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.

Welcome to Digital Literacies and Open Practice 2024-5

Posted on October 15, 2024 by Jane Secker

I can’t believe we are about to start this module again for the sixth time as the module was first created in 2018. How time flies! We have a new cohort of students, and I’ve just completed some research on the impact of teaching on this module. The findings about what staff think of their own and their students’ digital literacies are really interesting and going to be the subject of a LEaD Learning Circle event in November. We also collected data on their attitudes towards open educational practices. Watch this space as I have also just submitted the first of a few planned journal articles on this research.

Definitions and terminology are both topics for discussion in next week’s first teaching day. I am really looking forward to meeting the new cohort, as this continues to be a really fascinating area to teach (and do research) in. We’ve got some introductory reading on what are digital literacies (from AdvanceHE) and a similar short piece on what open educational practices are from University of Edinburgh. A key part of the day is also going to be learning about where understanding copyright fits in this whole process and we have a link to last year’s guest lecture from Chris Morrison as he sadly can’t join us next week. But, it’s going to be a great term and good luck to everyone taking the module!

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

Carson, A. (2020) Investigative Journalism, Democracy, and the Digital Age. New York: Routledge.

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).

UNESCO (2023) Guidance for generative AI in education and research https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000386693 (Accessed on 30 January 2024).

Open Access in health practice: Is it a necessity or a luxury?

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Emerson Castillo

This post is written by Emerson Castillo, who completed the module EDM122 in October 2022-February 2023. He is a nurse educator and he chose to licence his work under a CC-BY NC Licence. Emerson writes:

Since the turn of the century, the open access movement—in which research articles are made publicly accessible online rather than published in journals that require substantial subscription fees—has risen significantly (Ratcliffe, 2014). Nonetheless, according to a review by Piwowar et al. in 2018, only 28% of scholarly papers, are currently open access, this means numerous academic knowledge is still unavailable to the public without a paid individual or institutional subscription. This signifies that designing new clinical guidelines and protocols is still challenging for clinicians as they have restricted resources for related literature. In addition, this also affects clinicians’ capacities including myself as a clinical practice educator to conduct further and in-depth research studies.

This essay explores open access in health education and how can this impact clinical practice among healthcare providers while fostering safer and quality care for all.

“opening the door” by laurabillings is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

What is Open Access?

Open access (OA) refers to a set of guiding principles and a variety of methods that allow for the free online distribution of research outputs (Suber, 2015). It is a term under open practice, which is a publication and distribution approach that facilitates scientific research literature—freely and unrestrictedly accessible to the public online. Likewise, the results of academic research are made available to an unprecedented number of researchers through open access, which democratizes information access while promoting innovation and discovery. Wagner (2022) stated that “when there are no financial, legal, or technical barriers to accessing a publication—that is when anyone can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search for and search within the information, use it in education, or use it in any other way that is permitted by the agreements—that publication is said to be open access (Wagner, 2022).

Most academic publications are only accessible to those who pay a subscription fee or who are members of an organization that does. Open Access makes research findings broadly accessible through digital technology. There are two ways to make work accessible: either by publishing in a journal that instantly makes the work freely available online or by depositing a copy of the published work in a repository (Kingsley, 2015). In a nutshell, free-to-read and free-to-reuse are the two elements of open access (Open Society Foundations, 2018).

The world’s response to Open Access

Open access accelerated dramatically in December 2001 when an open society foundation sponsored a meeting in Budapest, Hungary where the statement of principles on open access to research literature developed (Open Society Foundation, 2018). However, two following initiatives inspired by the Budapest Open Access Initiative—the Bethesda Statement from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Berlin Declaration from the Max Planck Society—broadened and strengthened the basis of support for open access (Open Society Foundation, 2018). To apply the open access approach, scholarly academics, libraries, students, patient advocates, and small companies, among others, have organized their members and led the initiative (Suber, 2015).

Additionally, in April 2006, the European Commission urged: “Research funding agencies… should establish a European policy mandating published articles arising from EC-funded research to be available after a given period in open access archives…” Furthermore, the WHO judges that “universal access to publicly funded research, including research data, is fundamental to tackling the public health challenges of the 21st century”. With this, the organization mandated that all works written or financed by the organization submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals after January 1, 2021, must first be published in an open-access journal or on an open-access platform (World Health Organization, 2021).

In the United Kingdom, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) also addressed this widely concerning issue regarding open access. In 2021, the NIHR released the Open Access Publish Policy stating that all publications submitted for peer review after June 1, 2022, should comply with the four principles. Articles must be free and accessible to everyone, with no barriers to re-use and dissemination, freely discoverable and if necessary, NIHR will settle payment to allow immediate open access (National Institute for Health and Care Research, 2021).

Sadly, as the world extensively attempts to move forward in advancing open access, some low-socioeconomic countries still have limited access to recent studies and educational resources. Contrarily, the Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL) collaborates with libraries all around the globe to supply developing and transitional nations’ citizens with access to digital information. Its primary goal is to negotiate, support, and enable the widespread accessibility of scholarly electronic content by library users from the education and research sectors, professional communities, governmental organizations, and civil society (Kupryte, Segbert-Elbert and Bernal, 2005).

