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Topic 5 2017, Page 3

Topic 5: Sharing Knowledge Openly Online

Nowadays, most people understand that the internet is revolutionary as it decreases the need for space, facilitating the death of geography (although disputed) Nowhere is this more apparent than with knowledge. But, is sharing knowledge as content openly and freely online beneficial or harmful to the sharer? Open access involves the following: ^(Photo sourced from here) Education is all about sharing your knowledge with others so they can develop theirs. Continue reading →

Open Access in 21st Century

Open access has been the traditional method for retrieving information for quite some time until digitisation rapidly increased meaning we access data differently and the price of research has risen astoundingly. Now, we do not necessarily have ‘open access’ on a lot of online content in today’s society because journal companies are charging an unexplainable amount of money for the information (PHDComics, 2012). Continue reading →

Hit a brick wall

While it can be argued that one of the main purposes of the internet is to share, and receive information with ease, it has been noted that the current scientific model, dating back to the 1600s, makes this process somewhat challenging (Tracz and Lawrence, 2016). According to Mayyasia (2013) scientist follow a ‘consistent pattern’ that has almost become institutionalised. Continue reading →

Online Content – Should it be free?

 The internet has opened up many different potential channels through which to distribute content. One of the channels which grew widely is that of freely available content; with websites such as Youtube, Tumblr and WordPress making it possible for opinion, news and academic content to become widely available at no cost to the content creator or to the recipient of the content. Continue reading →

Online Content – Should it be free?

 The internet has opened up many different potential channels through which to distribute content. One of the channels which grew widely is that of freely available content; with websites such as Youtube, Tumblr and WordPress making it possible for opinion, news and academic content to become widely available at no cost to the content creator or to the recipient of the content. Continue reading →

Pros and Cons of Open Access

Figure 1: Self-Produced using Canva.com The increasing use of the Internet has led to an influx of digital information. In the academic world of Medicine alone, over two brand new papers are published every minute (Hall, 2014). This, in combination with the decline of print media (Schlesinger and Doyle, 2015) has led to the prediction that 90% of online content would be behind paywalls as of 2016 (Lepitak, 2013). Continue reading →

Topic 5: Open Access – Is There A Dark Side?

What is Open Access? Figure 1. Introduction to Open Access (self-produced via Haiku Deck, with information from Jisc) Within higher education, we all know the frustration that comes with finding a great journal article, only to find that it’s access is restricted. This has become a particular issue for me, a content consumer, over the course of writing my dissertation. However, what does restricted access and open access mean from the point of view of a content producer? Figure 2. Continue reading →

Access denied or granted?

    There is an ongoing dialogue about whether or not work published online could and should be more freely available, expressly to those in education and those wishing to contribute to current research. Open access describes a situation where anyone anywhere in the world can access, read and build upon research content found online (Shockey and Eisen, 2012). Open, adj. generous, sharing, giving (Wiley, 2010). Continue reading →

The advantages and Disadvantages of Open access

What is meant by open access? Open access is free immediate access to articles free to all people all over the world, to make research literature more available. Here is a short video to explain more. An example of open access are Open educational resources, or OER’s. OER’s are textbooks, research articles, videos, assessments and simulations that are licensed under an open copyright licence, or public domain. Continue reading →

Topic 5- Open access- The Advantages and Disadvantages for content producers

Open access refers to the ability to freely use and redistribute content that has been created by another person, without having any concerns over copyright restrictions. The digitisation of research materials has led to an improved ability to retrieve content efficiently (Wilinsky, 2006). Despite this renewed convenience, many published works are behind pay walls with expensive subscription prices. Continue reading →

Topic 5: Open Access

WHAT IS OPEN ACCESS?  Open access is defined as the free accessibility to literature online, allowing it to be used with minimal restrictions, including material being royalty-free (Bailey, 2008). With specific reference to academic and educational material, resources with open access can be used by students in education from all ages for several purposes, such as for homework or textbook material (Wiley et al, 2012). Continue reading →

Topic 5: What are the advantages and disadvantages to a content producer of making their materials freely available online?

As more of us than ever are using the internet globally, it makes sense that more content is being made available online to us too. Accessing content online means that we can look at it on the go and use more than one source at a time. The majority of articles that are accessed for my modules are through university paid subscriptions, which had I had to pay for myself, I’m not sure that I would have used them at all. Continue reading →

Who controls your computer?

Computers are rapidly encapsulating our lives [1] [2] [3]. With a global industry worth $407.3 billion it is hard to understate the effect that software has on society [4]. But who controls your computer? A computer performs almost any task by processing a set of instructions known as software. If you control the software, you control the computer. By using proprietary software, the software vendor controls your computing and imposes limits on what you, the user, can do. Continue reading →

Open access; who what where why?

Open access to online content. A somewhat confusing sentence, so think of it this way: open access is like an unlocked door, you don’t need a key to open. Still a bit puzzled? Don’t worry I was at first too, check out Wiley’s short cartoon that helps give a general overview of what open access means. For a content producer specifically it is debatable whether the rewards are great enough to make their content freely available online. Continue reading →

Topic 5: Pros and Cons to open access

Created using Canva First of all, what is open access? Open access refers to content that is digital, online, free of charge and free from almost all copyright and licensing restrictions (Suber, 2014). What this essentially means is that the content that is created under this ideology will be available to anyone that can access the internet. Many websites that rely on user-generated content, such as YouTube and DevianArt, have open access in order for everyone to view the content created. Continue reading →

Open Access: Should we Take the Leap?

  In the upcoming years 90% of online content is predicted to be held behind paywalls (TheDrumNews) and the idea has left the internet divided. Do we want this? PROS Students can only learn from the sources available. Khan Academy showcases the benefits of changing the education system by making content available online for students and teachers, it can ‘flip the classroom’ (6:00, Ted Talks). Continue reading →

The advantages and disadvantages of an open access approach towards content production

How often do you encounter the issue outlined in the above video? In the past, concerns have been raised over increasing amounts of research content becoming exclusively accessible through ‘content paywalls’ (Lepitak, 2013). Today, I feel this fear has come to light, as can be seen with the development of tools such as www.unpaywall.org which trawl the web to identify free versions of pay walled papers (I highly recommend this tool!). Continue reading →