Reflection on Open access to Literature in Nursing Practice.

Posted on March 25, 2025 by Lorna Luy-Kenny

This post was written by Lorna Luy-Kenny as part of her final assessment for the module EDM122: Digital Literacies and Open Practice.

Introduction

Nursing practice has changed and improved significantly over the years primarily because of individual research and scientific studies (Hedges,2006). The advent of the internet has fundamentally transformed the pace at which clinical knowledge and practices are disseminated on a global scale.

However, despite living in a digital era, many institutions and underdeveloped countries still lack adequate access to even half of the available research and international journals (Georgiou and Dave, 2023). In this essay I will be reflecting the broader implication of open access to literature in nursing Practice.

Description

As a Clinical Practice Facilitator, my responsibilities encompass training and development of staff and students within the operating theatre. Additionally, I also engage in teaching sessions which necessitates preparation and exploration of pertinent evidence-based studies and guidelines. Accessing high-quality research literature is crucial for my role as we oftentimes encounter new procedures, surgical equipment, and clinical challenges requiring current and credible evidence to guide and improve my practice. Due to constant evolving in medical knowledge, nurses need to regularly access literature to stay informed about new advancement in treatments, guidelines, and best practices. (Fossum, Opsal and Ehrenberg, 2022). By having free access to literature, I could provide an in-depth knowledge to help educate nurses and student in the clinical area. However, it is important that I can cite credible sources to support my teaching and training as they are more likely to trust the information and follow the recommendations which are crucial for their clinical training and development.

Challenges of Paywalls in Nursing Research

One significant obstacle I encountered during literature searches has been the prevalence of Paywalls, which limit my ability to access crucial medical research and scientific studies unless I pay subscription fees. I had previously subscribed to these services hoping in obtaining more efficient and timely access to the latest resources vital for my perioperative practice (Quick, 2022). Fortunately, throughout my postgraduate studies, the availability of Library access has provided me with much broader accessibility to journal articles. However, I frequently pondered the sustainability of this access once my affiliation with the institution ends. In my situation, the temporary relief provided by free resources through the university library addressed these challenges, yet this solution is not viable in the long term. This reflection has led me to consider the wider implications of restricted access, especially for professionals in resource-limited countries, where paywalls can significantly worsen existing disparities (Bautista & Aranas, 2023).

Upon learning the concept of Open Access and Paywalls, I experienced a sense of frustration and injustice regarding these limitations. It appeared inequitable that 78% of essential research (Khabsa and Lee Giles, 2014), frequently financed by taxpayer contributions and charity organisations, remained concealed behind Paywalls (Torok, 2024). The absence of universal open access means that obtaining the latest information on advancements in specific fields for research or teaching is contingent upon an institution’s ability to afford increasingly costly journal subscriptions (Lariviere, Haustein, and Mongeon, 2015).

My sense of frustration intensified as I recognised how these barriers not only restricted my own professional development but also hindering the nursing profession to deliver evidence-based care, which can consequently affect nurses’ decision making in clinical (Saunders & Vehviläinen‐Julkunen, 2016)

The Global Knowledge Gap

The restricted access to scientific literature highlights a broader issue within global nursing practice. I felt concern for healthcare professionals and students in under-resourced settings, who might face even greater barriers to accessing research especially Nurses in developing countries, such as the Philippines where I was originally trained. Nurses from underdeveloped countries can face challenges accessing up-to-date research, limiting their ability to contribute to international policy discussions and clinical debates (Langer et al., 2004). Teaching hospitals and institutions in low-income countries can also experience similar constraints. Without OA, nurses in resource-limited settings will struggle to stay informed on advancements, limiting their capacity to enhance global healthcare standards. Perhaps without Paywall causing the barrier, Nurses experiences from underdeveloped countries can be shared contributing more to improving global nurse’s standard of clinical practice (Ramage and Paula, 2023).

Equity in Knowledge Sharing

Research suggests that open access is beneficial only when individuals have the digital literacy skills to navigate and interpret scholarly articles (Tenopir et al., 2020). My role as a Clinical Practice Facilitator (CPF) is to ensure that all staff members, irrespective of their diverse backgrounds, have unrestricted access to vital knowledge and resources necessary to support their practice in a clinical setting. Even if educational resources are OA, clinical staff especially the new joiner and students may struggle to find these educational resources or finding complex medical or clinical information. Failure to obtain this information can have fatal consequences to health. Hence the WHO recommended sharing research data through OA.

To support equitable learning, one of my roles includes mentoring and training practitioners how to search or signposting educational resources available that can help them engaged in high-quality and continuous learning aligning with UNESCO’s advocacy for bridging knowledge gaps, thereby fostering an environment where every individual can thrive.

Advocating for Open Access Initiatives

I felt inspired after learning about initiatives such as Sci-Hub and the Open Access movement, which aim to make research freely available (Elbakyan, cited in Milova, 2017). These feelings motivated me to advocate for equitable access to knowledge by supporting the idea of Creative Common licensing allowing lawful use, reproduction, and distribution of creative work which would make them ideal for my teaching and training purposes (Creative Common, 2001).

This level of accessibility facilitates easy dissemination of nursing literature ensuring that nurses remain informed about current practices, emerging technologies, and advancements in surgical techniques (Ramage & Foran, 2023). Nurses worldwide would also benefit having the freedom to read, download, copy, distribute, print, or link to full-text articles without encountering any financial, legal, or technical barriers to the latest scientific research. (BOAI 2001),

Similarly, Gotzsche (2011) highlighted the challenge of selective research reporting by publisher which impedes healthcare professionals from making optimal treatment decisions. This disproportionately also in large affects teaching hospitals and healthcare institutions especially in developing countries (Quick, 2022).

The Role of Open Access in Clinical Practice

Many scholars and institution believed that Paywall creates global knowledge gap is a transgression of a human rights issue as exclusion from accessing research literature can harms global public health according to Yamey (2013). In situations where there are gaps in evidence, Scantlebury, Booth and Hanley, (2017) highlighted the importance of nursing research to address these deficiencies. However, without OA to scientific literature, (Smith et al.,2017) argue this knowledge gap can suppress future innovation and collaboration among students and professional. OA can level up this gap and facilitate scientific conversation between those in the rich and underdeveloped countries in which clinical evidence or new clinical reports is critiqued and discussed according to Connor and colleagues, (2023). In contrast, limited access can significantly hinder both students and researchers, as it restricts their ability to obtain the necessary resources for conducting primary research or pursuing their educational objectives. Although Publishing companies often justify Paywalls as necessary for sustaining operations, critics argue that this practice prioritises profit over public good (Smith, 2006).

One of the interesting blogs I have read was Jack Andraka’s blog on the necessity of eliminating Paywalls in scientific journals, which he profoundly influenced my perspective on open access. In his discussion, Andraka emphasises the significant progress that could be achieved through broader public access to medical research, illustrating his own experience of navigating the limited availability of non-paywalled articles online to develop an award-winning early detection test for pancreatic cancer (Andraka, 2013).

Challenges to Open Access to Literature

United Kingdom Copyright law is designed to safeguard creative works and prevent unauthorised use by others. However, my task involves sharing or downloading education material for staff training and development purposes. With copyright, I encountered difficulties either the material is not downloadable or are restricted copy making my supporting documents and teaching materials challenging to prepare. Stilglitz (2006) has described this act as a facade for monopoly power, allowing individuals or corporations to exert exclusive control over and restrict access to essential knowledge. The core of the ongoing crisis regarding limited access to research literature is fundamentally rooted in this publishing arrangement (Yamey,2013)

Many scholars such as Alexandra Elbakyan, the founder of Sci-Hub, has also expressed the same view expressing that copyright law obstructs the free exchange of information and dissemination of knowledge on the Internet. Although this idea has roused some dissenting opinions amongst some academics (Belluz, 2016). This issue highlighted the tension between intellectual property rights and the ethical principle of equitable knowledge dissemination.

According to Bhattad and Pacifico (2022) Open access is not only be about bringing down paywalls or building repositories, but also understanding and addressing wider accessibility issues, such as IT skills required to navigate the publishing platforms as well as discoverability of the content. An article may be freely available digitally, but this is no help to someone without online access and technical ability. As a CPF, I always ensure that theatre practitioners and students are not just being provided OA to education and training resources, but they are also supported with the skills to access, understand, apply, and engage with research resources effectively in clinical practice. Bloomberg et al, (2018) argue that without OA, nurses will be stuck in their old practice, which can potentially compromise patient safety. By utilising OA, error can be minimised as nurses are currently updated with scientific and clinical evidence to support their practice.

Another challenges Gotzsche (2011) has pointed out facing evidence-based healthcare is the selective reporting of research findings by the publisher which may impact healthcare professionals from making optimal treatment decisions for their patients.

After viewing the documentary “Paywall: The Business of Scholarship,” I felt a deep sense of injustice regarding the plight of scholars who relinquish their work to publishers without compensation, only for those publishers claim ownership and copyright over the researchers’ contributions (Baverstock, 2019). I can’t help pondering why scholars would send their work to big publishing company like Elsevier and consequently losing their right to their scholarly work. According to Elbakyan, scholars feel pressured to do this, because Elsevier is an owner of so-called “high impact” journals. Researcher who wanted to gain recognition and build a career are left with no choice but hand in their work to big publishing company such as Elsevier (Elbakyan, 2015).

Sustainable Solutions for Knowledge Access

While university and institution library access temporarily alleviate these challenges through paid subscription, long-term solutions are needed. OA resources, licensed under Creative Commons can offer a viable solution. Creative Common platform not only provide Open Access to education but also attributes the work of the scholars.

Advocating Creative commons redistributes power from the hands of the few to the minds of the many and leverage global view of knowledge as a public good and a human right (Creative Common 2001). As a CPF, this can greatly benefit my work as I can actively share free articles and journal on legal platforms with colleagues, without fear of copy right infringement, promoting an equitable environment where not only nurses or other health professionals or students benefiting from this free access to education but also the entire global community aligning with global health and educational agenda of UNESCO.

Conclusion

Reflecting on my experience, I recognise the importance of OA in advancing nursing education and practice. While university access provided a temporary solution, systemic reliance on Paywalls persists. As a CPF, I advocate for OA models that promote equity and inclusivity (Day et al., 2020). With OA, we can create an environment where healthcare professionals can easily access research, ultimately aligning with global health agendas and equitable healthcare practices. Supporting OA not only enhances our nursing practice and educational development of students but also ensures that knowledge remains accessible for the betterment of humanity and society.

I fully support and advocate for creative common licencing and I share the organisation ethos that Knowledge must be accessible, discoverable, and reusable. I will be publishing my essay under

CC BY-NC 4.0

Creative Commons Attribution- 4.0 International@ https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/

This license requires that reusers give credit to the creator. Allowing reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, for noncommercial purposes only.

References:

Andraka, J (2013) ‘Why science journal paywalls have to go’, PLOS Blogs.

Available at: https://yoursay.plos.org.( Accessed: 27 December 2024)

Bautista, M and Aranas, V. (2023) ‘The learning crisis in Philippine education: An overview’, Philippine Institute of Development Studies.

Available at: https://edcom2.gov.ph (Accessed: 20 January 2025)

Baverstock, A. (2019) “5. Who Takes Legal Responsibility for Published Work? Why Both an Understanding and Lived Experience of Copyright Are Becoming Increasingly Important to Writers”. Whose Book Is It Anyway, edited by Janis Jefferies and Sarah Kember, Open Book Publishers.

https://books.openedition.org/obp/8299. (Accessed: 20 December 2024)

Belluz, J. (2016) ‘Meet the woman who’s breaking the law to make science free for all’, Vox, 18 February.

Available at: https://www.vox.com (Accessed: 22 December 2024).

Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities BOA (2003). Max Planck Society.

Available at: https://openaccess.mpg.de/Berlin-Conferences. (Accessed: 30 December 2024)

Blomberg, A.C., Bisholt, B. and Lindwall, L. (2018) ‘Responsibility for patient care in perioperative practice’, Nursing Open, 5(3), pp. 414–421. doi: 10.1002/nop2.153.

Bhattad PB, Pacifico L. (2022) Empowering Patients: Promoting Patient Education and Health Literacy. Cureus. 2022 Jul 27;14(7):27336. doi: 10.7759/cureus.27336. PMID: 36043002; PMCID: PMC9411825.

Connor, L. et al. (2023) ‘Evidence-based practice improves patient outcomes and healthcare system return on investment: Findings from a scoping review’, Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 20, pp. 6–15. doi: 10.1111/wvn.12621.

Creative Common (2001)https://creativecommons.org/ (Accessed 15 December 2024)

Day, S., Rennie, S., Luo, D. et al. (2020) ‘Open to the public: paywalls and the public rationale for open access medical research publishing’, Research Involvement and Engagement, 6, 8. doi: 10.1186/s40900-020-0182-y.

Elbakyan, A. (2015) ‘Case 1:15-cv-04282-RWS Document 50’ (PDF). Archived at: https://torrentfreak.com (Accessed: 15 November 2024).

Fossum M, Opsal A, Ehrenberg A. (2022) Nurses’ sources of information to inform clinical practice: An integrative review to guide evidence-based practice. Worldviews Evid Based Nurs. doi: 10.1111/wvn.12569. Epub 2022 Mar 4. PMID: 35244324; PMCID: PMC

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9790517/#wvn12569-bib-00239790517. (Accessed: 27 December 2024)

Gheorghiu, C. and Dave, M. (2023) ‘Promoting inclusivity in research’, British Dental Journal, 235, pp. 11–12. doi: 10.1038/s41415-023-6073-5.

Gøtzsche, P.C. (2011) ‘Why we need easy access to all data from all clinical trials and how to accomplish it’, Trials, 12, p. 249. doi: 10.1186/1745-6215-12-249.

Hedges, C. (2006) ‘Research, evidence-based practice, and quality improvement’, AACN Advanced Critical Care, 17(4), pp. 457–459.

Khabsa, M. and Lee Giles, C. (2014) ‘The number of scholarly documents on the public’, PLoS One. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093949.

Lariviere, V., Haustein, S. and Mongeon, P. (2015) ‘The oligopoly of academic publishers in the digital era’, PLoS One, 10(6), p. e0127502. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0127502.

Langer, A. et al. (2004) ‘Why is research from developing countries underrepresented in international health literature, and what can be done about it?’, Bulletin of the World Health Organisation, 82(10), pp. 802–803.

National Institute of Health and Care Research, NIHR (2021) Knowledge is Power: Public perspective on Open Access publishing.

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/about-us/who-we-are/policies-and-guidelines/open-access-policy/knowledge-is-power-public-perspectives-on-open-access-publishing#Appendix%20A (Accessed: 15 January 2025)

Piwowar, H. et al. (2018) ‘The state of OA: a large-scale analysis of the prevalence and impact of Open Access articles’, PeerJ, 6, e4375. doi: 10.7717/peerj.4375.

Pogge, T. (2005) ‘Human rights and global health: a research program’, Metaphilosophy, 36(1–2). doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9973.2005.00362.x.

Quick, J. (2022) ‘Evidence-based practice: The cornerstone of clinical decision making’, Journal of Perioperative Practice. doi: 10.1177/17504589221133933.

Ramage, B. and Foran, P. (2023) ‘Evidence-based practice in perioperative nursing: Barriers and facilitators to compliance’, Journal of Perioperative Nursing, 36(2), Article 6. doi: 10.26550/2209-1092.1265.

Saunders, H. and Vehviläinen‐Julkunen, K. (2016) ‘The state of readiness for evidence‐based practice among nurses: an integrative review’, International Journal of Nursing Studies, 56, pp. 128–140. doi: 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.

Scantlebury, A., Booth, A. and Hanley, B. (2017) ‘Experiences, practices and barriers to accessing health information: a qualitative study’, International Journal of Medical Informatics, 103, pp. 103–108.

Smith, E., Haustein, S., Mongeon, P., Shu, F, Ridde V, and Lariviere, V (2017) Knowledge sharing in global health research – the impact, uptake and cost of open access to scholarly literature. Health Res Policy Sys 15, 73.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-017-0235-3d (Accessed: 27 December 2024)

Smith, R. (2006) ‘The highly profitable but unethical business of publishing medical research’, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 99(9), pp. 452–456. doi: 10.1177/014107680609900916.