Benefits of Open Access to clinicians and patients

Nowadays, in developed countries such as the United Kingdom, it is straightforward for clinicians to access newly published scientific studies. As I have noted earlier, most academic search engines like science.gov, PUBMED, and CINAHL are readily available to use for most clinicians. Furthermore, academic institutions also provide free access to various research databases. Some institutions push further by providing free training on how to maximize the use of these databases and efficiently search for useful and relevant studies to your research.

Conducting research studies is a fundamental role for clinicians and health leaders. Likewise, as a clinical practice educator, I am accountable for guaranteeing that clinical practice is aligned with standards established on recently completed studies. Presently, I am leading a study focusing on pre-operative assessment of bariatric patients and I am arranging to apply open access to it once it’s ready for publishing as the Royal Society stated that authors “who choose open access are likely to benefit from increased dissemination.” This implies that if I apply the principles of open access to my study, my research may potentially have high citation rates, thus, I will personally gain and benefit from it as a clinician and academe. Further, the Nuffield Department of Medicine – Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health (2003) specified that open access could benefit clinical practitioners as they can apply findings of research to clinical practice that improves patient care and medical management and could influence the creation of new policies and procedures in the healthcare setting.

Overall, open access benefits patients by permitting clinicians to extend their knowledge and understanding of recent clinical trials. Remarkably, it allows all clinical practitioners to identify any new research gaps (Yoong et al., 2022).

Barriers to Open Access

Although there are many advantages to open-access publishing, most authors choose their publications based on the reputation of the journal. Due to false impressions of quality, open-access publications are at a disadvantage (Shah, 2017). In addition, a journal’s reputation in research and medicine is determined by its impact factor ranking. As a result, the reputation and worth of individual papers are frequently assessed using the journal’s impact factor (Wageningen University & Research, 2021). This is an unnecessary risk for an author because a research study may potentially be judged based on the open-access journal they disseminated it with. This can be deceiving for clinicians and the public since the quality and reliability of a study depends on which company published it and not the actual outcome and findings of the study. This may put patients and the public at risk as clinicians deliver medical treatments based on recent findings.

Open Access and Clinical Practice

We can all agree that the public’s social and health needs dramatically changed since Florence Nightingale founded nursing in the 1850s. These changes vary from clinical to social needs, for example, improvement in infection control and management and more complex medical conditions brought by globalization. The importance of open access in healthcare lies in providing a constructive way of solving problems and enhancing standards of care through research studies. Open access makes medical evidence widely disseminated and freely accessible to everyone, including academic researchers, medical professionals, policymakers, and laypeople (Barbour, 2006). This evidence can influence the laws and practices that affect public health.

Before the introduction of the open access model, nearly all scholarly study peer-reviewed articles were published in print journals with subscription costs that might be prohibitively expensive, even though writers received no compensation for their contributions. In addition, only well-funded university libraries, particularly in industrialized countries, had access to these magazines for the public. This implies that healthcare providers working in any remote region of a third-world country, for example, often could not access complete articles regarding the results of the latest medical research on the treatment and management of certain diseases.

Presently, on top of my research study, I am also formulating clinical guidelines for assessing patients with complex medical histories and clinical needs in Preoperative Assessment Unit. Thankfully, most of the resources nowadays are easily accessible using my NHS account in contradiction to what my colleagues experiencing in the Philippines.

I can remember a time when a friend of mine was writing his dissertation roughly 10 years ago. He was studying in a low-end school, consequently, his access to the latest medical literature was extremely limited. When I had a conversation with him to see how he was doing with his paper, he disappointedly mentioned that he spends almost 500 USD to acquire access to different studies. According to him, roughly 50% of his online purchases were insignificant in his research focus and was not able to use them at all. Regrettably, this access does not have a return policy. I think this is unnecessary especially if a clinician is researching to improve health practice or advance medical treatment. A question came into my mind, is it fair for researchers and clinicians to spend money in conducting studies to address the needs of the public and society?

