InfoDoc MicroVeille – Page 285 – Veille dédiée aux Sciences de l'Information et des Bibliothèques // Collecting and Sharing research papers in Library and Information science ISSN 2429-3938

Willingness to Engage in Open Educational Practices among Academics in Rwandan Public Higher Education and Responsive Actions

Posted on 21 novembre 2017 by Hans Dillaerts

Author : Bernard Nkuyubwatsi

Academics’ engagement in Open Educational Practices (OEPs) is critical for opening up higher education. It is in this perspective that the willingness to engage in such practices among academics in Rwandan public higher education was investigated with an agenda to trigger responsive actions.

Via convenience/availability and volunteer sampling, 170 academics were invited to participate in the study and 85 of them completed and returned an email self-completion questionnaire. The results revealed that the majority of participants were willing to contribute to Open Educational Resources (OER) by publishing their work under an open licence.

Participants were also willing to engage in diverse OEPs including 1) finding OER and evaluating their quality, 2) participating in and evaluating open courses, 3) aggregating OER, 4) adapting OER and open courses, and 5) assessing accomplishment from open learning based on OER and open courses for credit.

National and institutional policies were found to be the potentially most important enablers of academics’ engagement in those practices. In the light of the findings, the researcher argues that the inclusion of more learners in the higher education system would make academics more impactful than simply the citation of their work, a stance that was reflected in subsequent responsive actions.

This study may benefit institutions and policy makers who are interested in opening up higher education, especially the University of Rwanda that is expected to contribute significantly to the transformation of the country into a middle-income, knowledge-based society.

URL : Willingness to Engage in Open Educational Practices among Academics in Rwandan Public Higher Education and Responsive Actions

Alternative location : http://www.jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/223

Turkish Teachers’ Awareness and Perceptions of Open Educational Resources

Posted on 21 novembre 2017 by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Ozgur Ozdemir, Curtis Bonk

The purpose of this study is to explore K-12 teachers’ awareness of open educational resources (OER) as well as their perceptions of its potential opportunities and challenges for teaching practices.

Data were gathered from 99 online survey respondents and six interviewees in this study. Findings showed that teachers are aware of OER to a certain degree; however, a misunderstanding exists between digital educational content on the Internet and openly licensed content compatible with the OER definition.

Lack of knowledge regarding licensing mechanisms of OER is a major issue among teachers. Whereas, teacher perceptions that the use of OER leads to the improvement in student performance is highly beneficial, the time required to search, select, edit, and apply OER was discovered as the greatest challenge to OER utilization.

Results of this study can inform potential OER movement contributors, such as teacher professional development specialists, developers of OER repositories, and academics interested in OER.

URL : Turkish Teachers’ Awareness and Perceptions of Open Educational Resources

Alternative location : http://www.jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/224

A review of data sharing statements in observational studies published in the BMJ: A cross-sectional study

Posted on 16 novembre 2017 by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Laura McDonald, Anna Schultze, Alex Simpson, Sophie Graham, Radek Wasiak, Sreeram V. Ramagopalan

In order to understand the current state of data sharing in observational research studies, we reviewed data sharing statements of observational studies published in a general medical journal, the British Medical Journal.

We found that the majority (63%) of observational studies published between 2015 and 2017 included a statement that implied that data used in the study could not be shared. If the findings of our exploratory study are confirmed, room for improvement in the sharing of real-world or observational research data exists.

URL : A review of data sharing statements in observational studies published in the BMJ: A cross-sectional study

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.12673.2

Green on What Side of the Fence? Librarian Perceptions of Accepted Author Manuscripts

Posted on 16 novembre 2017 by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Jimmy Ghaphery, Sam Byrd, Hillary Miller

INTRODUCTION

There is a growing body of accepted author manuscripts (AAMs) in national, professional, and institutional repositories. This study seeks to explore librarian attitudes about AAMs and in what contexts they should be recommended.

Particular attention is paid to differences between the attitudes of librarians whose primary job responsibilities are within the field of scholarly communications as opposed to the rest of the profession.

METHODS

An Internet survey was sent to nine different professional listservs, asking for voluntary anonymous participation.

RESULTS

This study finds that AAMs are considered an acceptable source by many librarians, with scholarly communications librarians more willing to recommend AAMs in higher-stakes contexts such as health care and dissertation research.

DISCUSSION

Librarian AAM attitudes are discussed, with suggestions for future research and implications for librarians.

URL : Green on What Side of the Fence? Librarian Perceptions of Accepted Author Manuscripts

DOI : http://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2204

Digitising Cultural Complexity: Representing Rich Cultural Data in a Big Data environment

Posted on 16 novembre 2017 by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Jennifer Edmond, Georgina Nugent Folan

One of the major terminological forces driving ICT integration in research today is that of « big data. » While the phrase sounds inclusive and integrative, « big data » approaches are highly selective, excluding input that cannot be effectively structured, represented, or digitised.

Data of this complex sort is precisely the kind that human activity produces, but the technological imperative to enhance signal through the reduction of noise does not accommodate this richness.

Data and the computational approaches that facilitate “big data” have acquired a perceived objectivity that belies their curated, malleable, reactive, and performative nature. In an input environment where anything can “be data” once it is entered into the system as “data,” data cleaning and processing, together with the metadata and information architectures that structure and facilitate our cultural archives acquire a capacity to delimit what data are.

This engenders a process of simplification that has major implications for the potential for future innovation within research environments that depend on rich material yet are increasingly mediated by digital technologies.

This paper presents the preliminary findings of the European-funded KPLEX (Knowledge Complexity) project which investigates the delimiting effect digital mediation and datafication has on rich, complex cultural data.

The paper presents a systematic review of existing implicit definitions of data, elaborating on the implications of these definitions and highlighting the ways in which metadata and computational technologies can restrict the interpretative potential of data.

It sheds light on the gap between analogue or augmented digital practices and fully computational ones, and the strategies researchers have developed to deal with this gap.

The paper proposes a reconceptualisation of data as it is functionally employed within digitally-mediated research so as to incorporate and acknowledge the richness and complexity of our source materials.

URL : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01629459

Potentiel scientifique et technique d’un laboratoire : Favoriser l’innovation, protéger les savoirs : un équilibre délicat

Posted on 14 novembre 2017 by Hans Dillaerts

Auteur/Author : Jean-Pierre Damiano

Le potentiel scientifique et technique d’un laboratoire de recherche confère un caractère stratégique à la protection de son système d’information. Les atteintes peuvent tout aussi bien toucher ses données scientifiques ou technologiques que ses outils ou ses moyens scientifiques, techniques ou humains.

Le laboratoire vit souvent dans un environnement complexe par la diversité de ses tutelles et la diversification de ses ressources, tout en étant confronté à une compétition scientifique croissante. Face aux risques encourus, il convient d’identifier ce qui doit être protégé, de quantifier l’enjeu correspondant, de formuler des objectifs de sécurité et de mettre en œuvre les parades adaptées au niveau de sécurité retenu.

Un tel plan d’actions conduit à des règles. Pour qu’elles soient acceptées, elles ne doivent pas entraver la recherche, la compétitivité, les échanges et les coopérations nationales et internationales, la diffusion à travers les brevets, les publications et les congrès, etc. C’est un équilibre délicat à trouver et à maintenir.

URL : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01633310