Stiglitz, J. (2006) “Scrooge and Intellectual Property Rights,” British Medical Journal 333 (2006): pp. 1279–1280.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1761163/ (Accessed: 15 January 2025)

Tenopir, C., Christian, L., Kaufman, J., & Nicholas, D. (2020). Seeking, reading, and use of scholarly articles: An international study of perceptions and behavior. Library & Information Science Research, 42(3), 101034.

Torok, E. (2024) ‘Who loses when scientific research is locked behind paywalls?’, Gates Foundation.

Available at: https://www.gatesfoundation.org (Accessed: January 5 2025)

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https://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read/( Accessed: 29 December 2024)

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Impact of Open Educational Resources in Healthcare Technology Teaching Practices

Posted on March 20, 2025 by Gousalia Sukumar

Impact of Open Educational Resources in Healthcare Technology Teaching Practices by Dr Gousalia Sukumar

This blog post was written Gousalia Sukumar as part of the final assignment for the module EDM 122 at City University of London

Introduction

In this essay, I reflect on the importance of integrating Open Educational Resources (OER) into my teaching practices aligned with the existing digital world. Through critical analysis, I will be exploring how I incorporate OER to adapt my teaching strategies and their impacts on healthcare technology.

Initially, the term “Open” means universal access of inclusive education, and equity for all learners. This term is used for open education defined by the European Commission (EU Science Hub, European Commission, 2016) as “a way of delivering education, frequently using digital technologies by eliminating barriers and making learning reachable, abundant, and adaptable for all …”

I recognised OERs are fundamentally a pool of high-quality teaching and learning resources that can be accessed freely and openly. I have been using a few OERs in my teaching, learning, and research activities in addition to the online resources. However, I was not familiar with the term “OER” until I followed the EMD 122.

My research explores the ambiguity of open/openness and free/non-free controversial aspects of OER. OER classified teaching and learning materials as available for free, open to access: a set of right “5Rs of Openness” Retain, Revise, Remix, Reuse & Redistribute by re-users (Wiley et al., 2014). Certain resources appear to be free under some restrictions (Winn, 2012). I recognise that they require registration, restricting modifications, or imposing commercial purpose bans. Non-free OERs grant free access, and do not allow full permission to modify the content (Creative Commons, 2019).

I acknowledge the most common definition for OERs is any format of teaching, learning, and research resources that exist in the public domain, with an open license providing no-cost access, reuse, adaption, repurpose, and redistribution by others (UNESCO, 2019). These resources have a Creative Common license (CC) that indicates how the resources may be used, reused, adapted, and shared. I was not familiar with Creative Commons before following this course. Understand that this grant free tools and copyright licenses (CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC By-ND, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-SA; CC BY-NC-ND) that assist scholars/designers share their resources with others while keeping some rights (Creative Commons, 2019).

My scholarly reviews highlighted that the OER is a part of an Open Educational Practice (OEP). This explains the ways academics use OER in teaching/learning to create, use, reuse, and share in pedagogical practices (Karunanayaka & Naidu, 2020). Some scholars mainly focus on OER predominantly (Hogan et al., 2015). The idea of OEP has been shifted from resources to practice and applications. Researchers have analysed the effect of academics on knowledge creation and sharing as a form of pedagogical practice (Beetham et al., 2012). When analysing these views, the resource-centric view is highlighted by Wiley (2014) as education would improve by using OER. But Cronin (2017) argued the practice-centric approach which fosters open pedagogies and learner empowerment. Also, OEP includes OER, open pedagogies, and open sharing of teaching practices that promote collaboration and engagement Cronin (2017).

I teach Healthcare/Clinical technology, realised that digital innovation in Health technology evolves continuously but the integration and delivery of this knowledge in education remain limited. It urges a high demand for a workforce with specialised knowledge and skills to meet current expectations and minimise the gap between academia and employment on practical experience (Weeks et al., 2019). I have challenges in providing hands-on experience with expensive wearable devices, work placement opportunities, curriculum design, and policies of institutions etc. I integrate a range of online resources and a few OER in my teaching to better prepare the students for the workforce, however, I was not clear about OER’s features and confusion over copyright policies (Rolfe, 2012). This course enhanced my OER literacies and supported to integrate of more OERs in teaching to reduce the gap. Many scholars showcased OER related to my discipline as open textbooks, Open access journals, streaming videos, and digital learning objects (Bauch et al., 2020); open access clinical resources in the Osmosis library (Hassall & Lewis, 2017); Wikis, e-textbooks and podcast (Purdy, 2015); virtual patients (Lehmann et al., 2015); surgery stimulators (Funke et al., 2012); Massive open online courses-MOOC (Frey et al., 2010) promote the teaching and learning.

Integrating OER effectively replaces traditional online-based teaching to meet all learner’s needs (Parsley et al., 2018). My learners are from different backgrounds and experiencing setbacks such as language barriers, financial, health issues, dyslexia, etc. UNESCO imagined OER as a “Universal educational resource available for the whole of humanity” (UNESCO, 2002, p.28). Adil et al. (2022) categorised the benefits as “stretched access to knowledge; support lifelong learning, pedagogical advantages and boost students’ outcomes”. Moreover, benefits learners by being cost-effective (Parsley et al., 2018), the high-quality resources are accessible (Pande, 2018), openly reachable, customisable, and adaptable (Write et al., 2019), and globally accessible (Tang, 2020).

I become aware, that following e-courses upskill the knowledge in modern healthcare (MH). An e-health online course attaches with Health Education England, MOOC/OER support to connect the existing knowledge by integrating MH into education. Telemedicine and telehealth are offered by the University of Edinburgh to deliver remote healthcare services. I recognise following these courses provide invaluable experience for life-long education.

Active learning

Active learning is more effective than the traditional teacher-centred approach (Zhou et al.,). My usual teaching and learning strategies are primarily student-centred approach (Lee, 2018) and promote learners’ knowledge and interpreting skills (Fuad et al., 2018). OER has been very demanding in higher education (Baker et al., 2019); and enhances learning through practice and implementation (Amornrit et al., 2018). I design my activities tailored to meet all learner’s needs and learning styles (visual, auditory & kinaesthetic) (Kolb, 1984). I integrate Gamification, problem-based learning (PBL), case studies, and digital technology-based activities to improve learners’ outcomes and students’ satisfaction (Garcia et al., 2022). This evidence – high attendance, participation, and outcomes of assessments, validate my outcomes. Regarding pedagogical innovation (Rolfe, 2012), I intend to embed more suitable OER in my active learning strategies to shift from online-based activities such as Wikimedia videos, Pixabay for images, DOAJ for open-access journals; and employment-based group activities/projects and class discussion (Driessen et al., 2020). When I incorporate the OER in active learning, I recognise that three main parts are crucial: awareness of guidelines and selection of OER; assisting learners with resources and network facilities, and delivering content through tasks (Amornrit et al.,2018).

I analysed a few selected active learning strategies as follows:

My favourite strategy is implementing practical-based PBL. Currently, I ask students to interpret patients’ clinical data (Asthma, BP, ECG, Blood Glucose level, etc). This method is very effective for clinical learning as it focuses on patient-based learning (Dring, 2019). I provide clinical practical for hands-on experience & patients’ clinical readings from different backgrounds aligned with NMC guidelines to meet the discrimination code (online digital resources from NHS, BUPA, and Diabetes websites). Integrating OER-based active learning strategies is valuable for “theory to practice” gap implementation (Dewsbury et al., 2022). To implement OERs, I am planning to integrate OER-based activities with Wikimedia Commons for medical tests/clinical videos (eg- Asthma, blood glucose test, urine test- videos on clinical medicine, medical diagnosis); BioiXiv – operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (Cancer biology resources-case studies) that are available under a Creative Commons CC0 license (public domain – anyone can use for any purpose without attribution; enable to distribute, remix, adapt and build) which is valuable for “theory to practice” gap implementation (Hills et al., 2022).

Moreover, I use YouTube videos on clinical/wearable devices and virtual learning to bridge the gap between theoretical and real-world practical skills. Students enjoy these activities by doing and thinking (Patiño et al., 2023) is very effective for clinical learning as it focuses on patient-based learning (Dring, 2019). I use Khan Academy YouTube videos to explain pathophysiology and create activity sheets for group activities. I was not aware that these pages could be accessed via Creative Commons and lack of knowledge of licenses (Ertmer, 1999). I now understand Khan Academy has CC-BY-NC-SA and academics can remix, adapt, and build for non-commercial purposes. Currently, I integrate online-based case study analysis where students write their views, and feedback from peers, and groups in forums. I write my feedback in the forum as well (synchronous and asynchronous). I create a forum in Moodle to share ideas among learners. Now I understand that Moodle is a search engine, this is not open accessed platform. I need to learn how to set up for open forum discussion. Moreover, I expect that it increases my workload to give continuous feedback, and it is time-consuming. In the future, I plan to do more research on open license and free access resources and copyright literacies (Atenas et al., 2015).

I integrate activities with online journals, especially on wearable clinical devices from Google Scholar, and ask learners to download, annotate, and summarise the articles. In addition, I am not aware of the copyright policies of Google Scholar journal articles. I now updated my knowledge as Google Scholar is a search engine to access journals, OERs must be open access and come through Creative Commons with open licenses this organisation allows users to reuse, retain, revise, remix, and redistribute (5Rs) the content. Many of them are behind paywalls or have copyright restrictions. Therefore, not all Google Scholar journals are freely accessible and open-licensed. I should search it through Creative Commons which is freely accessible without a paywall as teachers identified this as a barrier for adaptation Nkuyubwatsi (2017).

When I integrate activities, I apply Roger’s (2003) diffusion of innovation theory which has five key elements knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation. Also, I ask, “Will the innovation be beneficial to me in my particular situation?”. On some occasions, I found this process unproductive ultimately rejecting the innovation (Nkuyubwatsi, 2017) due to some learners’ poor IT skills (Kaosaiyaporn, 2011); lack of motivation & suitable platform (Hu et al., 2015) and internet access (Adil et al., 2022).

Many hardcopy textbooks are replicated by e-textbooks (Gu et al., 2015). I use e-textbooks for making notes, research-based projects, etc. I now admit that not all e-books are OER. Many eBooks are purchased by commercials and copyrights. They cannot be repurposed or adapted the open access e-textbooks through Creative Commons allows to revise, adapt, or adjust (Wiley et al., 2014). I use OER e-textbooks from the library that support to develop of my healthcare learners’ inter-professional experience (free & high-quality materials). Open-access E-textbooks have multiple tools such as highlighter, magnification, copy and paste, download, print, and search within the book to fulfill learners’ differentiated needs. However, students and I struggled to read continuously on the computer screen, and it caused eye strain (Casselden & Pears, 2020). Some OERs are non-editable. Sometimes, I print journal/book pages to minimise this challenge. In the future, I am dedicated to integrating OER repositories like DOAJ, PubMed Central, POLS – medical journals or institutional open-access archives, and Elsevier open-access journals.

I incorporate images into my teaching resources to enhance learning making difficult concepts more understandable and creating an imaginative learning atmosphere for learners. Also, I persuade learners to use it in their tasks to improve visual communication. I extract images from Google images, my pictures, and institutional repositories. I use the Fair Use copyright clause. I understand that OER images need to be in the public domain and contain Creative Commons attributes or permission needs to be granted from the copyright holders. In the future, I am planning to use Wiki images, and Pixabay which are OERs (Perez, 2017).

Future Implementation:

Integrate Wikipedia pedagogy. Create active learning tasks to engage students in the Wikipedia community, asking learners to take part in encyclopaedic articles as formative assignments. It will develop digital literacy skills, research skills, and subject knowledge. Moreover, develop collaborative learning and knowledge sharing with a global audience (McDowell et al., 2022).
Organise training sessions for both teaching & support staff and learners due to their limited knowledge of OER. Moreover, I would attend CPD to update my knowledge (Ertmer, 1999).
Integrate open networks supported by social media and Web 2.0 tools (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram (Luo et al., 2020)
Feedback from students and support staff for further improvement

Conclusion:

The Integration of OER into healthcare technology enhances inclusive teaching and learning practices and supports scholars to adapt to evolving technologies and bridge the gap between academia and employment. However, there are several challenges addressed that could be resolved in the future to promote developed teaching practices.

I plan to publish this essay on the course blog EDM 122: “Digital Literacies and Open Practice” blog under the Creative Commons license CC- BY-NC-SA to ensure accessibility and attributions. This license allows for adaptation, remixing, adaptation, and building on the materials as long as the creator and adaptors are shared under the same licensing terms and not allow for commercial purposes (Creative Commons, 2019). I trust this license protects authoring rights and permits to develop of knowledge and thoughts impartial to future users as it needs to be shared under the same terms and in a non-commercial way.

References

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Image with a pile of books and text Open Access Resources — Created using Adobe Firefly

Openness in IP Law Education: A cross-disciplinary approach?

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Nouf Ali S Algazlan

The Author & Licence

This blog, by Nouf Ali S. AlGazlan, a final-year PhD student and graduate teaching assistant at City, St George’s University of London, and a visiting lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire, is part of the final assignment for the EDM122 Digital Literacies and Open Practices. It is published under a CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution Licence). You are free to copy, redistribute, and adapt the material in any medium or format, even commercially (Creative Commons, n.d.; Cambridge, n.d.). The rationale behind this licence is that, because the course is on digital literacies and open practices, offering maximum flexibility and accessibility better aligns with those principles and encourages the sharing of open knowledge.

Introduction

A few years ago, I had a conversation with my PhD supervisor about Posner’s paper, The Decline of Law as an Autonomous Discipline (Posner, 1987). We explored Posner’s critique of the traditional view of law as a self-contained field, isolated from the influence of other disciplines. This perspective resonated with me again several months ago when I began taking EDM122 and learned about Open Practice. This piece aims to demonstrate how Posner’s perspective holds true by examining openness and its role in fostering cross-disciplinary learning and teaching in the field of Intellectual Property (IP).

I begin by explaining the relevance and significance of open practice to my role, looking at the literature on open practice, exploring what openness means, and focusing on open educational resources (OERs) and open educational practices (OEPs). I then explain how openness can aid in cross-disciplinary learning and teaching in IP law through two main examples: the MA Academic Practice programme and Institute for Creativity and AI (ICAI). Throughout this piece, I reflect on the role of openness in cross-disciplinary education and how it has influenced my future practice.

Open Practice & My Role

Teaching IP law at City St George’s takes an open approach. Lectures provide foundational knowledge (e.g., an introduction to patent law), while tutorials focus on advanced materials (e.g., the implications of patent law on Artificial Intelligence (AI)). Advanced materials are strategically chosen to reflect current legal debates. Previous topics have included Covid-19 vaccines and weapons relating to patent law, and the trademarking of fictional characters and celebrity names.

Although I try to find open resources to engage students, a key challenge is ensuring access to the most up-to-date materials. Many of these resources are not open access and require either a fee or institutional access. On Day 2 of EDM122, we examined the Jisc Digital Experience Survey which highlighted the impact of the cost of living on students: over 52% of students reported taking on paid work (Jisc, n.d.). While the survey did not explicitly address access to paid resources, it suggests that financial pressures may limit students’ ability to access materials that require payment. This issue must be addressed to ensure all students have equal access to resources. A practical approach is to leverage existing materials at City St George’s while exploring ways to expand open-access legal content. The next section will review relevant literature and practical examples.

What does openness mean?

As Cronin (2017) highlights, there are several interpretations of openness in education. Broadly speaking, openness can be identified as “open admission, open as free, OERs and OEPs” (Cronin, 2017, p.2). In short, open admission refers to education policies that remove entry requirements for learning allowing learners to enroll without prior qualifications. Open as free refers to educational resources that can be used freely (e.g., YouTube videos and massive open online courses (MOOCs)) (Moe, 2015). OERs are teaching and openly licenced learning materials, meaning users can retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute them, to promote adaptable education (Wiley et al., 2014). Finally, OEPs are about moving beyond a content-centred approach, changing the attention from resources to practices, with both learners and teachers collaborating in the creation of knowledge (Ehlers, 2011).