Another scenario came to my attention when a colleague approached me a few months ago and asked about the importance of open access in nursing. I briefly discussed that open access is a way to communicate scholarly work and to be used and re-used. Thus, open access simply suggests free and readily accessible research studies that can be used as a basis for improving clinical practice or as a foundation for further investigation or study, therefore, affecting nursing practice. Moreover, I utilized the coronavirus pandemic that began in 2019 to highlight its significance because open access allowed for the free exchange of scientific knowledge, which has been incredibly valuable for modern-day scientific study. Researchers from all over the world have been positively impacted by easy access to scientific data and literature in terms of understanding the virus’ characteristics and key underlying mechanisms. This understanding has enabled pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines and other treatments to prevent people from contracting the disease or minimizing the symptoms brought by the coronavirus (Bose, 2022) regardless of the call to suspend intellectual property rights for covid-19 vaccines (Krishtel and Malpani, 2021). On May 5, 2021, the United States startled the globe by announcing its support for a World Trade Organization (WTO) proposition that would temporarily suspend intellectual property rights on covid-19 vaccinations. This denotes that successful negotiation of an intellectual property waiver would guarantee that producers could not restrict access to raw materials and finished goods for covid-19 technology worldwide (Krishtel and Malpani, 2021). On contrary, some open-accessed research does not support the use of vaccination in tackling the pandemic. As reported by Peter Doshi (2020), Associate Editor at The BMJ today, “vaccines are being hailed as the solution to the covid-19 pandemic, but the vaccine trials currently underway are not designed to tell us if they will save lives”. This is the power of open access as it provides a scientific understanding of how we deal with different medical situations, and it provides facts about the edge and drawbacks of a specific medical treatment e.g., vaccination and other medications. Without these previous studies regarding coronavirus or acute respiratory distress syndrome, we might still be waiting for vaccines as you read this. We gather and analyze data from previous studies as a basis for developing a piece of new knowledge.

Conclusion

Open access is like opening a door for new discoveries as it allows clinicians to gain new knowledge and understanding of the complex world of human health. It is important in advancing research studies that influence the management and treatment of progressing clinical needs of the patients and the public. During the discussion, I discussed several advantages and disadvantages of open-accessed research studies. With this, I believe open access is a necessity in health practice. However, clinicians and health leaders must be keen and critical in assessing the reliability and credibility of all research studies we are exploring as they can either positively affect the public and patients or put them in danger. In a nutshell, open access is advantageous in improving clinical practice and competencies among healthcare providers when used with high caution.

References:

Barbour, V. (2006). The impact of open access upon public health. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 84(5), pp.339–339. doi:10.2471/blt.06.032409.

Bose, P. (2022). How Will Open Access Research Help Tackle Future Pandemics? [online] News Medical Life Sciences. Available at: https://www.news-medical.net/health/How-will-Open-Access-Research-Help-Tackle-Future-Pandemics.aspx [Accessed 10 Jan. 2023].

Doshi, P. (2020). Will covid-19 vaccines save lives? Current trials aren’t designed to tell us. BMJ, [online] 371(8265). doi:10.1136/bmj.m4037.

Doyle, G. and McCutcheon, J. (2015). Clinical procedures for safer patient care. [online] Victoria, B.C.: BCcampus, p.1. Available at: https://opentextbc.ca/clinicalskills/ [Accessed 5 Jan. 2023].

European Commission (2006). Scientific publication: Policy on Open Access. [online] commission.europa.eu. Available at: https://commission.europa.eu/research-and-innovation_en [Accessed 6 Jan. 2023].

Kingsley, D. (2015). Open Access. [online] osc.cam.ac.uk. Available at: https://osc.cam.ac.uk/open-access [Accessed 24 Jan. 2023].

Krishtel, P. and Malpani, R. (2021). Suspend intellectual property rights for covid-19 vaccines. BMJ, [online] 373(8296), p.n1344. doi:10.1136/bmj.n1344.

Kupryte, R., Segbert-Elbert, M. and Bernal, I. (2005). The eIFL.net Initiative: Access and Management of Electronic Resources by Library Consortia in Developing and Transition Countries. Serials Review, [online] 31(4), pp.256–260. doi:10.1016/j.serrev.2005.09.001.

Masnick, M. (2022). Huge News: Biden Administration Announces All Publicly Funded Research Should Be Available For Free To The Public. [online] Techdirt. Available at: https://www.techdirt.com/2022/08/26/huge-news-biden-administration-announces-all-publicly-funded-research-should-be-available-for-free-to-the-public/ [Accessed 8 Jan. 2023].

‌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 8 Jan. 2023].

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The impact of open Pedagogy on the professional development of Nurses

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Mitzie Facey Williams

This essay was written by Mitzie Facey-Williams who is a clinical nurse educator and took the module EDM122 in October 2022 – February 2023. This is her final assignment for the module that she has shared with a CC-BY licence on it She writes:

When we share, everyone wins – Creative Commons

The impact of open Pedagogy on the professional development of nurses and evidence-based nursing practice:

To meet the challenges of the evolving health care system, there has been calls for nursing education to be transformed (Benner et al 2010), however according to Ironshore (2015) this need to take the form of different pedagogy. Open pedagogy provides an opportunity for nurses to be able to freely participate in learning by accessing resources that are freely available on online platforms (Brown et al 2009). Studies involving nurses from there different hospitals have found that e-compendiums were pivotal to their learning (Usrtad et al 2021). It has been concluded that e-compendiums were valued for reinforcing and retaining knowledge. Research also shows that there have been 100%increase in learners accessing learning materials over via the internet (Law and Jelf 2016).

In this essay I will be reflecting on how open pedagogy has impacted on my practice as a clinical nurse specialist and nurse educator.

