressing issues and to simultaneously emphasise its added value explicitly is a promising approach.

Moreover, establishing central contact points in educational institutions to accompany and monitor actors on their path to OER appears to be necessary. Notwithstanding the concrete measures, any strategy must operate persistently at both levels, institutional and practical, embracing all relevant stakeholders.

URL : Adoption and Diffusion of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Education : A Meta-Analysis of 25 OER-Projects

DOI : https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v20i5.4472

NGOs’ experiences of navigating the open access landscape

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Author : Nilam McGrath

Grant-led consortia working in the global development sector rely on the input of local and national non-government organisations in low- and middle-income countries.

However, the open access mandates and mechanisms embedded within grants and promoted by funders and publishers are designed almost exclusively with large universities and research institutions in mind.

Experiences from the consortium of health research non-government organisations comprising the Communicable Diseases Health Service Delivery research programme show that implementing open access mandates is not as simple or frictionless as it initially appears.

URL : NGOs’ experiences of navigating the open access landscape

DOI : https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.17359.2

Scholarly Publishing Literacy at the University of South Florida Libraries: From Advising to Active Involvement

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Authors : Chelsea Johnston, Jason Boczar

INTRODUCTION

Successful open access (OA) publishing in libraries requires careful guidance and organization. Support and services offered vary depending on available resources as well as the robustness of a library’s publishing program.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

This article describes the connection between publishing services and scholarly publishing literacy through examples from the University of South Florida (USF) Libraries.

The USF Libraries’ OA publishing program includes journals, textbooks, conference proceedings, and more. Our program balances advocating for open access with advising for actions that serve our partners’ goals. This invites trust, sustainable relationships, and opportunities for new work.

NEXT STEPS

At the USF Libraries, more work must be done to formally assess our efforts. Our program will also explore new ways to support the ethical standards expected of libraries by pursuing stronger policies on diversity and inclusion.

Using everyday work to demonstrate best practices is a manageable way to strengthen scholarly publishing efforts. We hope to continue growing our services, empowering our partners, and exploring our roles as advisors and advocates.

URL : Scholarly Publishing Literacy at the University of South Florida Libraries: From Advising to Active Involvement

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2310

Open Practices and Resources for Collaborative Digital Pathology

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Author : Raphaël Marée

In this paper, we describe open practices and open resources in the field of digital pathology with a specific focus on approaches that ease collaboration in research and education settings.

Our review includes open access journals and open peer review, open-source software (libraries, desktop tools, and web applications), and open access collections. We illustrate applications and discuss current limitations and perspectives.

URL : Open Practices and Resources for Collaborative Digital Pathology

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2019.00255

A history and development of peer-review process

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Author : Jana Siladitya

The paper shows the importance of peer review process in the scholarly communication system and discusses both the closed and the newly emerging open peer review models.

It also examines the peer review system at the scholarly academies or societies in their nomination systems for prizes, rewards, etc. It also discusses the various facets of the newly developed open peer review models now prevalent in various journals.

The paper may help to understand and appreciate the role played by peer review in the scholarly communication system and the efforts being made to make it more transparent.

URI : http://hdl.handle.net/10760/39332

Les humanités numériques n’existent pas

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Auteur/Author : Éric Guichard

Nous commençons par exposer la complexité de la culture numérique et de la culture de l’écrit, qui définit le cadre de la première. Nous montrons que cette culture nous fait osciller entre bricolage et réflexivité (comme par le passé) et nous invite à expliciter le lien entre pensée et calcul.

Nous précisons les termes d’une « culture numérique minimale », que des pans de l’Université refusent d’intégrer alors qu’elle est souvent maîtrisée par les partisans des « humanités numériques ».

Pour autant, le mouvement des « humanités numériques », sauf à le considérer comme un syndicat de lettrés mal accueillis par l’Université, pose problème : il se veut fédérateur alors que les pratiques numériques savantes restent disciplinaires ; les définitions des disciplines données par ses hérauts sont approximatives et sou-vent erronées ; et les transformations induites par l’informatique et l’écriture numérique touchent toutes les disciplines.

Ce qui conduit des informaticiens à investir le champ des sciences sociales sans se revendiquer des « humanités numériques » et à soulever des questions humanistes pertinentes. Enfin, les initiatives des Gafam et de l’Union Européenne, relayées par les agences de financement de la recherche, favorisent une industrialisation des sciences de la culture et une caporalisation des sciences humaines et sociales que cachent mal les écritures de l’histoire des « humanités numériques ».

Restent des enjeux authentiquement humanistes, scientifiquement et politiquement bien plus stimulants que la quête d’une définition ou d’une institutionnalisation des « humanités numériques ».

URL : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02403315

Completeness of reporting in abstracts of randomized controlled trials in subscription and open access journals: cross-sectional study

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Authors : Iva Jerčić Martinić-Cezar, Ana Marušić

Background

Open access (OA) journals are becoming a publication standard for health research, but it is not clear how they differ from traditional subscription journals in the quality of research reporting.

We assessed the completeness of results reporting in abstracts of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in these journals.

Methods

We used the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials Checklist for Abstracts (CONSORT-A) to assess the completeness of reporting in abstracts of parallel-design RCTs published in subscription journals (n = 149; New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Annals of Internal Medicine, and Lancet) and OA journals (n = 119; BioMedCentral series, PLoS journals) in 2016 and 2017.

Results

Abstracts in subscription journals completely reported 79% (95% confidence interval [CI], 77–81%) of 16 CONSORT-A items, compared with 65% (95% CI, 63–67%) of these items in abstracts from OA journals (P < 0.001, chi-square test). The median number of completely reported CONSORT-A items was 13 (95% CI, 12–13) in subscription journal articles and 11 (95% CI, 10–11) in OA journal articles.

Subscription journal articles had significantly more complete reporting than OA journal articles for nine CONSORT-A items and did not differ in reporting for items trial design, outcome, randomization, blinding (masking), recruitment, and conclusions. OA journals were better than subscription journals in reporting randomized study design in the title.

Conclusion

Abstracts of randomized controlled trials published in subscription medical journals have greater completeness of reporting than abstracts published in OA journals.

OA journals should take appropriate measures to ensure that published articles contain adequate detail to facilitate understanding and quality appraisal of research reports about RCTs.

URL : Completeness of reporting in abstracts of randomized controlled trials in subscription and open access journals: cross-sectional study

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-019-3781-x