For this blog, OEPs and OERs are of primary importance. While OEPs lack a single, universally accepted definition, Open.Ed (n.d.) describes it as encompassing teaching methods and academic practices that leverage open technologies, pedagogies, or OERs to foster collaborative and flexible learning experiences. This includes but is not limited to, the co-creation of learning experiences by educators and learners, as well as the use or development of OERs.

The UNESCO definition of OERs demonstrates the significance of freely accessible educational materials in developing open education practices globally (Camilleri and UNESCO, 1970). This can be creating or reusing OERs (materials that are out of copyright or are licenced to allow reuse). Nevertheless, open education goes beyond such resources. It can involve practices such as involving open science in teaching and sharing educational strategies (UCL, n.d.).

Encouraging OERs is crucial for both legal and educational institutions, particularly in the context of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote opportunities for lifelong learning (Moulitharun, 2024). For legal entities, such as governments, one way to encourage OER adoption is by having laws that require publicly funded educational resources to be freely available to the public. This ensures that educational content is open and accessible and that copyright laws are less of a barrier to sharing information.

For educational institutions, such as universities, it is important to integrate OERs into their policies and encourage the use of OERs in teaching (Moulitharun, 2024). One effective way to achieve this is through promoting cross-disciplinary learning, a practice that can greatly benefit legal education, particularly in areas like IP. In my view, OERs extend beyond access to resources; it is about exploring and engaging with other disciplines to foster a more inclusive approach to knowledge. This allows for cross-disciplinary teaching and learning, where collaboration between fields like technology, business, art, and law can be very important.

How can openness aid in cross-disciplinary learning and teaching in IP law?

There are countless examples of how openness can help cross-disciplinary learning and teaching in IP law. This blog will examine two in detail.

MA Academic Practice: Open Education Principles

The MA Academic Practice is a part-time postgraduate taught programme aimed at staff with an educating role with students in Higher Education (City, n.d.). Throughout my time in the course, I’ve had the opportunity to engage with staff from various disciplines including computer science, politics, health, and employability. As a result, my teaching of IP law was enriched in ways I had not initially anticipated. Such experience resonates with the broader principles of open education. As the Cape Town Open Education Declaration (2007) rightly asserts, open education is not limited to just open educational resources. It involves open technologies that aid collaborative, flexible learning and the open sharing of teaching practices, allowing educators to benefit from the best ideas of their colleagues. This vision aligns closely with my own experience in the MA programme, where collaboration across disciplines has been important in expanding my teaching approach.

For example, in one module, Student Support and Personal Tutoring, I collaborated with other staff members from Computer Science and Policy and Global Affairs to create a guide on the responsible use of AI for students. Not only did this project allow me to explore how AI can impact learning and provide valuable information on how to teach students to engage with AI responsibly, but it also has relevance in IP law education. One of the pressing challenges in IP law is ensuring that students understand the ethical considerations of their current and future practice. This goes beyond issues like plagiarism and copyright infringement to include growing challenges such as ownership of data. Dalton (2002) stated that one of higher education’s key tasks is to help students link intellectual and ethical development, preparing them to live lives of both achievement and responsibility (p. 1). This is especially crucial in teaching ethical decision-making in IP law, especially as technology introduces new ethical problems such as the potential for AI to infringe upon creative works.

Moreover, open education can expand to include new ways of assessments, accreditation, and collaborative learning, all of which mirror the European Commission’s definition of open education. According to the EU, open education is a method of carrying out education, usually using digital technologies, intending to widen access and participation (e.g., removing barriers, making learning accessible, etc) (EU Science Hub, European Commission, 2016; Jhangiani et al., 2024). It encourages multiple ways of teaching and learning, as well as building and sharing knowledge. These principles are reflected in the MA Academic Practice.

For instance, in the Curriculum Development and Evaluation module, peers reviewed video assessments, providing constructive feedback and learning from each other. Similarly, in Assessment Design and Feedback (EDM126), peers wrote formative feedback for assessment briefs, encouraging a collaborative learning environment. In Digital Literacies and Open Practices (EDM122), online forums were used as a discussion tool (e.g. on day 4, staff reflected on embedding digital literacies and open practice in the curriculum, answering questions such as whether it was useful and how to implement it in their own teaching). The use of digital tools within the MA course, such as online discussion forums and collaborative platforms, has allowed for flexible learning and easy access to materials tailored to individual needs.

Moreover, Huitt and Monetti (2017) offer an insightful comparison between open education and traditional methods, particularly in the areas of assessment, teaching philosophy, and learning resources. Traditional assessments, such as standardised tests, are often artificial and focus solely on end results. In contrast, open education stresses that assessments should mirror real-world processes and encourage authentic learning (Jhangiani et al., 2024). This approach is exemplified in modules of the MA Academic Practice, such as creating a video in EDM122 or developing an assessment brief in EDM126. These methods not only align with the principles of open education but also contribute to a more inclusive and adaptable learning environment. In my future teaching of IP law, I plan to incorporate these principles, using authentic assessments, fostering collaborative learning, and using flexible digital tools to engage students and accommodate diverse learning styles.

2. Institute for Creativity and AI (ICAI): Open Access Research

Another example of how openness can help cross-disciplinary learning and teaching in IP law is through ICAI. Recently, City St George’s established the ICAI to explore the strategic impacts of creativity, creative work, and AI technologies (City, n.d.). This initiative brings together academics and students from various fields across the university, including law, business management, healthcare, journalism, and the arts, fostering an interdisciplinary approach to research and education. As Gamsby (2020) highlights, open access, that is, making research freely available to everyone, and interdisciplinarity, that is combining knowledge from different fields, are closely connected. While open access and interdisciplinarity may initially seem unrelated, Gamsby argues that these two concepts fundamentally support each other.

Thus, although the ICAI’s goals may not explicitly mention open access research, its interdisciplinary nature, which bridges various academic fields through research involving AI, aligns with the principles of open access. Sharing knowledge openly supports the core tenets of interdisciplinarity, such as fostering collaboration and breaking down barriers between disciplines. By publishing research findings and making them openly accessible, the ICAI has the potential to contribute significantly to open-access research. This, in turn, can provide valuable resources not only to City St George’s staff and students but also to the broader academic and professional community.

Finally, the ICAI could organise public events, such as workshops and conferences, focusing on the relationship between AI and IP law. For instance, when teaching IP law to second-year LLB students, a recurring theme is AI, particularly in copyright and patent law. It would be beneficial if experts from various disciplines participated in these events to share their insights. By making these events open and accessible to all, the ICAI would promote the open sharing of knowledge, ensuring that information is available to everyone without barriers, much like OERs have done for course materials.

Making these events open-access would allow both students and professionals to benefit from cross-disciplinary perspectives without financial barriers. This mirrors the impact of OERs, which provide affordable, accessible educational content and help alleviate the financial burdens faced by students. Over the past few decades, the rising costs of commercial textbooks have posed a significant barrier for many students (Jhangiani et al., 2024). This issue has been further exacerbated by the shift to digital learning, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic (Lederman, 2022). In response, OERs have emerged as a solution, providing affordable and accessible course materials. These efforts align with the broader principles of open practice and open access, which seek to make educational content more widely available. Just as OERs ensure equity in learning, open-access events foster inclusivity and broaden participation, supporting both academic and professional communities.

Conclusion

Reflecting on Posner’s critique and the concepts of Open Practice from EDM122, I see how these ideas challenge traditional boundaries of law and knowledge. The MA Academic practice and the ICAI are prime examples of how openness fosters cross-disciplinary learning and teaching in IP law. Sustainability, art, and other areas offer further opportunities to explore these connections, which future blogs can explore.

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Posner, R. (1987). ‘The decline of law as an autonomous discipline: 1962-1987’. Harvard Law Review, 100, pp. 761-779.
UCL (no date). ‘Open educational resources and copyright: What do you need to consider?’. OpenUCL Blog. Available at: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/open-access/2024/11/07/open-educational-resources-and-copyright-what-do-you-need-to-consider/ [Accessed: 1 January 2025].
What is open education practice? (no date). Open.Ed, University of Edinburgh. Available at: https://open.ed.ac.uk/what-is-open-education-practice/ [Accessed: 1 January 2025].
Wiley, D., Bliss, T.J. & McEwen, M. (2014). ‘Open educational resources: A review of the literature’. In: Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology. New York: Springer.

Healthcare Publishing in Open Access Journals

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Asma Ashraf

This post is written by Asma Ashraf, a Lecturer in Adult Nursing at City University of London. This is part of Asma’s assignment for EDM122 and is licensed under CC BY. Asma writes:

Publishing in open access journals – to do or not to do!

I clicked on a link to read an article on the university library website. A message appeared asking do I want to ‘Get Open Access version’ and to click on the red button. I wondered if it is correct, surely this is not a ‘paywall’. I laugh nervously as I think to myself, I do not need to worry about this, I have access!

As an academic, I am privileged to have access to most journals. As I proceed, I think to myself, is this a test? Are the module leaders trying to point out the challenges that others face? This is not a message I have seen before and I decide that it is reminding me that there are free versions available to access.

This is very telling about the challenges that those wanting to access academic journal articles experience. I have been on the receiving end of hitting ‘paywalls’ and it invokes stress. In this essay, I will be exploring whether healthcare workers should only publish in open access journals. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in their ‘Recommendation on Open Science’ guide want scientific research to benefit all globally (UNESCO, 2023).

Let me rewind a little and explain what I mean by ‘paywall’. Paywalls are also known as digital subscriptions. It is where you make regular payments to gain access to digital content (Myllylahti, 2019). A paywall in the academic setting is when you must pay per article or choose to have a digital subscription to access peer-reviewed articles (Open Society Foundations, 2018). Paywalls are used by online news sources such as newspapers and have been used in journalism since 2010 when the phrase was coined (Myllylahti, 2019). In journalism, the reasons for paying for news are not quite the same as open access for scientific knowledge. Paywalls preventing users from accessing scientific publications are denying access to scientific knowledge and not fostering an open science culture (UNESCO, 2023).

As a nurse lecturer, I am interested in knowing what the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) website say about open access to support nurses and nursing students. There is no direct discussion about open access; however, the NMC do discuss modernising of education for nursing students. This has become more relevant particularly since leaving the European Union and new standards dictating nurse education require access to evidence and best practice (NMC, 2023).

My Hunger for Knowledge

As a nurse working in the National Health Service (NHS) since the late 1990s, I can remember attempting to access journal articles and there was a limit to the access. I wanted safe and evidence-based health research, so I was constantly searching for free access through Athens. Now called NHS OpenAthens, this provides free online access to NHS funded resources including journals and e-books to healthcare workers (Health Education England, 2024). Although the NHS funding will have paid for the research through publicly funded research (National Institute for Health and Care Research [NIHR], 2021). The cost to the NHS to access medical literature is steep. I was not able to find exact costs; however, in my search I came across an example from Daly et al.’s (2020) research discussing the merger of the library and knowledge services within one hospital NHS trust project. The cost to access one database was £11.5K (Daly et al., 2020), this is the cost for one hospital trust. There were 215 NHS hospital trusts in England alone in 2022 (The King’s Fund, 2023), and if they are all paying individually for open access this cost runs into the millions just for access to one database.

Open access was propelled internationally in 2001 after a meeting in Budapest which was sponsored by Open Society Foundations. The outcome of the meeting was to encourage researchers to publish and disseminate their findings outside of the billion-dollar academic publishing industry (Open Society Foundations, 2018). The UK NIHR in 2021 published the Open Access publication policy setting out key principles to ensure that publicly funded research is available openly (NIHR, 2021). However, this does not mean that it is entirely free, because an open access fee is paid by the NIHR to ensure the publisher allows open access.

For those with access to the internet that can look up information themselves, open access to journals means more people have access to good quality evidence-based research. This is important as a healthcare provider; however, it is important that patients can have open access to scientific information too (NHS England Workforce, Training and Education, 2020).

I believe access to information should be a priority and open access can support equity and inclusion for those that produce and use knowledge by enabling knowledge to be shared in diverse ways (UNESCO, 2023).

Blinded by Ego

Since 2012 I have published several peer-reviewed articles. In the beginning in my naivety, I was blinded by the grandeur of being a published academic. The prestige of publishing research results that I worked hard to write up in a journal with a high impact of dissemination (Chang, 2017), or so I thought.

Until recently, I did not understand the importance of publishing in an open access peer reviewed article. Whilst undertaking the Digital Literacies and Open Practice module (EDM122), I was so shocked when I learned how much money the academic publishing companies make. I watched Paywall: The Business of Scholarship. The Movie (2018) and I am still feeling angry that public money goes into funding research, yet access is restricted to the public, including those who conduct the research (Moore, 2014). Publishers receive public money. For example, the NIHR provide funds into grants they provide to ensure evidence-based research is published and available. Unless the researchers have access through their academic institution, someone is still paying and if you leave and your next organisation does not have access you lose access to your own work.

It is unfair that publishers are exploiting researchers (Moore, 2014). Researchers who submit manuscripts for publication want to have their work peer reviewed so they will pay a fee to the publisher. A group of experts will look at your manuscript and essentially proofread and provide feedback. The scam here is that those reviewing the manuscript do this for free they do not get any remuneration for their time. The publisher is taking money from those that want to publish and commissioning free work to others.

Benefits, Challenges and Limitations

I have been approached by publishers requesting me to publish and write for their journals. I remember the first time I got an email I was so excited. When I inquired further there was mention that I would need to pay money. My colleague recommended that I not entertain these publishers because they were not looking to improve evidence base (Logullo et al., 2023). Although I am now more aware of such scams, it does leave me with a bitter taste. As someone who wants to share knowledge and support nursing care, I feel sad at the manipulative nature of the publishing industry (Logullo et al., 2023). Golden open access is an approach used where authors pay the publishers fees, meaning that only those who have the funds can afford to pay. Open access journal publication still does not benefit those in lower income countries because you need access to the internet (Logullo, 2023).

On a positive note, I have worked with stakeholders including patients and advocacy groups who benefit from open access. They are better informed when making decisions and supporting others. Behind a paywall these important stakeholders would not have access to vital information. Open access journal publication also enables findings to be looked at critically (Logullo et al., 2023). This is essential to developing and evolving evidence-based healthcare practice. Logullo et al. (2023) have published their article under a CC BY comms licence, which provides others the opportunity to build on their work.

Open access journal publication also ensures that people are not duplicating work, because when they search for publications, they can see the detail of what has already been studied (Logullo et al., 2023).

Enlightened or not really!

I have developed awareness and feel that I only want to publish in open access journals going forward. Although my last four articles were all published in peer-reviewed open access journals. I did not realise the significance of this until now. I had become part of an unfair system that goes against my idea of social justice to access free resources (Bali et al., 2020).

As a nurse, equality, diversity, and inclusion plus equity are crucial for me and this is part of the UNESCO (2023) recommendations. I would like nursing colleagues and nursing students to be able to embed evidence-based practice in their day-to-day work. However, if scientific knowledge is behind a paywall this can only mean inequity and limited access for the majority (Moore, 2014).

Having previously worked in research and now academia, within the last 10 years my access to published research has been unlimited through the academic institutions have been employed with. This is great for me, however, there is a huge cost to the university.

Working as a lecturer, I do not need to have too many publications at this stage of my career. However, if I want to progress in academic rank there is a requirement for me to engage in scholarly activity and publishing in peer-reviewed journals (Cade, 2022). On a positive note, it is important that knowledge is shared openly (Cade, 2022), and I am keen to do this.

Honing My Skills

I have spent some time trying to understand where open access fits in the wider context of publishing. Is it open educational practice or part of open educational resources? Is it just about publishing in peer-reviewed journals, or does it include books? I realise now that it is both (Bali et al., 2020).

My experience is limited to publishing in peer-reviewed journals; however, having access to textbooks is important too. I have learnt whilst completing this module that public scholarship can also be done from writing blogs, using social and professional networking. These are powerful tools for disseminating knowledge such as X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn (Bali et al., 2020; Ross, 2020) and other open platforms (Logullo et al., 2023). In terms of social justice, access to a blog or a social media post is available to more people than information that is guarded by a paywall. This means that information from these sources is not restricted to only those with enough capital to view it. However, quality needs to be considered and can be opinion rather than evidence based (Bali et al., 2020).