What is Open Pedagogy?

My research into the aspect of open pedagogy have made me realise that there is various definition of open pedagogy, however in this essay I will be focusing on Wiley’s perspective. Wiley viewed open pedagogy as the use of open education resources (Hilton and Wiley 2018). Although open pedagogy and open education resources have different definitions in literature, According to III Hilton and Wiley (2018) it has been argued that open pedagogy is only possible through open education resources (OERs). According to UNESCOS (2010), “Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others.” This includes lessons plans, textbook, games, software and any other materials that supports teaching and learning (Wiley and Hilton 2018).

Prior to open practice, the majority of literature would have been published on platforms that require a fee to access the resources (Open research Society 2018) This means that learners from financially deprived backgrounds may be deprived from equal opportunities to access education resources, hence OERs now provides opportunity or freedom to individuals or organisations to be able to access learning and transform teaching, since the digital resources provide worldwide access to free quality education materials (Sanchez Vera et al 2022). According to Paskevicius and Irvin (2019) a recent study has revealed that open pedagogy has been beneficial across teaching learning and assessment. They found that within the aspect of teaching and learning there has been a shift in roles and responsibilities which also includes more collaborative working and peer reviews. In relation to learning outcomes, there has also been more critical approach to knowledge and literacy. It also encourages a more diverse multidisciplinary source of resources which is quite beneficial to the teaching contents. It supports personalised learning and provides ways for learners to promote and share their work.

How does OERs impact on practice?

It is the requirement of the Nursing and Midwifery council (2018) (NMC) that nurses keep their skills and knowledge up to date. This must be evidenced in the form of continual professional development. The code also stipulates that to practice safely, nurses must practice in line with the updated evidence. I will reflect on how CPD and evidence-based practice (EBP) is achieved by looking at how OERs impact on sections of the NMC code.

NMC Standard 6: always practice in line with best available evidence –

6.2 Maintain the knowledge and Skills you need to practice safely:

According to Urstad et al (2021) a vast amount of knowledge in healthcare is gained through experience in working collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams. While this may be true in some areas of practice, the ethical guidelines for practice can only be based upon learning which has been attained from peer reviewed evidence-based research. This means that such resources will need to be available to nurses to access, however, the quest for knowledge can be hindered depending on the availability of resources (Benner et al 2010). Base on the evidence that OERs provide opportunities for the public to retain, reuse, revise, remix and redistribute learning materials, it would be fair to argue that open pedagogy is pivotal to nursing professional development since it provides opportunity to access published literature.

I will now provide a reflection on how the 5Rs of OERs impact on practice within my team.

5Rs of open practice:

Retain: I have examined the way in which my team and other nurses retain evidence-based knowledge. Many of the learning activities that my team participates in is via online conferences via social media platform such as YouTube, as well accessing updated literature from online platforms. As agreed by Petrovic et al (2023) attending conferences requires resources such as time and money; however, the use of social media to host conference facilitates accessibility, as it allows information to be retain after the event as argued by Beckinham (2018). Barts health employee have access to literature from NHS open Athens, however; regardless of the availability of literature on OERs, some of the literatures are not available in full content and therefore requires a purchase or subscription to the platform in which they are published, which therefore restrict access to due to cost. As argued by Petrovic et al (2023) there need to be more critical open pedagogy opportunities for nurses. According to Bali et al (2020) the ability to access learning material via OERs helps to close the gap between social injustice.

Revise and remix:

As stated by Brown et al (2009), a large amount of learning in practice is gained from practice experience; however in order to use share knowledge, the learning need to be supported by published evidence based literature (NMC 2018), hence it could be argued that open learning allows nurses to collate their learning with theories that have already been published , hence providing an opportunity to remix literature by applying individual’s own knowledge which has been gained from experience.

I was able to re-examine my team’s dynamics in relation to the remix, reuse and redistribution of knowledge, and found that in spite all of the team members possessing expertise knowledge and experience in the area of tissue viability, none of the members have taken opportunities to publish any work. This may be due to the lack of knowledge around the use of creative commons and publishing via OERs; however, according to (Sela et al 2019) this attitude appears to be common among nurses working at a lower band. The literature suggests that regardless of the wide area of experience and knowledge that nurses gained through collaborative working and access to OERs, evidence suggest that there is still room for more innovation among nurses (Brown et al 2019).

Brown et al (2009) concluded that a lack of innovation was common negative factor among nurses who participated in the study. Many nurses did not gravitate to the idea of carrying out new research or detailed assignment due to their time-consuming nature and potential cost.

On the other hand, it is evidence that regardless of the availability of resources there remains a gap between nursing practice and the application of theory. An example of this would be from my own analysis of information that I gather from root cause analysis (RCA) of pressure ulcers reports. The RCA frequently identifies gap in knowledge as a root cause for acquired pressure ulcers. Seleh et al (2019) also highlighted similar findings. Their study found that there is a gap between knowledge and practice in relation to pressure ulcer prevention and treatment. It could be argued that one possible reason for this is the lack of time to be relief from duty to carry out the research and analyse information.