In terms of licensing for this essay, I looked through the different choices and considered the options used by previous students before me for their blog. During the game, ‘The Publishing Trap,’ which we played in class to help us better understand publishing in academia. I was nervous and reluctant to contribute because I was concerned my academic thinking would be challenged and felt I didn’t know enough. This is odd because I am usually happy to talk about my experiences and give permission for others to use my stories and examples. Yet during this game, I found that I did not want to yield, mostly because I feel like an imposter in academic publishing (Berna, 2020). This is not out of fear that someone will steal my idea, but more that I am concerned about my knowledge being questioned. This is called imposter syndrome and it is well known that this psychological block is a coping mechanism (Berna, 2020).

What will I do?

In summary, I will ask students to consider how they access publications and if they go onto publish to prioritise open access so their work can be available to everyone. I encourage students to strive for evidence-based practice in healthcare and ensure they have open access wherever they work.

Now that I have more knowledge, I will continue to promote open access and share what I have learnt. This is to ensure peer reviewed scientific information is shared and it will in turn promote digital literacy through its use (UNESCO, 2023).

The learning for this module has enabled me to delve further into my own practice and to understand the political and social need for open access publications.

References

Bali, M., Cronin, C. and Jhangiani, R.S., 2020. Framing Open Educational Practices from a Social Justice Perspective. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2020(1), p.10. https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.565

Berna, J. S. (2020). Unblocking scholarly writing – Minimizing imposter syndrome and applying grit to accomplish publishing. Scholar Chatter, 1(1), 1 – 7, https://doi.org/10.47036/SC.1.1.1-7.2020

Cade, R. (2022). Publishing in Peer-Reviewed Journals: An Opportunity for Professional Counselors, Journal of Professional Counseling: Practice, Theory & Research, 49(2), 61-62. https://doi.org/10.1080/15566382.2022.2157595

Chang, Y.-W. (2017). Comparative study of characteristics of authors between open access and non-open access journals in library and information science. Library & Information Science Research, 39(1), pp 8-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2017.01.002

Health Education England (2024). OpenAthens [online] Available at: http://tinyurl.com/27tl9fwl [Accessed on 13 January 2024]

Logullo, P., de Beyer, J.A., Kirtley, S., M Maia Schlussel. And Collins G.S. (2023). “Open access journal publication in health and medical research and open science: benefits, challenges and limitations”. BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine https://ebm.bmj.com/content/early/2023/09/28/bmjebm-2022-112126

Moore, S. A. (Ed.). (2014). Issues in Open Research Data. Ubiquity Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv3t5rd3 [Accessed on 28 January 2024]

Myllylahti, M. (2019). Paywalls. In The International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies, pp 1-6. Wiley Online Library. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118841570.iejs0068

‌National Institute for Health and Care Research (2021). NIHR Open Access publication policy – for publications submitted on or after 1 June 2022. [online] www.nihr.ac.uk. Available at: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/documents/nihr-open-access-publication-policy-for-publications-submitted-on-or-after-1-june-2022/28999 [Accessed on 13 January 2024]

NHS England Workforce, Training and Education (2020). [online] Available at : https://youtu.be/8WufUDDkP58?si=o2mUdHiLgAXKPCbt [Accessed on 27 January 2024]

Nursing and Midwifery Council (2023). [online] Available at: https://www.nmc.org.uk/news/news-and-updates/council-to-decide-on-modernisation-of-education-programme-standards/ [Accessed on 27 January 2024]

Open Society Foundations (2018). What Is “Open Access”? [online] Opensocietyfoundations.org. Available at: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/explainers/what-open-access [Accessed on 13 January 2024]

Paywall: The Business of Scholarship. The Movie (2018). [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/zAzTR8eq20k?si=VRvu4v3V84JFGclL [Accessed on 13 January 2024]

Ross, P. (2020). “Blog it: Free open access to nursing education (#FOANed)”. Australian nursing & midwifery journal (2202-7114), 26 (9), p. 40.

The King’s Fund (2023). [online] Available at:

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/audio-video/key-facts-figures-nhs#:~:text=How%20many%20NHS%20hospitals%20are,trusts%2C%20including%2010%20ambulance%20trusts. [Accessed on 27 January 2024]

UNESCO (2023). UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science [online] Available at: https://www.unesco.org/en/open-science/about [Accessed on 27 January 2024]

The mini-podcast series for AST: openness from a social justice perspective

Posted on April 16, 2024 by Agnieszka Marciszewska

Image by Michi S from Pixabay

This blog post was written by Agnieszka Marciszewska as part of the final assignment for the module EDM122 at City, University of London

Introduction

Podcasting has become popular for both amateurs and professional contexts and its research as well as practice in HE continues to grow. Its appeal in HE learning environment is the ability to disseminate knowledge asynchronously, working within the blended-learning approach which allows a degree of flexibility and freedom that in turn links to student motivation (Bolliger, Supanakorn and Boggs, 2010). There is evidence suggesting podcasts are effective in supporting students’ study skills development (Edirisingha and Salmon, 2007). Podcasting is also a tool to increase public impact of research and scholarship (Singer, 2019) and to facilitate HE transformation by enhancing open educational practice (Waldron, Covington and Palmer, 2023). As such, its potential needs to be considered in any team that attempts to support students’ academic skills via open pedagogy approaches.

In my role in the Academic Skills Team, I predominantly produce student-facing materials. Last year I took on a project in which I designed, produced and recorded a podcast mini-series for my team. The project was based on a number of guest speakers contributing to the episodes I wrote, all of which dealt with students embracing their role at university in some way. My colleagues from City University generously donated their time and collaboration with them meant that current and prospective students would have some information about who’s who. This essay presents a brief review of literature on podcast pedagogy justifying my choices on this project and further presents my reflections on the notion of openness in this context using the five realms of openness by Hodgkinson-Williams (2014). I selected three episodes from the podcast to evidence my points.

Literature review

Podcasting has been extensively researched and promoted in HE for their educational content in a range of disciplines (Kao, 2008; Facer, Abdous and Camarena, 2009; Cho, Cosimini and Espinoza, 2017; Killean and Summerville, 2020; Kinkaid, Emard and Senanayake, 2020; Prata, Avelar and Martins, 2021; Kelly et al., 2022). It is also been effective as a tool to develop students’ listening skills (Harahap, 2020). Podcasting supports HE students in their learning as it engages active learning and critical thinking skills, especially for student-led podcasting (McLoughlin and Lee, 2007; Ferrer, Lorenzetti and Shaw, 2020). McGarr (2009) suggests literature names three main reasons for a podcast to be used in HE – one of them is to provide additional guidance and learning material to supplement information to students, which is particularly relevant in this project.

A number of podcasts have been developed by research institutes and bodies to tackle the issues revolving around research skills, e.g. Royal Geographical Society’s Social Research Methods Podcast (Social Research Methods podcast – RGS). These have typically been aiming its content at graduates and early career researchers. However, relatively little is known about its potential to help UG students develop their skills. There is a wave of podcasts created by amateur social media influencers who record videos with advice for university students and post them on social media platforms. However, such content is not typically based on any pedagogical frameworks or include concrete learning material. While some researchers (Cann, 2007) argue that videos are superior to audio podcasts, the actual purpose of using non-traditional learning tool needs to be considered.

There is a close relationship between open educational practices and podcasting. Freire’s seminal work on critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970, 1973) focuses on strategies that foster active learning and collaborative construction of knowledge in the spirit of freedom. As such, it Podcasting is also informed by transformative experiential learning (Mezirow, 2003). This is true for student-led podcasts as well as teacher-led ones. As Harter (2019) puts it, “I have no desire to produce podcasts for passive listeners. Instead, I envision podcasts as social activities that involve dialogue between hosts and guests and include the presence of spectators who enter the conversation…”. The aim of a critical pedagogy is to promote social change and a podcast is a strong example of a vehicle that allows it.

HEs continuously try to make podcasts a part of their online dialogue, which was especially relevant during the pandemic (e.g. The unmissable podcasts and blogposts of the year | LSE Higher Education). Podcasting is common in UK universities (e.g. UCL has a page dedicated to podcasts alone: Podcasts | UCL Minds – UCL – University College London). LEaD has also recently adopted this technique to disseminate knowledge among academics (https://blogs.city.ac.uk/isla/2023/01/27/teaching-here-and-there-a-podcast-resource-for-learning-more-about-hybrid-teaching/). While within City there has been a recent push to engage students via non-traditional VLE-based platforms, such as using social media (e.g. AST’s Instagram account), the AST still does not use a podcast as a regular tool in its work with students. Not discussing tools that can assist learners in developing their study habits creates a gap. In light of the positive literature on podcasting pedagogy I chose to explore the value of the tool.

Reflections on openness in three sample podcast episodes

Dynamic connections and accessibility (guest: Catie Tuttle)

AST have a Moodle page with a robust repository of self-study resources and programme-run and university-wide webinar videos. However, after a detailed review of the repository I concurred there were two issues with it. Firstly, all resources relied on visual skills in some way (e.g. video presentations, narrated PowerPoints, handouts, written guides and checklists). Thus, my aim was to create a resource that would accommodate different needs and learning preferences of students (Ausburn, 2004) and employ an innovative tool not currently used by AST. Audio podcast as a medium suits specific needs of learners (Kukulska-Hulme and Traxler, 2005) and allows to create dynamic inputs (Rajic, 2013), thus broadening AST’s resources. It is underpinned by the departmental objective to increase accessibility of the resources produced by the AST. I also liked the fact that it would allow us to target commuters, who form a large percentage of City students. This determined the length of episodes I chose to record to 45 minutes maximum.

The second problem was the repository was a static space which needed a new dimension to become more engaging. Inviting students to listen to a podcast, which would link back to the repository and to the social media of guest speakers and the AST, could allow dynamic community-building. “Networked learning promotes connections: between people, between sites of learning and action, between ideas, resources and solutions, across time, space and media” (Networked Learning Editorial Collective, 2021a, p. 319). I wanted to use that concept to blur the rigid duality of learning vs non-learning online environments, demonstrating cultural openness (Hodgkinson-Williams, 2014). I decided to focus on research skills in order to collaborate with a City librarian to deliver content that would link to the two teams. Once I started working on the episode, I thought it would be a shame not to link any materials from City Library repository as well as the AST ones. I thought this would add a further dimension to our online community (Preece and Maloney-Krichmar, 2005).

Going forward, I know I need to continue to network with academics in other teams within City to find out how we could deliver collaborative projects in the future. I plan to support my team in designing similar inclusive activities, in particular engaging in 5R activities (Wiley and Hilton, 2018) and potentially taking the podcast initiative further.

Shared practice (guest: Ruth Windscheffel)

While OERs and OEPs are increasingly common in education (Bali et al., 2020), Armellini and Nie (2013) note locating subject-specific OERs poses a challenge. I found many YouTube videos on writing a strong essay, but no academic-led audio podcasts on assessment at university level. Kukulska-Hulme (2012) stresses the importance of adopting mobile technologies in a HE classroom setting. Having a podcast discuss the importance of understanding marking criteria and considering terminology typically used in assignment briefs could allow lecturers to share the resource with their students within a session outlining the details of the assignment they have been set for instance or using it to adopt a flipped classroom, an effective pedagogical strategy replacing a traditional lecture-based model (Guy and Marquis, 2016). This was in my mind when I decided to focus on assessment as a meta-skill. At the time I did not know why this was important to me, frankly, but having researched the topic I realise what was appealing to me was the focus on open practices, sharing ideas that could go beyond a simple open-resource instruction (Cronin, 2017).

The decision to host the podcast outside the City’s intranet was a major decision, which demonstrates technical openness (Hodgkinson-Williams, 2014); it had significant consequences, e.g. how I approach staff to seek answers to challenging questions and how I convince academics to join the project. I found myself to have to convince some academics to participate, not always successfully, as some feared the resource being made open. I also realised that I embarked on this project due to the confidence from knowing how to apply a Creative Commons licence to the material, which tied in with legal openness (Hodgkinson-Williams, 2014). This was one of the reasons I decided to collaborate with a lecturer from LEaD, knowing that would carry some weight with City academics. In this sense I don’t just see the series as a solo project but a resource to be reused and adapted. The aim of this resource was always to encourage collaboration among academics, also in the sense of ease of sharing both internally and externally.

Going forward, I see that my development in this area can serve students and academics immensely. I hope to create projects that will impact students directly but also indirectly by supporting academics with materials that could be adapted for their cohorts. This will require me to align with open pedagogy attributes (Hegarty, 2015), especially in terms of embedding open educational practice in my work.

Social justice: OERs and LGBT+ representation (guest: Raf Benato)

From a social justice perspective, I thought of two different uses for the podcast. Firstly, I wanted this project to predominantly result in an OER – to counter a financial paywall imposed by institutional access; therefore, I decided to host the podcast on a free platform, Soundcloud, to assure financial openness (Hodgkinson-Williams, 2014). However, I also aimed to create resource which would allow a free flow of information to students and aspiring students alike. That meant I was trying to simplify the language used in order to avoid a psychological paywall (Figueroa, 2022), which also tied in with pedagogical openness (Hodgkinson-Williams, 2014). I see that my aim to empower individuals in this way stems from a critical pedagogy perspective which uses education to help “make the world a more socially just place” (McElroy and Pagowsky, 2016).

Secondly, I was deeply moved by the homophobic attacks happening on our campus and wanted to provide a space to promote inclusivity and diversity. Following calls for action to promote representation (Cerezo and Bergfeld, 2013; Medium, 2020; The Queerness, 2022) as well as guidance on embedding inclusivity in HE curriculum (Bittker, 2022; National Education Union, 2022a), I decided to use this platform to collaborate with City LGBT+ support network to design an episode which would be relevant to students (and staff) who may not be represented. “Social justice and emancipation are as important as ever, yet they require new theoretical reconfigurations and practices fit for our socio-technological moment” (Networked Learning Editorial Collective, 2021b, p. 327). The LGBT+ Framework (National Education Union, 2022b) advocates a curriculum promoting a sense of belonging and I think that openness of a podcast is a perfect catalyst to share a message of inclusivity.

Going forward, I would like to find other ways to support the LGBT+ population and other marginalised groups in a meaningful way.

ConclusionsThe experience of conceiving the mini-podcast series for the AST was very informative in many ways as it showed me my conscious design principles like accessibility affected the final outcome and my intuitive choices, e.g. on the selection of topics were guided by values such as human rights and social justice. As there is evidence combining podcasts with reflective thinking activities has positive outcomes (Yilmaz and Keser, 2016), my future steps are to explore creating additional reflective resources to complement the mini-podcast series I have created.

References

Armellini, A. and Nie, M. (2013) ‘Open educational practices for curriculum enhancement’, Open Learning, 28(1), pp. 7–20. doi: 10.1080/02680513.2013.796286.

Ausburn, L. J. (2004) ‘Course design elements most valued by adult learners in blended online education environments: an American perspective.’, Educational Media International, 41(4), pp. 327–337. doi: doi:10.1080/0952398042000314820.

Bali, M. et al. (eds) (2020) Open at the Margins: Critical Perspectives on Open Education. Rebus Community. Available at: https://press.rebus.community/openatthemargins/front-matter/table-of-contents/.

Bittker, B. (2022) ‘LGBTQ-Inclusive Curriculum as a Path to Better Public Health.’, ABA Human Rights Magazine 47 (3/4). Available at: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/intersection-of-lgbtq-rights-and-religious-freedom/lgbtq-inclusive-curriculum-as-a-path-to-better-public-health/.

Bolliger, D. U., Supanakorn, S. and Boggs, C. (2010) ‘Impact of podcasting on student motivation in the online learning environment’, Computers and Education, 55(2), pp. 714–722. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2010.03.004.

Cann, A. J. (2007) ‘Podcasting is Dead. Long Live Video!’, Bioscience Education, 10(1), pp. 1–4. doi: 10.3108/beej.10.c1.

Cerezo, A. and Bergfeld, J. (2013) ‘Meaningful LGBTQ Inclusion in Schools: The Importance of Diversity Representation and Counterspaces’, Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, 7(4), pp. 355–371. doi: 10.1080/15538605.2013.839341.