Reuse and Redistribute: The Cape town open declaration (2007) stipulates that unlocking education resources provides more learning opportunities that are less costly. In recent years nursing education have evolve into digital platform which includes access to e-learning resources. This is also supported in Urstad et all 920 study who also found that e-compendium were valued for reinforcing and retaining knowledge.

I have reflected on how my team facilitate learning among nurses in our organisation. An example of this is the Tissue Viability e-learning module which is designed to continuously educate nurses on aspect of wound care and pressure ulcer prevention. We designed the course content and Moodle page using materials available from OERs; hence this allows the nurses to have access to learning resources that would otherwise be time consuming and cost effective to retain. This is also supported by Petrovic et al (2023) who argued that Open pedagogy may facilitate the evolvement of nursing education as it will allow nurse educators and students to analyse and disseminate information on a broader scale.

According to Paskevicius and Irvine (2019), studies have revealed that the implementation of e-learning has a positive impact on the outcome of nurse education, and as OERs becomes increasingly available nurses are expecting to carry out self-directed learning or e-learning activities.

In my experience in delivering the tissue viability module, nurses often request that I share the teaching slides, as this will allow them to revise the information in their own time. Several international studies including Wallis (2012) and Alqahtani (2022), have highlighted that a lack of availability and tight work life balance has been identified as a hindrance to updating knowledge; therefore to reduce the gap between theory and practice, in addition to bespoke training, Seleh et al (2019) also suggest implementing regular updated learning materials on best practice to the ward staff including newly qualified nurses.

Implication on future practice

NMC Standard 22.3: keep your knowledge and skills up to date, taking part in appropriate and regular learning and professional development activities that aim to maintain and develop your competence and improve your performance

As agreed by Mackey and Bassendowski (2017), it is crucial for registered nurses to continuously seek out new knowledge in order to close the gap between theory and practice. With healthcare practices being a rapidly evolving sector, it means that new evidence and information emerges regularly that could change the way care is provided (Petrovic 2023), and to be able to provide safe evidence-based care nurses need to have easy access to these information without incurring cost (Brown et al 2009) (III John and Wiley 2018).

Platform such NHS open Athens not only provide platform for undergraduate nursing student to be able to freely access resources that will help them to persist and successfully complete their course without adding additional financial burden (III John et al 2018), it also of benefit to registered nurses, as it provide free access to resources that nurses may access to be able to freely participate in education that will contribute to their professional development as well as promote the best evidence based practice (Mackey and Bassendowski 2017).

While it may be apparent that OERs can only be of benefits to nursing practice, it would not be a balance conclusion without looking at the pitfalls. One of the pitfalls of OERs is that it allows publication of literature that have not been peer reviewed (Cape Town Open Education Declaration 2007), hence it could be argued that using articles that has not been peered reviewed may potentially lead to nurses acquiring misinformation in instances where there are errors in the publications. Any such Misinterpretation of information and data could also compromise patient’s care (Benner et al 2019) therefore it is crucial the information that is retain from OERs are scrutinise for evidence-based content for accuracy prior to applying them to practice in order to preserve the safety patients as well as the public (NMC 2018)

In relation to nursing publications, according to Baldi (2020), nurses should also be encouraged to produce renewable assignments, as the evidence suggest that there need to be more critical open pedagogy to nursing education (Petrovic 2023). However, as the opportunity to publish using creative commons license becomes more to the forefront, it could inspire more nurses to participate in innovation if there is the opportunity to publish and share their work (Brown et al 2019). This will also help with building confidence in relation to sharing information. As agreed by Petrovic et al (2023), one of the driven factors that drives nurses to become educators is their vast knowledge and skills and their ability to impart such knowledge and skills to undergraduates as well as colleagues.

According to Ramazanzade et al (2022), sharing such knowledge helps to foster positive attitude and well as impart generational knowledge; therefore, it could be argued that the opportunity to publish evidence-based knowledge via OERs platform may benefit the individual who produce the resources as well as undergraduates and organisation.

It can therefore be concluded that the impact of open pedagogy on nursing practice includes facilitating professional attitudes towards acquiring and sharing knowledge for the development of healthcare from individual to organisational level. Open education resources platform is an opportunity for nurses to share details of their work.

References

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Fostering Inclusivity and Achieving Sustainable Development in Legal Education using Open Practices

Posted on January 24, 2023 by Pia Rebelo

This blog post is written Pia Rebelo, a lecturer in city’s Law School who recently completed the module EDM122. She writes….

I am pleased to share my thoughts on this topic following the completion of a very exciting module on Digital Literacies and Open Practices. As a Lecturer in The City Law School who also participates in sustainability research (specifically in contract law), the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals is of immense relevance to my teaching practice in both curriculum design and educating future lawyers. Here are my reflections on how I can use open practices to foster inclusive legal education and tackle sustainaiblity challenges.