Cho, D., Cosimini, M. and Espinoza, J. (2017) ‘Podcasting in medical education: A review of the literature’, Korean Journal of Medical Education, 29(4), pp. 229–239. doi: 10.3946/kjme.2017.69.

Cronin, C. (2017) ‘Openness and praxis: Exploring the use of open educational practices in higher education’, International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 18(5), pp. 15–34. doi: 10.19173/irrodl.v18i5.3096.

Edirisingha, P. and Salmon, G. (2007) ‘Pedagogical models for podcasts in higher education’, in Proceedings of the EDEN Conference, pp. 3–8. Available at: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&btnG=Search&q=intitle:Pedagogical+models+for+podcasts+in+higher+education#0.

Facer, B. R., Abdous, M. and Camarena, M. M. (2009) ‘The Impact of Academic Podcasting on Students’ Learning Outcomes’, in Marriott, R. de C. V. and Torres, P. L. (eds) Handbook of Research on E-Learning Methodologies for Language Acquisition. IGI Global, pp. 339–351.

Ferrer, I., Lorenzetti, L. and Shaw, J. (2020) ‘Podcasting for social justice: exploring the potential of experiential and transformative teaching and learning through social work podcasts’, Social Work Education, 39(7), pp. 849–865. doi: 10.1080/02615479.2019.1680619.

Figueroa, M. (2022) ‘Podcasting past the paywall: How diverse media allows more equitable participation in linguistic science’, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 42, pp. 40–46. doi: 10.1017/S0267190521000118.

Freire, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum.

Freire, P. (1973) Education for critical consciousness. New York: Continuum.

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Experiences of using Open Educational Resources in journalism teaching and research

Posted on April 12, 2024 by Carolyne Lunga

This blog post was written by Carolyne Lunga as part of the final assignment for the module EDM122 at City, University of London

In this essay, I reflect on using OERs in my teaching and research of journalism and media studies and discuss the challenges I have encountered and strategies I have adopted to improve my knowledge on OERs and indicate plans for improving my practice.

Open Education Resources (OERs) have been defined in various ways. Literature shows that a discussion on OERs generates mixed understandings since scholars do not agree on copyright, openness, cost, and universal access among others. While some definitions celebrate OER benefits to higher education and those who previously did not have access (UNESCO, 2002; Mishra, 2017a, Mishra, 2017b), others interrogate the notion of whether OERs are ‘free’ or ‘not free’ (Downes, 2012) considering that access to the internet itself requires financial and time resources and that there are some societies who lack access to electricity. In terms of definitions, Mishra (2017), notes that OERs, are understood by many as referring to any resources available free of cost on the internet. This is supported by UNESCO’s definition of open access as referring to “free access to information and unrestricted use of electronic resources for everyone (UNESCO website). As Mishra (2017: 371), further notes, the basic premise of OERs is that “they can be reused and adapted in various contexts without seeking further the permission from the original copyright holder”. This is advantageous to educators who can reuse OERs for teaching and research. Mishra (2017a: 371) further notes that without a discussion on copyright, the discussion on OERs is incomplete since “information available on the internet can be shared for personal use, its reuse, revision, remixing and redistribution require the permission of the copyright holder”. In relation to cost and access, Olivier and Rambow (2023) are more positive about the value of OERs, noting that they are beneficial for those who cannot afford to purchase paid for content, specifically in contexts where higher education is expensive and inaccessible to many. D’Antoni (2008: 8) also provides an optimistic view when he contends that they can “assist in achieving educational justice across the world”. Meanwhile Richter and McPherson (2012) criticise the notion that OERs can bring about justice when they argue that unless they are fully adaptable or reusable in various contexts, their mere existence cannot bring out justice. Furthermore, there is no discussion of what this justice may entail.

As a journalism lecturer, a discussion on OERs is significant for bringing to the fore issues that are central to discussions of how digital journalism/communication is practiced. This includes access and participation online, the prevalence of disinformation and misinformation on online platforms and how it affects access to credible news/information, the digital divide, how credible journalism is hidden behind paywalls and the rise of hate speech, and propaganda. In digital journalism, I teach students to adopt a critical stance and question how big tech platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have the power to influence and control how and what we consume online, the dominance of advertisements online and algorithms among others can divert our attention towards entertainment. For these topics, I rely on journal articles and books from journalism scholars who publish with Routledge, Elsevier, and other big publishers criticised for commercialising education (Paywall movie, 2018). Journalism is concerned about democracy and my students, and I discuss how ‘democratic’ the internet is. I believe that a conversation about the internet itself, how it structured and its development in a capitalist era is important if we are to explore fully the value of OERs for education and society in general. For instance, Papacharissi (2002; 2004) argues that while the internet has potential to revive the public sphere, by enabling the participation of various social groups, it is inaccessible to some due to high data costs, lack of digital and media literacy skills, and censorship of information. Carson (2020) supports this by arguing that the commercialisation of the internet and inequalities online make it inaccessible. The quick spread of fake information through digital technologies also hinders the internet from being truly democratic (ibid). These issues resonate with the debates around OERs.

I teach Digital Media Communication and Introduction to Visual Communication which combine the theoretical and practical components of design where students work with images to manipulate, combine them, and edit them using Photoshop software. I teach students to develop content for social media platforms and analyse various news websites in various parts of the globe. I teach how disinformation, and misinformation have become prevalent online, particularly on social media platforms and how this threatens the normative role of journalism in providing citizens with accurate and truthful information (Carson and Farhall, 2018). In delivering journalism courses, I mostly use books, journals, newspapers, and other materials which are paid for and accessible through the university library. These are readily available, and I make use of the subject librarians if I require assistance accessing a particular resource. I have used OERs to complement library materials. However sometimes I struggle with questions of whether I have properly repurposed and reused these resources to avoid plagiarism? I mitigate this challenge by checking several times if I have fully referenced the source. For instance, the UNESCO website provides access to OERs on media and democracy. Informed by Mishra (2017) that OERs can be reused, I have been able to reuse the materials and make them relevant for the diverse group of students that I teach by including examples of journalism practice in other contexts. I also use Hybrid Investigative Journalism, an open access textbook by Konow-Lund et al (2024) which considers how reporters, citizens, bloggers, community coordinators and others undertake investigative journalism for teaching and research. My research students use it for their dissertation research and say that they find it useful in that it incorporates empirical evidence and experiences of scholars researching diverse contexts. Adopting OERs in my teaching and research supervision has enabled me to enhance the learning experience of students and provide them with access to information that they may not have access to (Mishra, 2017a, 2017b).

I make students aware of the vast OERs that are available on the UNESCO website. Apart from information on media, the OER resources on the UNESCO website include those on the Creative Commons (cc) licences, education and technology and artificial intelligence. Before taking the EDM122 Digital Literacies and Open Practices (in Higher Education), I was not aware of the meaning of cc licenses and how they work, and I did not have a full understanding of OERs. After learning about them in the course and being exposed to literature on OERs including links to where to find them (e.g. the OERs guide from Edinburgh), I feel more confident guiding students on what the different licenses mean and how content can be reused, knowledge which they can use when researching for their essays or writing news stories on place and in their professional lives as journalists. I am also able to use the UNESCO materials and attribute them accordingly. For instance, some of the UNESCO publications I have accessed are licensed using the Creative Commons-Attribution 3.0 IGO license which means I can “download, copy, translate any of these publications and use it free of charge, as long as the original author is given credit for the original creation. No prior permission is required to do so” (UNESCO website, 2024).

In a context in which journalism is practiced differently in various parts of the world and some credible newspapers are found behind paywalls, discussing about OERs with my students has enabled me to help them understand what they are, and why it’s important to acknowledge work which is originally created by another person and made available for reuse and how they can add on to the knowledge by incorporating their own examples. The advantages of using OERs in teaching and learning supports Olivier and Rambow (2023: v)’s point that “OERs bring fresh air to the higher education ecosystem when higher education is not accessible to millions, is not affordable, and is plagued with issues of poor quality in many countries”. However, problems of quality and discoverability of OERs remains a challenge for most educators and students (Kortemeyer, 2013).

In teaching Introduction to Visual Communication and Digital Media Communication courses, I can talk about OERs, copyright and good professional journalistic practice. In the former course, students are required to find images which they can transform using Photoshop software and I have observed how some students come into the course with no in-depth understanding of copyright and licensing. Various journalism student guides at City and in other universities include information on copyright for students benefit in ethics classes which they mostly take at first year. Informed by knowledge gained from the EDM 122 course, I have had the opportunity to discuss copyright law and licensing of images in more detail to make students aware of the ethical and legal implications of violating regulation by manipulating images that belong to others and are not for repurposing. I have included additional copyright readings on the module handbook including Ekstrand and Silver (2014) which explores theories of the image to inform discussions about copyright reform in the digital age and the university’s Copyright guide. During lectures and practical sessions, I made the students aware of images that they could use and corrected the assumptions that they had, about images on the internet being widely accessible and free to use for all.

Another problem of downloading and reusing images and videos without checking the licensing restrictions is that students can become victims of propagating disinformation. Kirchengast (2020) argues that deepfake technology requires strong regulation due to the harm they can cause to individuals and society. I assign students practical assignments to take their own photographs to use in the course. In some instances, students develop their own photos by making use of generative AI software such as Adobe Firefly which enables one to create their own images and use without having to worry about violating copyright or licensing regulations. But still it raises questions about how to acknowledge information developed by generative AI platforms. The university’s generative AI policy states that students should indicate when materials are generated by AI including the prompts used (City Generative AI policy, 2024). I emphasise why students should always exercise integrity when conducting research and acknowledging sources. The result has been the creation of high-quality essays with thorough in-text citations and bibliography creation.

I use the UNESCO digital library to access various materials on topics that are relevant for my teaching. For example, during the pandemic UNESCO published a lot of information on the Covid-19 pandemic, and disinformation and I found their open access library very useful considering that very little was known and published at the time about the Covid-19 pandemic. I was careful in how I used other materials on the pandemic as not all information available online is open access, though this was a challenging process which took time.

During this time when artificial intelligence is topical and conversations around generative AI tools impact in higher education and society at large, I am constantly referring to the UNESCO website to access information and understand more about generative AI. For example, the open access UNESCO document titled “Generative AI in education and research” has helped me to understand potential risks that generative AI could pose to human agency, inclusion, equity, and gender equality. Furthermore, the document provides information and recommendations to government agencies, and policy makers on how Generative AI can be used for society’s benefit (UNESCO, 2023). To improve my practice, I plan to continue learning about OERs, including talking to librarians who specialise in these resources to acquire expert guidance on using them and how to publish my own work. I am organising student workshops with OER experts so that my students can also benefit.

In conclusion, the essay demonstrated how I use OERs in teaching and research of journalism. While OERs provide advantages of access particularly to those without access. Scholars acknowledge problems associated with internet access, lack of digital and media literacy skills and lack of internet infrastructure to some sectors of society which means that they cannot fully benefit from OERs. I have shown how issues discussed when talking about OERs are directly linked to the conversations discussed on digital journalism which has enabled me to discuss disinformation, access, copyright, and licensing. By taking the EDM 122 course, I have had the opportunity to enhance my knowledge and support my students better.

I plan to publish this essay on the course blog “EDM 122: Digital Literacies and Open Practice” blog under the Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-SA. This licence allows for distribution, adaptation, remixing and building on the materials as long as the creator is given credit and adaptations are shared under the same licencing terms, not allowing for commercial use (Creative Commons, 2019) This licence protects authoring rights and allows for build-up of knowledge and ideas in a fair way to future users as it needs to be shared under the same terms and in a non-commercial way (ibid).

References

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City, University of London. (2024) Using generative artificial intelligence (AI) for learning https://studenthub.city.ac.uk/help-and-support/studying-online/using-ai-for-learning (Accessed 30 January 2024).

Creative Commons (2019) “About CC licenses” https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/ (Accessed 31 January 2023).

D’Antoni, S. (2008) Open educational resources: The way forward (Deliberations of an International Community of Interest). Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning, UNESCO Creative commons http://learn.creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/ 2008/03/oer-way-forward-final-version.pdf (Accessed 27 January 2023).

Downes, S. (2012) Free and not free [Blog post]. Half an Hour. Retrieved from https://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2012/11/free-and-not-free.html (Accessed 27 January 2023).

Ekstrand, V.S. and Silver, D. (2014) “Remixing, Reposting, and Reblogging: Digital Media, Theories of the Image, and Copyright Law”, Visual communication quarterly, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 96-105.

Kirchengast, T. (2020) Deepfakes and image manipulation: Criminalisation and control. Information & Communications Technology Law, 29(3), 308-323. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600834.2020.1794615 (Accessed 30 January 2024).

Konow-Lund M., Park M., and Bebawi S. (Eds.) (2024) Hybrid investigative journalism. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41939-3 (Accessed 30 January 2024).

Kortemeyer, G. (2013). Ten Years Later: Why Open Educational Resources Have Not Noticeably Affected Higher Education, and Why We Should Care. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2013/2/ten-years-later-why-open-educational-resources-have-not-noticeably-affected-higher-education-and-why-we-should-care (Accessed 29 January 2024).

Mishra, S. (2017a) Open educational resources: removing barriers from within, Distance Education, 38:3, 369-380, DOI: 10.1080/01587919.2017.1369350 (Accessed 25 January 2024).

Mishra, S. (2017b) Promoting use and contribution of open educational resources. New Delhi: Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia. http://oasis.col.org/ handle/11599/2659

Olivier, J. and Rambow, A. (2023). Open Educational Resources in Higher Education: A Global Perspective (2023) Springer Nature Singapore, Singapore.

Papacharissi, Z. (2004) “Democracy online: civility, politeness, and the democratic potential of online political discussion groups”, New media & society, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 259-283.

Papacharissi, Z. (2002) The virtual sphere: the internet as a public sphere. New Media and Society. Vol 4. 9 (9-27)
Paywall the business of scholarship: the movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAzTR8eq20k (Accessed 24 November 2023).

Richter, T. and McPherson, M. (2012) “Open educational resources: education for the world?”, Distance education, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 201-219.

UNESCO Digital Library https://unesdoc.unesco.org/search/72a71bb0-74c9-4ef5-a26b-934dd8b90ab8/N-e90ced73-7869-4795-a37f-56423ebf1cde (Accessed on 30 January 2024).

UNESCO OER platform https://www.unesco.org/en/open-educational-resources Accessed on the 23 January 2024

UNESCO The Creative Commons licenses https://www.unesco.org/en/open-access/creative-commons (Accessed on 30 January 2024).

UNESCO (2002) Forum on the impact of Open Courseware for higher education in developing countries: Final report. Paris: Author. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001285/128515e
(Accessed on 30 January 2024).

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Are We Open Yet? Is the Use of Rights Retention Strategy the Open Access Breakthrough We are Looking for.

Posted on April 11, 2024 by Ami Pendergrass

This blog post is written by Ami Pendergrass who is a MSc student in Library and Information Science at City and recently completed my module EDM122. Her essay is on the introduction of Rights Retention Strategies to Open Access in Higher Education. She writes……

As a current Library and Information Science (LIS) Student, I am learning of the importance of how my colleagues and I need to be at the forefront of determining the future of our library services. One of the key topics of discussion is Open Access (OA). OA is the mechanism that makes research publications freely available, free of charge, and free from most copyright restrictions to anyone who can benefit from them (see JISC, 2019; City, 2023a; Creative Commons, 2024). In simple terms, OA is the way to bring the depth of research and analysis out from behind (mostly expensive) paywalls and share it. This benefits not only fellow researchers who can learn and build from it, but the public at large, where people can use it to create new ideas, change opinions or even save lives.

In the case of higher education (HE), one of the challenges of OA, however, has been in finding a long-lasting working relationship and strategy between HE, authors, and academic publishers that simultaneously provides that kind of necessary access while also mitigating the significant impact it will have on publishers and publishing models (Moskovkin et al., 2022, p. 176; SPARC Europe, 2023). An area of keen interest to me as both a LIS student and a former lawyer and negotiator is the recent adaptation of a Rights Retention Strategy or RRS by HE institutions in the UK as a tool to force OA quicker. RRS is a process that uses Creative Commons licensing to assign copyright, giving a way for authors to ensure that they can deposit their work where they see fit including OA which is still being limited by many academic publishers.