Introduction

The right to education is recognised by a number of international legal instruments, including the EU Charter for Fundamental Rights (Art 14). Education is also prioritised by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), with SDG 4 requiring a commitment by states to, ‘[e]nsure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’. Realising this right and working towards the achievement of the 2030 SD Agenda also places a responsibility on institutions to promote inclusivity, particularly since entrenched inequities in education were exacerbated by the Covid-19 Pandemic (SDG Report, 2022). Open Education including open resources and practice have been recognised as major contributors to realising SDG 4 by, inter alia, transforming tertiary education through innovation in distance learning (Lane, 2017). In a special report on supporting SDG4 through open educational resources, it was emphasised that the world economy is digital and that, ‘students must learn to work (and play) in digital environments’ (McGreal, 2017: 293). Within my own institution, City University of London has committed itself to sustainable development as well as to addressing inequalities by embedding Equality, Diversity and Inclusion into everything that it sets out to do (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, 2020 – 2026).

Given the global milieu and my role as an educator within City’s LLB programme, I have started reflecting on how I use open learning in my teaching practice to contribute to the realisation of inclusive education that seeks to address economic, political, and social injustices. This aim is two-fold: 1) to enable students from diverse backgrounds to study the law in a way that is fair and that identifies their individual needs and lived experiences; and 2) to educate lawyers who are cognisant of sustainable development and the present socio-economic problems that will be intensified by climate change. This essay explores what is meant by ‘open practices’ in tertiary education and how open learning solutions can assist with the aforementioned aims.

Open Educational Practices in Tertiary Education: What does “open” mean?

“Open practices” are situated within the broader context of “openness” within the context of higher education (Cronin, 2017). Research evaluating open education has predominantly focused on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) and open educational resources (OER) in achieving wider levels of access and equality (Cronin, 2017). A common understanding of “open” is therefore resource centred and focuses on “open as free” (Moe, 2015). As such, there has been a major focus on licencing and the usage rights, with Wiley et al describing the “5 Rs of Openness: Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix, and Redistribute” (Wiley et al., 2014).

However, researchers of open educational practices (OEP) have moved beyond a content-centred approaches to pedagogical techniques in empowering learners to both use OERs effectively and to contribute to knowledge creation. The OPAL Report defines OEP as:

‘practices which support the (re)use and production of OER through institutional policies, promote innovative pedagogical models, and respect and empower learners as co-producers on their lifelong learning paths. OEP address the whole OER governance community: policy makers, managers/ administrators of organisations, educational professionals and learners.’ (The OPAL Report, 2011: 12).

Cronin explains that OEP moves beyond OER in that:

‘it includes the creation, use, and reuse of OER, as well as pedagogical practices employing participatory technologies and social networks for interaction, peer-learning, knowledge creation, and empowerment of learners’.

As such, OEP incorporates a number of open pedagogies with its own typology and framework. In order to evaluate the relevance of OEP to tertiary education, and legal education more specifically, I will employ the typology of Bali, Cronin & Jhangiani for ‘Framing Open Educational Practices from a Social Justice Perspective’ (2020). According to this framework, there are three dimensions that conceptualise OEP: 1) from content-centric to process-centric; 2) from teacher-centric to learner-centric; and 3) from primarily pedagogical to primarily social justice focused. (Bali, Cronin & Jhangiani, 2020). The following section explores these dimensions in the context of “sustainable” legal education.

1. Content-Centric to Process-Centric

The focus has shifted from OER to OEP in order to value new ways of constructing knowledge such as social learning and developing digital literacies (Cronin, 2017). In legal education, this dimension is particularly relevant as OERs are more available and accessible to students than ever before, with online open universities attracting large enrolment for legal MOOCs. In my personal experience, all the knowledge required to understand and “learn” the law is freely available to varying degrees on online platforms with the option to view e-textbooks, legal blogs, and academic writings. Similarly, international instruments, national legislation and key cases are easy to find with a simple Google search. Given the vast array of digital OER, developing digital literacies is pivotal to fostering open learning practices. As noted in my video reflection on digital literacies for law students, free and open access to an abundance of information does not correlate to better learning. Students have varying levels of digital literacy in how they access and synthesise online information. Digital literacy is defined by Paul Gister as ‘the ability to both understand and use digitised information’ (Gister, 1977). Preparing lawyers for the future, also requires that legal education “catches up” in replicating certain processes that are rapidly digitalising within legal services (Bonkalo et al., 2021; Mironova et al., 2019; Thanaraj, 2017).

Inclusive legal education that substantively engages with SDG4 therefore requires that a much greater emphasis is placed on digital skills. This refers to ‘capabilities which fit someone for living, learning and working in a digital society’ (JISC, 2015). There are basic skills which a law student is expected to have when entering higher education, such as email writing, using a browser to access Moodle, using MS Word, connecting to online library resources and accessing legal databases. However, my personal experience shows that this cannot be presumed and there are significant discrepancies between learners in respect of digital competency. Addressing these differences can be done through simple demonstrations in class, or it can be achieved more comprehensively by meeting students halfway and communicating basic skills over the platforms wherein students are already “residents” (White & Le Cornu, 2011). My video on digital literacies illustrates how TikTok or Instagram can be useful platforms for introducing new skills and signposting various resources.

Process-centric practices also focus on networks and social learning. Here, the focus in on connectivist principles that value diverse opinions and aim to construct knowledge in a dynamic way through establishing and nurturing online networks (Goldie, 2016). Siemens originally expounded upon the principles of connectivism which can be broadly conceptualised as ‘the clustering of similar areas of interest that allows for interaction, sharing, dialoguing and thinking together’ (Siemens, 2005).

Theories of social learning include theories of social constructivism and sociocultural theory that place and emphasis on learners being actively involved in the learning process (Conole & Oliver, 2006; McLoughlin & Lee, 2010).

In my experience, students who achieve poor grades are often those who feel isolated from the learning community, whilst better performing students are more engaged with their fellow classmates and teachers. Inclusive education therefore requires a greater emphasis on bringing students into the learning community and exploring pedagogical support tools for understanding why certain students are alienating or distancing themselves from the community. Social media needs further exploration in law schools as learning communities are increasingly digital (Khalil & Ebner, 2014).

2. Teacher-Centric to Learner-Centric

Learner-centric approaches view learners as co-creators of knowledge (Huang, 2002). The learner is also able to influence content, delivery, pace, and collaborative activities (Froyd & Simpson, 2008). This sort of institutional approach has proven to increase intrinsic motivations to learn, comprehending and retaining more knowledge, and fostering a deeper critical evaluation of the content (Collins & O’Brien, 2003). Shah et al have investigated learner-centric approaches in the context of online learning and MOOCs (2022). Their findings propose that the teacher plays a limited role in delivering content (namely through very short 5-10 minute videos), whilst the learning environment is deliberately planned and centres on learning by doing, fostering dialogue, and immediate feedback (through quizzes, surveys, chat forums).

The data on learner-centric approaches and the frameworks for implementing such approaches has been a major learning curve and point of reflection for me. On the face of it, my teaching is extremely teacher-centric. I design the module content, choose all OERs, and deliver content in the format of 2-hour lectures. Students have fortnightly 2-hour workshops where they can “learn by doing”, yet these questions are set based on pre-selected materials and students have little say in what activities are planned. Given that all the module content and resources are readily available, perhaps my role as teacher needs to shift from lecturer (in the traditional sense) to facilitator. Do I actually have to explain knowledge and content, or would it be better to start a discussion on module content and allow students to actively seek resources that are beneficial to them? Of course, this would need to be guided by developing necessary digital literacy skills and also providing a framework for students to assess the credibility of sources and materials.

A major focus of learner-centric approaches is that resources are adaptable to meet the individual cognitive needs of learners (Shah et al, 2022). I am going to use some of these insights in my contributions to the LLB Programme Review called “Reimagining the LLB” at The City Law School. I think that law academics certainly need to rethink the traditional lecture model and how we deliver content on legal doctrine without contextualising it for students in the modern world with their own participation. It seems hypocritical to ask students to contribute to a future that attains sustainable development by addressing socio-economic inequalities when their LLB education does little to accommodate a diversity of backgrounds and varying digital literacies.

3. Pedagogical to Social Justice Primary Focus

Social justice interventions in education refer to a number of sub-dimensions involving redistributing who has access (economic justice), recognising other cultures and re-articulating the learning process accordingly (cultural justice), and emphasizing equal representation and parity of participation (political justice) (Hodgkinson-Williams and Trotter, 2018). There is a major focus on connecting content with connectivist theories of community building and collaboration which are more process-centred and learner-centred (Shah et al, 2022). Education for sustainable development is characterised by a new educational order and corresponding sustainability competencies which is achieved by democratising power relationships and challenges the existing social reality and its constructs (Gokool-Ramdoo & Rumjaun, 2017).

In order for students to challenge the social reality of the times and democratise power imbalances, there ultimately needs to be a democratisation of power within the learning environment. This is a yet another major point of reflection in my own teaching practice and how to shift my role. There cannot be an inconsistency between the structure of legal education and the expectations of future lawyers in combatting socio-economic injustices. New Private Law theory speaks to the substance of sustainable legal education in that it must, inter alia, ‘incorporate a critical perspective, which encourages ethical and moral evaluations as well as strategic awareness’ (Leone, 2022). This must include an openness to all knowledge as relevant in finding the answers to legal problems in respect of sustainability.