As someone who plans on working in this space as a librarian, understanding this issue for myself and for my users is critical. Below, I will discuss the background of OA and how HE institutions have moved to RRS as a tactic to bring OA quicker. I will then provide my views on RRS as a strategy and what we as librarians can be doing to help support our users in manoeuvring through this potentially complicated process.

A Brief History of OA and Transformative Agreements

Before we can talk about what rights retention strategy (RRS) is, it helps to understand where we’ve been. OA itself was born at the cross-section of several big issues. First, a large portion of important research projects are publicly funded. However, with the shift of published academic research from print to digital, much of that publicly funded research came to be behind paywalls, which made access to it by other researchers (and sometimes even the authors themselves) difficult and expensive (see City 2023a; REF, 2023; Plan S, 2021). This would mean that research may never be acted upon or could be duplicated (Moskovkin et al., 2022, p. 176). And as became immediately apparent with COVID19, resolving complicated, international issues meant needing access to the latest research quickly and cost-effectively to save lives (Moskovkin et al., 2022, p. 176; SPARC Europe, 2023). Many funders, including COAlition S and UK Research and Innovation, now require OA publication as a result (Plan S, 2021; REF, 2023; City 2023a; City 2023b). Second, HE institutions and libraries were dealing with the clash between an astronomical rise of subscription journal prices (with one statistic showing an eightfold increase in costs from 1984 to 2010) and shrinking budgets that put pressure to bring those costs down (Borrego et al., 2021, p. 216). A transition to OA was seen as the solution to both problems.

To find a ‘middle ground’, HE institutions and academic publishers (who were not already OA) negotiated an arrangement called a transformative agreement (TA’s) to help those publishers who were closed access (or whose material was behind a subscription paywall) to ‘transform’ from subscription to fully OA (see City 2023a; REF, 2023; Plan S, 2021). TAs have developed into three main types:

Pre-transformative – this is where the journal would still have a paywall but would allow a limited number of articles to be published OA, usually by using a discount or voucher system to track.
Partially-transformative – this is where the journal would offer two types of fees, a ‘read’ fee or the normal subscription fee and a ‘publish’ fee or what is referred to as an article processing fee or APC to publish OA (and these too are usually limited in number).
Fully-transformative – this is where the journal would provide a single fee for both subscription and APC and this would allow for unlimited OA publication.

(Borrego et al., 2021, p. 216). These types of TAs (above) created in many cases a new type of journal, the ‘hybrid’ journal, where the journal was partially OA and partially subscription. These hybrid journals created two main routes to OA publishing: green access (which while free, can subject the author/institution to a publisher embargo period or a limitation on the number of articles that are eligible for OA publication); or gold access (which has no limits (such as embargos) but is a ‘pay to publish’ model where APCs are required) (City 2023a; City, 2023b).

TA’s, and the hybrid journals created as a result, were initially viewed as a temporary solution to promote an orderly transition from the historic subscription model to OA. However, the transition has been slow, expensive, and not exactly temporary (Borrego et al., 2021, pp. 219, 226; Plan S, 2021; Moskovkin et al., 2022, p. 169). An example of this can be seen with the lack of impact of article processing costs (APC) driving down the costs of overall fees. APCs were to provide a transitional fee arrangement that shifted the cost from subscription to publishing so that works could be published OA sooner rather than later (Asai, 2023, p. 5166). The idea was that the ‘fees’ would be constant while OA publishing would increase, ultimately resulting in subscription fees decreasing and being replaced by APC (Asai, 2023, p. 5166). However, as multiple studies show (Asai, 2023; Borrego et al., 2021; Moskovkin et al., 2022) these fee arrangements effectively functioned as a ‘double dip’ for publishers, requiring universities to pay to publish while simultaneously paying again a subscription fee (which seemed to be ever increasing) to access the same article. Far from being cost neutral, hybrid journals were increasing costs (see Moskovkin et al., 2022, p. 167; Parmhed and Säll, 2023, p. 6).

Enter Rights Retention Strategy

As it became apparent that transformative agreements were becoming more transfixed, HE institutions began to look for new solutions to promote OA publication, while addressing the continued increase in costs. One of those ‘solutions’ is the adaptation of rights retention strategies (RRS). Under most academic institution’s RRS policies, authors are asked to declare a Creative Commons license called a CC BY in the acknowledgement and cover letter of the authors accepted manuscript, prior to submission to a journal (City, 2023a; City, 2023b: Rumsey, 2022; UCL 2021). A CC BY license enables a work to be re-used, distributed, remixed, adapted, and build upon by anyone, so long as it includes attribution to the author (Creative Commons, 2019). The upfront notice to publishers plus the adaptation of the CC BY license, in essence, should mean that the author is free to distribute their work openly and that the publisher cannot override assignment through a subsequent agreement (UCL, 2021; Plan S, 2024).

So, why this tactic? It could be argued that RRS was born out of an old problem. One aspect of the old subscription model was the assignment of full copyright to publishers (exclusivity) as pre-condition for publication, which had significant impact in not only stripping authors from their intellectual property but also financial implications in locking HE institutions into having to pay for a subscription for the same authors to access their own material, ‘arguably a form of academic exploitation’ (Rumsey, 2022). RRS is a pushback against publishers requiring authors to agree to exclusivity by allowing authors to retain their copyright using Creative Commons licensing, with the goal of immediate publication without embargo and bypassing APCs (Plan S, 2020; City, 2023a, Rumsey, 2022; n8 Research Partnership, 2023; Moore, 2023, p. 1). RRS restores control to the author on ‘when, how and to whom research findings are disseminated’, maintaining ownership where it belongs, with the author and not a third-party provider (Rumsey 2022). RRS is not new; universities, such as Harvard (the original RRS model) have had an RRS policy since 2008 (Rumsey, 2022; Moore, 2023, p.3).

Is RRS the ‘Opening’ We Need and How can Libraries Support ?

As with any new ‘thing’, there are positives and negatives. RRS can have a positive impact in not only speeding up OA publication but by serving as an effective wedge issue to gather the HE institutions and publishers back to the table to find a better way to bring balance between reasonable access and reasonable compensation (Moore, 2023, p. 7). However, RRS is not without problems. Rightly or wrongly, many publishers are viewing the move to RRS as a direct violation of their service agreements and that has placed authors in a difficult situation between the publishers who do not support it and the funders who are increasingly demanding it (Khoo, 2021). The recent Cambridge and Edinburgh pilot study of RRS provides a good example of the ‘trouble’ authors are facing. In response to the uptick in the use of RRS, the studies found that publishers have increased desk rejections; rerouted works to OA or less prestigious journals; provided incorrect or misleading advice; presented fees at the last minute; or coerced authors into signing their copyright away anyway ( Khoo, 2021, p. 3; Rumsey 2022; University of Cambridge, 2022; Open Scholarship, 2022). However, the fight is really between HE institutions, the funders, and the publishers who, like it or not, do have a legitimate (though overpriced) function to deliver, not the authors themselves. Asking the author to ‘hold the line’ is a bit akin to asking the child of two warring parents in a divorce to provide the solution to all the family’s marital woes (see Khoo, 2021 and Moore, 2023).

As a future librarian on the ground (and hopefully at the table), I offer a few suggestions. First, from the bargaining standpoint (and my old lawyer days), RRS is a great starting point but, arguably, what RRS is doing is using copyright to bypass aspects of these TAs that HE institutions do not like. This is a blunt instrument that in the long term may damage our relationship with publishers. What we ultimately need is better agreements that align charges to actual delivery by publishers (see Borrego et al.,2021; Khoo, 2021; SPARC Europe, 2023; Moskovkin et al., 2022). So RRS is a means, not an end. HE institutions should endeavour, as soon as possible, to work together to get back to the table and use RRS as a wedge to promote agreement on a better vision and longer-term future for both. We ultimately still need each other and we only get there by talking.

However, talks and negotiations take enormous time and effort. As a librarian, to support our users now, the quickest and most valuable thing we can do is to provide in-depth training on copyright that helps users understand their rights and how to tactically use their assignment in copyright to get the deal they want. I believe anytime we ask someone to assign a legal right away, we should support them to the fullest with education and tactics so that they can make educated and sound decisions, whether they use Creative Commons or sign an exclusivity agreement. We should also partner with our HE librarian counterparts across UK institutions to study RRS best practices, not only from the standpoint of how we manage RRS as librarians but also to help our users to understand what works and what does not as they interact with publishers. RRS policies by themselves is not enough to really support our authors. Training and best practice guidance is vital to make this work.

RRS may not be the opening we hoped for but it is a wedge in the door to a better future. I believe as a librarian, our biggest contribution is to help educate and advocate for what RRS is ultimately trying to achieve, a long-lasting partnership with our publishers for an OA future.

This article is published with a CC BY license that enables re-users to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the author. This license is for commercial use only. For mor information, see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Works Cited:

Asai, S. (2023) “Does double dipping occur? The case of Wiley’s hybrid journals”, Scientometrics, 128(9) pp. 5159-5168. Available at: https://www.doi.org/10.1007/s11192-023-04800-8 (Accessed: 13/01/2024).

Borrego, Á, Anglada, L., and Abadal, E. (2021) “Transformative agreements: Do they pave the way to open access?”, Learned publishing, 34(2), pp. 216-232. Available at: https://www.doi.org/10.1002/leap.1347 (Accessed: 13/01/2024).

City, University of London (2023a) Understanding Open Access. Available at: https://libguides.city.ac.uk/understanding-oa (Accessed: 11/01/2024).

City, University of London (2023b) Open Access Policy. Available at: https://libraryservices.city.ac.uk/about/policies/compliance/open-access-policy (Accessed: 12/01/2024).

Creative Commons (2019) About CC Licenses. Available at: https://www.creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/ (Accessed: 11/01/2024).

Creative Commons (2024) Open Access. Available at: https://www.creativecommons.org/about/open-access/ (Accessed: 12/01/2024).

JISC (2019) An Introduction to Open Access. Available at: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/an-introduction-to-open-access (Accessed: 12/01/2024).

Khoo, S.Y. (2021) “The Plan S Rights Retention Strategy is an administrative and legal burden, not a sustainable open access solution”, Insights, the UKSG journal, 34(1).

Moore, S.A. (2023) “The Politics of Rights Retention”, Publications (Basel), 11(2) pp. 28. Available at: https://www.doi.org/10.3390/publications11020028 (Accessed: 13/01/2024).

Moskovkin, V.M., Saprykina, T.V., and Boichuk, I.V. (2022) “Transformative agreements in the development of open access”, Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship, (34) 3, pp. 165-207. Available at: https://www.doi.org/10-1080-1941126X.2022.20999000 (Accessed: 13/01/2024).

N8 Research Partnership (2023) Why Northern Universities are Taking a Stand on Rights Retention. Available at: n8research.org.uk/why-northern-universities-are taking-astand-on-rights-retention/ (Accessed: 11/01/2024).

Open Scholarship (2022) Rights Retention Policy: An Update after 9 months. Available at: https://libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk/openscholarship/2022/10/14/rights-retention-policy-an-update-after-9-months/ (Accessed: 12/01/2024).

Parmhed, S. & Säll, J. (2023) “Transformative agreements and their practical impact: a librarian perspective”, Insights, the UKSG journal, 36(12). Available at: https://www.doi.org/10.1629/uksg.612 (Accessed: 13/01/2024).

Plan S (2020) cOALition S develops “Rights Retentions Strategy” to safeguard researchers’ intellectual ownership rights and suppress unreasonable embargo periods. Available at: coalition-s.org/coalition-s-develops-rights-retention-strategy/ (Accessed: 09/01/2024).

Plan S (2021) Principles and Implementation. Available at: https://www.coalition-s.org/addendum-to-the-coalition-s-guidance-on-the-implementation-of-plan-s/principles-and-implementation/ (Accessed: 13/01/2024).

Plan S (2024) Plan S Rights Retention Strategy. Available at: https://www.coalition-s.org/rights-retention-strategy/ (Accessed: 12/01/2024).

REF (2023) REF2021: Overview of open access policy and guidance. Available at: https://archive.ref.ac.uk/media/1228/open_access_summary_v1_0.pdf (Accessed: 12/01/2024).

Rumsey, S. (2022) Reviewing the Rights Retentions Strategy – a Pathway to Wider Open Access? Available at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2022/10/26/reviewing-the-rights-retention-strategy-a-pathway-to-wider-open-access (Accessed: 23 January 2023).

SPARC Europe (2023) Opening Knowledge: Retaining Rights and Open Licensing in Europe 2023. Available at: https://www.knowledgerights21.org/reports/opening-knowledge-retaining-rights-and-open-licensing-in-europe-2023/ (Accessed: 13/01/2024).

UCL (2021) Wellcome, transformative agreements and rights retention. Available at: blogs.ucl.ac.uk/open-access/2021/03/05/wellcom-transformative-agreements-and-rights-retention/ (Accessed: 12/01/2024).

University of Cambridge (2022) Rights Retention: Publisher Responses to the University’s Pilot. Available at: https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=3361 (Accessed: 13/01/2024).

Evidence Based Practice and Open Access

Posted on April 11, 2024 by Ravi Ladani

This Photo by Nick Shockey is licensed under CC BY-SA

This post was written by Ravi Ladani as part of the final assignment for the module EDM122 at City, University of London

Evidence based practice (EBP) is a foundational cornerstone in my working life as an optometrist, as it is for all healthcare practitioners. In my role as a lecturer, it is a skill I (and my colleagues) teach, as well as it influencing the content that I teach. When learning about open practices, I was intrigued by the impact that open access could have on EBP, not only in optometry but in healthcare as a whole.

What is EBP and open access?

Evidence-based practice (EBP) in healthcare involves the combination of clinical expertise, patient’s values, and the best evidence to inform clinical decision making to provide the best clinical outcome or management for a patient¹. Fundamental elements to employ best evidence are the ability to search and synthesise information, but importantly how available is the best information, i.e. is it accessible².

Open access is defined by the Joint Information Committee Systems (JISC) as “making research publications freely available so anyone can benefit from reading and using research”³.

So why is open access important for EBP?

It is useful to consider what we mean by “best” and “available” evidence. Traditionally, knowledge has been imparted via textbooks and lectures. However, these mediums are quickly outdated⁴. They are still valuable tools to provide theoretical and foundational knowledge, but do not provide the most recent knowledge, and therefore not the best knowledge.

Research articles allow the most up to date research to be published, which is a vital step to EBP⁵, but this leads to the consideration of access. When I now reflect on how I have accessed research in my career to date, there are two distinct time periods. Since becoming a lecturer, I have had the privilege of accessing a large range of articles and databases via an institutional login.

Studies have shown that most peer-reviewed research has traditionally been published in subscription based journals⁶, and that having institutional access allows access to 75% of articles that would not otherwise be available unless one was willing to pay for them⁷. The reason for this is due to the extreme costs associated with subscription⁸.

Healthcare practitioners that do not have access via an institution, as was the case for myself earlier in my career, are faced with theses subscription costs or paywalls⁶. Subscription costs are unfortunately expensive, Furthermore, should the article not actually be what the practitioner was after, refunds cannot be requested⁵.

To me, this highlighted some obstacles to EBP. Firstly, by holding information behind a fee, the availability of the “best” research is reduced, therefore limiting the pool of evidence that a practitioner would ideally need to make the best clinical decision. An article published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) showed that open access publications received 89% more full-text downloads, 42% more PDF downloads and 23% more unique visitors⁹, highlighting the link between open access and availability. This issue is exacerbated for practitioners in low income countries. However, many publications will be made accessible to countries in low income countries, but raises the question of how well known it is.

Secondly, students benefit from institutional access whilst studying at university. We teach students how to access the information, how to reinforce there studies with the latest research, and how to use this research and evidence to inform their clinical decision making. Once a student has left education, they have lost a significant amount of resource, and their knowledge as a result can potentially become quickly outdated too.

Thirdly, an element of EBP is the patient’s values and decisions. Some patients may choose to search for evidence themselves. They face the same issues that healthcare practitioners have with access, but they also potentially could be faced with another problem. Should the practitioner have access to more recent research than the patient, the patient maybe conflicted with what information to use. However, should all evidence be open access, patients and practitioners will have access to the same information and therefore patients will have more confidence in the evidence (as they can find it themselves should they wish).