Conclusions

OEP is necessary for inclusive legal education that recognises the diverse backgrounds and learning needs of students, as well as for educating lawyers are equipped to challenge the status quo and promote sustainable development. In order to employ the OEP Framework from a Social Justice Perspective, the way that the LLB is taught at City Law School requires radical change. To support learner-centred approaches, I would like to propose that traditional lecturing be replaced by short introductions to a topic and a curriculum that allows students to actively select their own OER thereby developing digital literacy skills. Students from different backgrounds should be able to offer alternative sources of knowledge in response to a legal question, whilst feeling that all opinions are valued in a learning community. Legal educators have a lot of catching up to do in utilising social media to maintain and foster online communities that support active learning and to ensure that marginalised students are not isolated from the collaborative learning experience. I hope to continue the discussion on how to democratise power imbalances in the learning environment so that students feel empowered to challenge social constructs and to become responsible lawyers who contribute to sustainable development and tackling social justice issues.

Sources:

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

Bonkalo, T.I., Logachev, V., Shmeleva, S.V. (2021) Formation of a professional and informational culture of future lawyers as a condition for solving the problems of digitalization of legal professions. In: Popkova and Sergi (eds) Modern global economic system: Evolutional development vs. revolutionary leap,1318–1327.

City University of London. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2020 – 2026. https://www.city.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/548333/Equality-diversity-inclusion-DK1g-accessibility-tagged-final.pdf

City University of London. Access and Participation Plan: 2020-21 to 2024-25. https://www.city.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/492747/CityUniversityOfLondon_APP_2020-21-_V1_10001478.pdf

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Welcome to EDM122: Digital Literacies and Open Practice 2021/2022

Posted on September 23, 2021 by Jane Secker

I’m really delighted to be running this 15 credit module as part of the Masters in Academic Practice for the fourth year running, so welcome to my new cohort at City University. This year I am delighted to be joined by a new member of the academic team at City, Dr Julie Voce, who is also Head of Digital Education. For those who are not at City, but who would like a taste of the module you are very welcome to join the webinar series. I have also made information available about the teaching days and the reading list from the blog.

Digital Literacies and Open Practice is an opportunity for staff and LIS students to explore two important and inter-related issues, that are central to the role that technology plays in education. It has been particularly interesting to discuss these issues in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to online learning. The importance of considering your own, but also your students’ digital literacies has been only too apparent over the past 18 months. I have regularly had discussions with staff who made assumptions about what students might already know, about how to use technology and how to behave online. I think the need to embed digital literacies into the curriculum are now more important than ever before.

And the crisis has also highlighted the value of open practice, whether it’s about sharing teaching resources, helping students get access to digitised or electronic key readings, and the need for open access research. Last year I signed the Open COVID pledge, to try and be open in the work I write and publish. I’ve also been running regular webinars for the education community on copyright and online learning, with my research partner, Chris Morrison. Chris will once again be delivering the first webinar in the series associate with this module.

I hope you can join some of this module and if you would like to understand a bit more about the rationale behind it and the feedback from the first cohorts, then I have published the paper I presented just a few weeks before lockdown at the INTED Conference in Valencia in March 2020. I am looking forward to this module starting again and to sharing my passion for digital literacies and open practice with anyone interested, wherever they might be in the world.

Webinar with Catherine Cronin on critical digital literacies, data literacies, and open practice

Posted on January 8, 2020 by Jane Secker

I’m delighted to announce that on Friday, January 10th, 2-3pm we have the final webinar as part of the module EDM122. The webinar will be given by Catherine Cronin, Strategic Education Developer at the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education in Ireland. Catherine delivered a very popular webinar last year for the module on a similar topic.

Catherine tells us…..

As educators in an increasingly digital, networked culture, we are called upon to do a herculean range of things: manage our digital identities, assess a never-ending range of digital tools (and master at least some of them), understand copyright and open licensing, publish openly, share openly, and not least, manage the continually evolving risks of all of these activities. And we support our students in doing the same. Open educational practices can provide powerful ways for us to improve educational access, enhance learning, and empower learners — but openness is not a panacea. The heart of all approaches to open education and open practice should be to develop critical digital (and data) literacies and to foster agency on the part of all learners and educators regarding whether, how, and in what contexts they choose to be open.

Open Education, Open Questions. EDUCAUSE Review, 23 October, 2017.

You can follow her on Twitter: @catherinecronin and her website/blog: http://catherinecronin.net/

The webinar is open to all and available in Adobe Connect, with no password required and I look forward to seeing many of you on Friday.

EDM122: Digital Literacies and Open Practice

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

Tag 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?

Welcome to Digital Literacies and Open Practice 2024-5

Experiences of using Open Educational Resources in journalism teaching and research

Open Access in health practice: Is it a necessity or a luxury?

The impact of open Pedagogy on the professional development of Nurses

Fostering Inclusivity and Achieving Sustainable Development in Legal Education using Open Practices

Introduction

Open Educational Practices in Tertiary Education: What does “open” mean?

1. Content-Centric to Process-Centric

2. Teacher-Centric to Learner-Centric

3. Pedagogical to Social Justice Primary Focus

Conclusions

Sources:

Welcome to EDM122: Digital Literacies and Open Practice 2021/2022

Webinar with Catherine Cronin on critical digital literacies, data literacies, and open practice