However, publishing an open access article does not guarantee the reader will have addressed the availability issues completely. JISC highlights two types of open access publishing: Gold and Green open access³.

Gold access allows the fully published article to be immediately available without the requirement of a fee or subscription by the viewer. This allows the latest research to be made available immediately, but there is an article processing fee (APC) instead that the researcher must pay which can be expensive and therefore a potential barrier.

Green open access involves fully published articles being made available under a subscription based model, but also allows accepted manuscripts to be uploaded or self-archived in a repository. This can involve an embargo, that once expired allows the fully published article to be made freely available. This has the advantage of not involving an APC. The disadvantage it has is that repositories can be less discoverable, and therefore if an embargo is in place, it limits the availability of the article until the embargo has ended. This means that as healthcare professionals, it is important that we are equipped with the digital literacy skills to find these studies on resources such as Google Scholar, and as educators we provide our students with the required skills.

The BMJ also identifies another model – “Diamond” or “Platinum”¹⁰. This involves fully published articles being made immediately available without a direct publishing fee. This would allow the most recent evidence to be most freely available and therefore has the potential to be most useful to EBP.

Another factor to consider with open access and EBP, is what else can be done with the research, other than provide clinical evidence as soon as possible to all. JISC identifies the importance of allowing the research to be re-used³. Open access has the potential to accelerate research, provide stronger evidence in the form of systematic reviews, provide more enhance and up to date clinical management guidelines and highlight more quickly further areas of research⁵. The move to open access can therefore promote EBP and better research, which therefore promotes open access, thus acting in a self-propelled mechanism.

What can be done to promote the benefits of open access to EBP?

Academic promotion has traditionally had requirements that include the publication in high impact journals which can often non-open access⁶. I find it ironic that as a healthcare educator in the UK who promotes and teaches EBP, a facet that we judged on does not promote EBP.

Researchers will often consider impact factor and the quality of peer review before publishing¹¹, and it was often perceived that open access journals lack impact factor which would affect academic promotion¹². This provides a dilemma to researchers in that should they publish for promotion or publish to allow their research to be more readily available, and therefore contribute further towards EBP. However, it is also important that we realise that some open access journals now have an impact factor¹³.

One of the influences on the impact factor (amongst many others) are the number of citations. The evidence of the effect that open access has on citations is often contested, with some suggesting it has very little impact¹², whilst others indicating that it has a positive impact^11,14. However, they all indicate the publishing in open access does not reduce the number of citations, and therefore would not reduce the impact of the article. It is therefore fundamental that academic institutions continue to realise that academic promotion should not be negatively affected by publishing in open access.

In recent years, The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and a group of national research organisations in Europe have implemented policies that require studies to be published on open access platforms or journals^15,16. This is a significant policy that will improve the access to the latest research so it directly promotes EBP, but will also cause more research institutions to rethink their own policies on promotion.

How will this impact my future practice?

When I consider how open access will affect my work with evidence based practice, I need to split it into two elements, as a lecturer and as an optometrist working in primary care.

As a lecturer, I teach students how they can use EBP very generically at the start of their degree, but also more specifically to individual fields later on. In the early stages, I look at promoting the reason of EBP and situations where it is useful, and teach the use of research databases, but I must confess that I never considered access what I teach. As highlighted earlier, I and students have the privilege of institutional access, but I now feel the need to prioritise how to search for open access research instead, so that this becomes the normal way for to find the information they need, even in their normal life.

It also led me to look at the resources I use in my teaching when discussing individual topics, as well as the sources of information I promote the use. Resources such as the Cochrane Library allow free access to everyone in the UK and many other countries (including low income countries)¹⁷, are particularly useful. The College of Optometrist Clinical Management Guidelines¹⁸ are also useful. Although the articles they use are not always open access, the evidence based detailed information that they provide on each eye condition is, and again will be a resource I will promote. This is something I think students will benefit from as they may not always find the information they need openly, and should therefore be able to use tools that are a “compromise”.

It is vital that all healthcare educators take this approach. Newly graduated professionals often take the habits of what they are taught, so if more are taught to use and search in open access resources, they will pass these practices on too.

As a practitioner, open access will also influence the speed at which I find clinical information. My first thought will be to search for open access articles as I know I will not be faced with the potential of pay or subscription walls. This will lead to patients being given more accurate information sooner, which for some could lead to faster diagnosis and treatment, which can give a better prognosis.

On publishing of this work, I have decided that it is important to provide it with a Creative Commons license, specifically CC-BY (attribution). In order for the importance of open practice to EBP to be fully realised by as many practitioners or academics as possible, I think it is extremely valuable for this work to be shared and developed upon as much as possible by all, regardless if they are affiliated with a commercial entity or not. Although ideally I would like future work to be used as openly and freely as this one, I have chosen not include the Share-Alike licence as this may restrict how this work can be combined with work with other licences¹⁹, reducing the span as to who can build upon it.

References

Dawes M, Summerskill W, Glasziou P et al., 2005. Sicily statement on evidence-based practice BMC Medical Education 5(1) 1-7
Paci, M., Faedda, G., Ugolini, A. and Pellicciari, L., 2021. Barriers to evidence-based practice implementation in physiotherapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 33(2), p.mzab093.
An Introduction to Open Access. https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/an-introduction-to-open-access [Accessed: 04/01/2024]
Kundart, J. Open access publishing: opportunities and challenges. Optometric Education, Volume 38, Number 3/ Summer 2013, p 89-91
Nick, J. (2011). Open Access Part I: The Movement, The Issues, and The Benefits. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.3912/ojin.vol17no01ppt02.
Lawton, A. and Flynn, E., 2015. The Value of Open Access Publishing to Health and Social Care Professionals in Ireland. Available from: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/73/lawton-flynn/
Tennant, J. P., Waldner, F., Jacques, D. C., Masuzzo, P., Collister, L. B., & Hartgerink, Chris. H. J. (2016). The academic, economic and societal impacts of Open Access: an evidence-based review. F1000Research, 5, 632. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.8460.3
What Is “Open Access”? – Open Society Foundations. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/explainers/what-open-access [Accessed: 04/01/2024]
Davis, P.M., Lewenstein, B.V., Simon, D.H., Booth, J.G. and Connolly, M.J., 2008. Open access publishing, article downloads, and citations: randomised controlled trial. BMj, 337.
Frequently asked questions on open access. BMJ https://www.bmj.com/company/openaccess/open-access-faq/ [Accessed: 04/01/2024]
Nagaraj, M.N. and Bhandi, M.K., 2017. Physics Researchers’ Perception of Advantages and Disadvantages of Open Access Journals: A study.
Forrester, A., 2015. Barriers to open access publishing: Views from the library literature. Publications, 3(3), pp.190-210.
Björk, B.C., 2013. Open access—Are the barriers to change receding?. Publications, 1(1), pp.5-15.
Huang, C.-K. (Karl) et al., 2024. Open access works – 420 million citations show OA outputs are cited by more researchers from more places, Impact of Social Sciences. Available from: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2024/01/30/open-access-works-420-million-citations-show-oa-outputs-are-cited-by-more-researchers-from-more-places/ [Accessed: 19/01/2024]
New Open Access policy for NIHR funded researchers – National Institute for Health and Care Research. https://www.nihr.ac.uk/news/new-open-access-policy-for-nihr-funded-researchers/29244 [Accessed: 19/01/2024]
What is cOALITION S? – Plan S. https://www.coalition-s.org/about/ [Accessed: 19/01/2024]
Access options for the Cochrane Library – the Cochrane Library online. https://www.cochranelibrary.com/help/access [Accessed: 19/01/2024]
How to use the clinical management guidelines – The College of Optometrist. Available from: https://www.college-optometrists.org/clinical-guidance/clinical-management-guidelines/how-to-use-the-clinical-management-guidelines [Accessed: 19/01/2024]
Redhead C, 2015, Why CC-BY? Available from https://oaspa.org/why-cc-by/ [Accessed 19/01/2024]

The importance of digital literacy in nursing

Posted on March 28, 2023 by Teopista Ssemakula

This blog post is written by Teopista Ssemakula who is a Senior Practice Development Nurse and recently completed my module EDM122. Her essay on the importance of digital literacy in nursing is licensed under CC-BY. She writes……

This essay is about the importance of digital literacies within Nursing, and I shall be
focusing on information, data and media literacy aspects of digital literacy.
Stephenson, (2017) highlighted in a national publication that digital skills are
essential to delivering the best contemporary nursing care, as this enhances
collaboration between nurses and patients, and promotes patient safety, reduces
duplication in addition to preventing mistakes. In my role as a Senior Practice
Development Nurse, it is crucial to have a high level of digital literacy in order to
effectively care for patients and support the healthcare team. According to Glister
(1997), one has to understand and have the ability to use digitised information. Plus,
Secker, (2017) asserts that, digital literacy has gained widespread attention in the
wider society: For instance in education, digital literacy encompasses more than a
functional concept based on technical skills to a more critical approach. This is seen
also within the healthcare sector, due to the new and emerging roles (Stephenson,
2017).
As defined by Health Education England (HEE, 2017), digital literacy is, “the ability to
live, learn, work, participate and thrive within a digital society”. This relates to all
nurses and those aspiring to become nurses. Terry et al (2019), states that studies
regarding digital literacy are under reported in Nursing literature. Previous studies
have identified that digital literacy levels impact staff engagement with information
systems, with poor computer skills and low computer experience identified to
influence attitudes towards information systems and information and communication
technology (Kuek and Hakkennes, 2020). Making it to be one of the main barriers for
adopting Electronic Healthcare Records argues (Huryk, 2010), and given the
increasing use of technology in healthcare, it is important for nursing staff to be
digitally literate (Healthcare Business Technology, 2016).
Within the Health Education England (HEE, 2018) framework, digital literacy is
important for nurses in order to effectively navigate and utilise electronic medical
records, participate in online applications, and stay current on research and best
practices. It is also essential for effective communication, collaboration, and
participation, in the development and implementation of healthcare policies and
practices, as well as teaching, learning, and self-development, plus information, data
and media literacies. All of which make up the different aspects of digital literacy in
this framework.
Historically, Nurses, used books and journals for evidence-based research, but now
search engines have made it easier to access such information (Pravikoff, 2006).
There is currently an increasing number of people who have access to healthcare
information online, so nurses are obligated to empower patients with knowledge of
how to evaluate the quality of that information (Theron et al, 2017), but how can this
be if they are not digitally literate, or not trained or supported?
Therefore, one has to have the ability to access online tools to search for evidence
for best practice, and knowledge of accessing the most reliable sources (Terry et al,
2019).
HEE, (2017) stresses that it matters to have a workforce that is entirely capable,
competent and confident in digital literacy within the workplace. Hence, the need to
develop a digitally literate health and care workforce.
As such, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) included digital literacy within the
2018 Standards for Pre-Registration Nursing Programmes and Standards of
Proficiency for Registered Nurses (NMC, 2018). This not only facilitates engagement
with effective decision-making, problem solving and research, but also enables
nurses to take responsibility for continued learning in areas of personal or
professional interest as well as facilitating evidence-based practice (Terry et al,
2019). According to Pravikoff (2006), developing and maintaining digital literacy is a
lifelong professional obligation which is as imperative as evidence-based practice.
Moreover, a digitally literate person can use technology strategically to find and
evaluate information, connect and collaborate with others, produce and share
original content, and use the Internet and technology tools to achieve many
academic, professional and personal goals’ (Grech, 2014, p.79, cited by Terry et al,
2019).
However, frustration and lack of confidence is seen among nurses trying to grasp
unfamiliar technology (Stephenson, 2017), given that healthcare has always been
slow in adoption of new digital tools and technologies due to inadequate technology
and information technology systems (Pearce, 2017).
Furthermore, the lack of time allocated for nurses to complete their online g
adds to the barriers, not to mention policy restrictions in some areas where nurses
are not allowed to use personal smartphones to complete their learning, plus issues
with the WI-FI which at times fails or cannot be accessed (Stephenson, 2017).
It has been identified to date that investment in training, assessment of the user’s
skill level, and targeted learning should all be encouraged, as well as the provision of
different modes of instruction to meet the user’s needs (Kuek and Hakkennes, 2020).
The guidance produced by the Royal College of Nursing and Health Education
England aims to inform policies directed at improving the digital capabilities of all
healthcare staff (RCN and HEE, 2017).
In terms of training new staff, which is a major part of my role, I have learnt not to
assume that everyone is good at information technology. It has become a popular
concept in certain areas of policy and practice (Helsper and Eynon, 2010) to follow the
concept of the digital native (Prensky, 2001), which is regarded as a cause of the wide
shifts in how we engage with technology. In spite of this, many see the ‘residents and visitors’ (White and Le Cornu, 2011) typology as a more useful way of observing
people’s interaction with online spaces.
In my own context as a Practice Development Nurse, it is important to stay up-to-date on the latest research and best practices in my field. I have found digital literacy
to be critical in finding and accessing relevant information online as well as using it to
improve my practice whilst educating others (Nwagwu and Oshiname, 2009). An
example is seen recently when I was asked to teach a session on how to safely
transfer patients from the ward to theatres and from the recovery room back to the
ward, to our surgical rotational nurses. Having prior knowledge about what happens,
I still had to utilise not only our local policies, but also accessed online evidence based literature as reference to support our current practices, including having the
capability in using PowerPoint presentation. Digital literacy is therefore an essential
skill in today’s digital age, as technology plays a significant role in almost every
aspect of our lives.
Just like other healthcare organisations, our hospital has adopted Electronic Medical
Record systems to store and manage patient information. An example is the move
away from the use of paper drug charts and instead staff are trained to use
electronic drug charts for medicines management via WeConnect, which is the
Trust’s approved digital program (Barts Health, 2023). Moreover, as a Practice
Development Nurse, you are responsible for training staff in nursing electronic
documentation, entering and retrieving data, in order to track patient progress and communicate with other healthcare professionals.
All new starters are supported by our practice development team in accessing
Information and Communication Technology portals such as Cerner Millenium, the
Trust’s core information technology system, so that they can be trained on how they
will document patient processes intraoperatively via Surginet (Barts Health, 2023).
Digital literacy is therefore, essential for navigating and utilising these systems
efficiently and effectively (Healthcare Business Technology, 2016).
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant increase in the use of digital tools.
Meetings or study days previously held face to face such as our accredited In-House
Nurse Anaesthetic module or Lead mentor meetings with universities, had to be and
many still hold online, via Zoom Application (Serhan, 2020, Mouton, 2023) or
Microsoft Teams (Poston et al, 2020). As a Practice Development Nurse, you may
be responsible for assisting with facilitating or conducting these sessions, which
requires a strong understanding of how to use these technologies.
It should therefore be noted that information, data, and media literacies are not only
important aspects of the HEE framework within nursing as a whole (HEE, 2018) but
are strongly relevant to my practice. These skills allow me and other nurses to
effectively find, evaluate, and use information and data to support our practice and
make informed decisions (HEE, 2018).
Information literacy: Nurses must be able to effectively locate and access relevant
information in order to stay up-to-date on the latest research and best practices in
their field (Nwagwu and Oshiname, 2009, Wilson, 2019). This includes being able to
use search engines such as PubMed, databases such as CINAHL Plus, and other
online resources to find information and evaluate its quality and relevance. In my
role, I support staff and students to develop the skills to interpret, analyse, and
present digital information in diverse contexts for academic and professional
purposes whilst observing copyright rules in line with the (Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988), and open alternatives, such as Creative Commons (Creative
Commons, 2022). Thereby, referencing digital works appropriately in different
contexts.
Data literacy: Nurses often work with large amounts of data, such as patient records and audit results.
A nurse’s ability to collect, analyse, and interpret patient data is crucial in order to
make an informed decision regarding patient care (Glassman, 2017). As a Practice
Development Nurse, you ought to have the capability for collating, managing,
accessing, analysing, and reporting on digital data in spreadsheets, databases, and
other formats (JISC, 2023). Securing personal data is an important practice. That is,
having an understanding of how data is used in professional and public life; being
familiar with legal, ethical, and security guidelines including understanding how
algorithms work and how data may be collected and used (JISC, 2023).
Media literacy: Nurses also need to be able to effectively use and evaluate various
forms of media, including video, audio, and written materials (RCN, 2023).
Communication with patients and colleagues using these media, as well as
evaluating their accuracy and reliability, are all part of the job (HEE, 2018). One
needs the ability to critically receive and respond to messages in text, graphics,
video, animation, and audio, and to curate, edit, and repurpose media while giving
due credit to its original creators as well as critically evaluating the purpose and
provenance of media messages (JISC, 2023). Furthermore, having a broad
understanding of digital media as a social, political, and educational tool, and the
technical aspects of digital media production is important (JISC, 2023).
In conclusion, despite the minimal research conducted regarding the digital literacy
of healthcare staff, with studies demonstrating poor levels of digital literacy among
the staff (Kuek and Hakkennes, 2020), it is imperative that staff are trained and
supported especially in the area of learning and acquiring skills in information, data
and media literacy aspects of digital literacy including all other aspects of digital
literacy prior mentioned within the (HEE 2018) framework. I noticed that our current
NMAHP educational newsletter in our hospital, sign posts links for staff to utilise and
develop their digital literacy skills (Barts Health, 2023): Such support in gaining free
access to such links is advantageous for nurses especially when these skills are
gained. In that nurses should then have the confidence to engage in innovative
practices, plus effectively care for patients and support the healthcare team in
today’s digital age (Glassman, 2017). Attending this module has helped me better
understand the need and importance of digital literacy and how this can be
embedded in one’s personal and continuous professional development.
For instance, this will be my first time to post on a blog platform both personally and
professionally, meeting a goal I had set from one of my previous modules
Professional and Personal Development Planning Module. Reflectively, I can see
that I now understand the theory and digital skills used or we needed in the work I
did earlier in producing an infographic poster during the module Student Support and
Personal Tutoring. My video creation skills have so enhanced and going forward, I
shall be able to use this for my teaching role, but also support staff and students who
might be novices in that area.
As per the required assessment criteria, this essay shall be posted and openly
published on the EDM122 Blog platform under the Commons Creative Licence.
This will grant copyright permission for creative and academic work; whist ensuring
proper attribution; where others are allowed to copy, distribute, and make use of this
work. Out of the licences, I have chosen to use CC BY which ensures that the
original work is credited, allows commercial use and allows modifications and
adaptations as well as changing the licence as per one’s adaptations.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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Impact of open education resources in nursing education

Posted on March 23, 2023 by Filipa Da Silva Miranda

This post is written by Filipa Da Silva Miranda who is a nurse educator who recently completed the module EDM122. The essay is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA. She writes….

For the purpose of assessment on the module EDM 122 (Digital Literacies and Open practices), I will be reflecting on the importance of open education practices. Because of my role as a practice development educator in nursing, I will focus more specifically in the use of open education resources and their impact on nursing education and consequently, on better provision of care.

Open education as a term had its origins in the 1960s, as part of an effort to make education universally available through the creation of open universities, sharing of educational materials and democratizing access to educational opportunities (Blessinger and Bliss, 2016). In the following essay I will define open education and open educational resources; reflect and critically analyze the use of open educational resources and factors that might prevent this, while linking it to education in the healthcare sector.

The Open Education Consortium (cited by Cronin, 2017) defined open education as the resources, tools and practices employed in a context of open sharing in order to positively improve educational effectiveness and educational access around the world.

Open education resources (OERs) are defined as teaching and learning materials presented in a medium or digital format that can be used, re-used or repurposed by others with no cost (Hersh, 2020). The use of such resources is rooted in the will to democratize and make education universal. Ossiannilsson (2019) supports this view by highlighting the fact that OERs expand access to learning opportunities, increasing quality in education and promoting social justice and collaboration, while being useful for continuous professional development and lifelong learning. The advantages of using OERs, highlighted by Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and United Nations Educational, Scientifical and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (2016), are the fact that these can be repurposed by educators to adapt them to a specific context; they can also enhance lifelong learning opportunities by providing ease of access to leaners, irrespective of time or place. Jung, Sasaki and Latchem (2016), add the lowered costs associated to using OERs, the share of best practice for collaboration between institutions or countries (with gains in time for educators, as it makes it unnecessary to reinvent the wheel), increased access for diverse and non-traditional learners, also breaking geographical barriers. With such advantages, it is easy to see why the adoption of OERs is viewed as crucial to provide lifelong education opportunities within many sectors, including healthcare. Ease of access is a crucial point in increasing social justice and inclusivity in accessing such resources.

The Covid-19 pandemic posed a crucial moment for the use of OERs across the globe and in various settings, at a time where physical classrooms were impossible to use and urgent measures were needed to spread valuable knowledge. For the healthcare sector for example, a wide range of free open access online materials was made available to all frontline healthcare staff and students (regardless of workplace or university). Some examples of important online materials included e-learning modules dedicated to teaching correct procedures for putting on and removing personal protective equipment used by healthcare workers caring for patients with Covid-19. The aim of such materials was to increase knowledge around Covid-19, treatments and infection control measures, particularly on websites such as E-learning for Healthcare, an initiative from Health Education England (HEE) whose purpose is to ensure quality in training and education (HEE, n.d.).

Despite its importance and the increase in knowledge such resources provided, it is important to note that being “open access” does not mean such resources are OERs. For resources to be considered OERs, they must be made available under an open license, such as The Creative Commons License (COL and UNESCO, 2016), so that they can be retained, reused, revised, remixed or re-distributed by others (Van Allen and Katz, 2020), in a culture of collaboration and inclusivity for teachers and learners. If such permissions are not in place, then even “open access” materials are bound by copyright laws to prevent distribution and repurpose, such as the materials made available on E-learning for Healthcare.

As a practice development nurse working in a critical care unit of a teaching hospital, I believe in the many potential advantages of using OERs to support staff in their lifelong journey of professional development. Despite this and my short journey through the education world, I confess that the term OER was quite foreign to me until I started undertaking this module, and while I intend to use such resources in my future practice, I have never used them before. Such feelings are not unusual in the education world. Van Allen and Katz (2020) mentioned many educators are still unfamiliar with OERs which prevents their widespread use. The multitude of repositories and distribution channels for OERs, confusing process to obtain them, unclear licensing and uncertainty of adequacy of contents are further factors for under-usage of such resources pointed by Jung, Sasaki and Latchem (2016). Factors associated with educators are not the only ones preventing the use of OERs. Institutional factors, such as support for creating, using and distributing OERs is needed to comply with the principle of universal access to knowledge and build on the already existing knowledge by saving educators the time to create new contents, thus contributing to improvements and innovation (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), 2007). Kurelovic (2016) describes other important limitations to using OERs which are cultural and language barriers. After observing that a large number of OERs available in popular repositories are in English language, this author pointed out that their adaptation and use for different languages or cultural contexts would require organizational resources, time, ICT skills or even access to special software, which might not be a possibility for some institutions. The University of Maryland Global Campus (2020) highlighted other important limitations linked to the use of OERs, such as being shared in static formats (difficulty in modifying and adapting such resources) and sustainability issues (lack of incentive for creators to update their materials and keep them available). The first point may result in the need of having to use expensive software, inaccessible to certain institutions, while the second may cause the materials to go outdated or unavailable; both points can be linked to institutional circumstances that may affect the rate of usage of OERs.

A paper by Lapum et al (2019) described a project where OERs were created in a partnership involving educators and students, with benefits in quality and advancements in nursing education, featuring open pedagogical approaches. Similar outcomes have been shared by Keating et al (2019), who also highlighted that the shortage of nursing staff around the world has an impact in nurse education and access to evidence-based study materials, thus proposing OERs to be a feasible solution in supporting an over-stretched education force. Petrovic et al (2023) further advocates for the use of OERs in distance education courses for example, which could help resolve shortages of nurses.

Part of my activities as an educator in one of the country´s largest Trust, is attending regular meetings with educators for other departments and giving contributions and views on educational activities being carried around the Trust. I believe that sharing educational resources with other fellow educators would be beneficial as it would help develop and improve the ways in which we support staff, particularly an over-stretched workforce. In a healthcare system where staff is often asked to provide care to patients under other specialty of care (for example redeployed staff during Covid-19), it is important to share resources within the education community and rearrange them to face specific needs and contexts. The challenges previously mentioned, such as the formatting of such materials, licences in place or lack of adherence of educators or support from the organization might prevent this from happening.

The involvement of students in the production of OERs can also present advantages to their own learning and development process. Describing a project involving co-creation of OERs by faculty and students, Verkuyl et al (2018) mention the transformational experiences for both parties, as well as a resulting expanded understanding for students of distinct career opportunities and professional prospects beyond direct patient care. Having seen all the potential and positive contributions of OERs for both students and educators, I will be better equipped to use them in my practice. As an educator facing the many challenges and pressures of current healthcare system, I see the use of OERs as something that might facilitate the learning for both educators and students in an ever-changing sector, with benefits that go beyond providing better care to our patients, but also increment professional satisfaction and inclusivity in all staff and students. For the students I teach in particular, those completing their specialty studies in Intensive Care Nursing might particularly benefit from enrolling in projects for co-creation of OERs, as it would be a unique opportunity to share their own experience and bring innovations to a specific aspect of nursing care, as well as broaden their career perspectives.

It is important to highlight that the adoption of open education practices goes beyond accessing and using OERs. Ehlers and Conole (2010) argue that in open education practices there is a shift of paradigm to one where knowledge is freely available and learners are co-creators of knowledge, assessing, modifying and sharing resources – open educational practices are a call for innovation with a modified pedagogical approach. The use of OERs is a step towards open education practices and it should not be feared by educators, but rather used to build upon each other’s experience leading to improved quality in nursing education (Lapum et al, 2019).

As a conclusion, the use of OERs have important advantages, especially in the face of the current healthcare crisis. However, it is important to note that certain limitations to their use still prevent the full potential of a truly open sharing culture. This limitation in use is due to several factors, such as lack of knowledge from educators or lack of trust in such materials, not to mention the multiplicity of sources and at times, confusing licencing practices or organizational factors. I must admit I used to share that same lack of knowledge of such resources or licencing practices for repurposing them to particular contexts. However, I intend to make use of these adequately and when possible, as well as participate in projects where such resources are created and shared at my current workplace in the future.

In the subject of openness, would like to publish this essay on the course blog (“EDM 122: Digital Literacies and Open Practice” blog) under one of the Creative Commons licences. The chosen license will be CC BY-NC-SA. According to Creative Commons (2019), this licence allows for distribution, adaptation, remix and build on the materials as long as the creator is given credit and adaptations are shared under the same licencing terms, not allowing for commercial uses. I believe this is a fair licence to use, as it protects authoring rights, at the same time allowing for a build-up of knowledge and ideas in a fair way to future users as it needs to be shared under the same terms and in a non-commercial way.

References

Blessinger, P. Bliss, T.J. (2016) “Open education. International perspectives in higher education”, Open Book Publishers: Cambridge. Available [online] at: https://books.openedition.org/obp/3539#:~:text=Open%20education%2C%20which%20began%20in%20earnest%20in%20the,part%20of%20a%20wider%20effort%20to%20democratize%20education (accessed on: 17.12.2022)

Creative Commons (2019) “About CC licenses”, Available [online] at: https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/ (accessed on 09.01.2023)

Cronin, C. (2017) “Open education, open questions”, EDUCAUSE review 52, no.6. Available [online] at: https://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/10/open-education-open-questions (accessed on: 13.12.2022)

Ehlers, U.D. Conole, G.C. (2010) “Open educational practices: unleashing the power of OER”, UNESCO Workshop on OER, Namibia, 2010. Available [online] at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306285861_Open_Educational_Practices_Unleashing_the_power_of_OER (accessed on: 13.12.2022)

Health Education England (n.d.) “Our purpose as part of the NHS, is to work with partners to plan, recruit, educate and train the health workforce.” Available [online] at: https://www.hee.nhs.uk/about (accessed on 07.01.2023)

Hersh, W. (2020) “Open educational resources (OERs) in health informatics” in Berner E.S. (ed) Informatics Education in Healthcare, Birmingham: Springer, pp 277-285. Available [online] at: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-53813-2_20 (accessed on: 17.12.2022)

Jung, I. Sasaki, T. Latchem, C. (2016) “A framework for assessing fitness for purpose in open educational resources”, International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 13:3. Available [online] at: https://educationaltechnologyjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41239-016-0002-5 (accessed on: 07.01.2023)

Keating, S. Berland, A. Capone, K. Chickering, M.J. (2019) “Establishing global nursing education equity by developing open access resources”, Nursing Educator, 45:2. Available [online] at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32106148/ (accessed on 07.01.2023)

Kurelovic, E. K. (2016) “Advantages and limitations of usage of open educational resources in small countries”, International Journal of Research in Education and Science, 2:1. Available [online] at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1105180.pdf (accessed on 16.01.2023)

Lapum, J. St-Amant, O. Verkuyl, M. Garcia, W. Tan, A. Freeman, W. Savicevic, N. (2019) “Designing open-access, educational resources”, Quality Advancement in Nursing Education, 5:2. Available [online] at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336583044_Designing_open_access_educational_resources_Developper_des_ressources_educatives_en_libre_acces (accessed on: 07.01.2023)

Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (2007) “Giving Knowledge for free. The emergence of open educational resources.” OECD Publishing: Paris. Available [online] at: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/giving-knowledge-for-free_9789264032125-en;jsessionid=lSjRwtOGeMpCoriHFYtgI4TtHfcIkzNGTWJJcdrl.ip-10-240-5-25 (accessed on: 17.12.2022)

Ossiannilsson, E. (2019) “OER and OEP for access, equity, equality, quality, inclusiveness, and empowering lifelong learning”, International Journal of Open Educational Resources, 1:2. Available [online] at: file:///C:/Users/Filipa/Downloads/25058-oer-and-oep-for-access-equity-equality-quality-inclusiveness-and-empowering-lifelong-learning.pdf (accessed on: 07.01.2023)

Petrovic, K. Perry, B. Walsh, P. (2023) “Aligning nursing ethics with critical and open pedagogy in nursing education: a literature review”, Nurse Educator, 48:1. Available [online] at: https://journals.lww.com/nurseeducatoronline/Fulltext/2023/01000/Aligning_Nursing_Ethics_With_Critical_and_Open.19.aspx (accessed on: 09.01.2023)

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Commonwealth of Learning (COL). (2016) “Introduction: Open educational resources: policy, costs and transformation” in Miao, F. Mishra, S. and Mcgreal, R. (eds) Open educational resources: policy, cost and transformation, France, pp 1-13. Available [online] at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000244365 (accessed on 18.12.2022)

University of Maryland Global Campus (2020) “Pros and Cons of using OERs for Instruction”. Available [online] at: https://libguides.umgc.edu/c.php?g=23404&p=138771 (accessed on: 16.01.2023)

Van Allen, J. Katz, S. (2020) “Teaching with OER during pandemics and beyond”, Journal of Multicultural Education, 14:3/4. Available [online] at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JME-04-2020-0027/full/pdf?title=teaching-with-oer-during-pandemics-and-beyond (accessed on 07.01.2023)

Verkuyl, M. Lapum, J. St-Amant, O. Tan, A. Garcia, W. (2018) “Engaging nursing students in the creation of open educational resources”, Nurse Education Today, 71. Available [online] at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026069171830635X (accessed on 08.01.2023)

EDM122: Digital Literacies and Open Practice

Part of City, University of London's MA in Academic Practice

Category Archives: Open Practice

Reflection on Open access to Literature in Nursing Practice.

Impact of Open Educational Resources in Healthcare Technology Teaching Practices

Openness in IP Law Education: A cross-disciplinary approach?

Healthcare Publishing in Open Access Journals

The mini-podcast series for AST: openness from a social justice perspective

This blog post was written by Agnieszka Marciszewska as part of the final assignment for the module EDM122 at City, University of London

Introduction

Literature review

Reflections on openness in three sample podcast episodes

Experiences of using Open Educational Resources in journalism teaching and research

Are We Open Yet? Is the Use of Rights Retention Strategy the Open Access Breakthrough We are Looking for.

Evidence Based Practice and Open Access

The importance of digital literacy in nursing

Impact of open education resources in nursing education