This document discusses the role of open access and open educational resources in distance education. It begins by introducing the open access spectrum, including open content, publishing, data, and educational resources. It then covers the open access debate around issues like funding models and researcher resistance. Examples of open access initiatives at IDS are provided. Survey responses from libraries indicate variable support for open access, with some producing open journals or training staff and students. The conclusion discusses advantages of open access for reaching global and distance students and the need for libraries, IT, and academics to work together to build awareness and make resources available through open access.

1. What is the role of Open Access
and Open Educational Resources
within Distance Education ?
Jon Gregson
Stylianos Hatzipanagos
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

2. Introducing Open Access
 The Open Access Spectrum
 The Open Access Debate
 Examples from IDS
 Survey responses on current status
 Some conclusions to discuss

3. Attribution Some rights reserved by James Cridland
Suddenly Open Access is in the mainstream

5. The Open Access Spectrum
 Open Content
 Open Publishing: Gold = Journals, Green = Repositories
 Open Data – reuse, revise, remix, redistribute
 Open Educational Resources
 Open Development
 Open Licensing: Creative Commons Licensing - CC-BY is now the
defacto standard for OA licensing (free to copy, distribute, display,
perform, make derivative works, and make commercial use, but
must give the original author credit)

6. Green…

8. … Or the gold
AttributionNoncommercialNo Derivative Works Some rights reserved by ENOUGH Project

10. Science Research Publication
"Scientific research is as much the product of the society that enables
it, as of the individuals who author it." David Dorling, 2006
http://www.worldmapper.org/

11. Open Access Debate
 “Access to publically funded
knowledge is a human right”
 Changing the business model for
research and education
 Author Payment Charges (APC)
model another exploitation ?
 Researchers resistance to Open
Access
 ISI Impact factor and Alt-Metrics
http://www.altmetric.com/whatwe
do.php

12. AltMetrics (altmetric.com)

13. Open Access Funding
 Author Processing Costs (APCs) mean author must pay
to cover loss of subscription fees
 UK Finch report - £30m/yr to pay for OA
 RCUK and EU providing £ for OA
 RCUK gives block grants to HEFCE institutions to cover
APCs for Gold OA
 Welcome trust withholds 10% of grants for non
compliance
 DFID – researchers must self archive within 6 months of
finishing

15. OA: Examples from IDS
 OpenDocs: Institutional
Repositories
 Federated Repositories –
building capacity with Southern
partners
 Open Knowledge Hub Project
 IDS Knowledge Services is an
example of a non UoLIP
institution that is providing
open licensed materials of
potential use to UoLIP and its
students

16. Responses about our libraries
 Does your library have any
policies related to open access
subscriptions?
 Are you developing a
collection of recommended
open access materials?
 5 YES, 6 NO
 5 YES, 6 NO
 Do you have an open licensed
 If yes, what system does it use
digital repository?
 8 YES, 3 NO
(Dspace etc)?
 7 E-Prints, 1 Not Sure

17. Responses about our libraries
 Does your college produce any
 If yes, how are these made
 5 YES, 6 NO
Often, maybe not always, create catalogue record and links to full next
open journals?
available through your library?
Added to Institutional Repository at roar.uel.ac.uk
Open Journals System platform, archived in the ePrints repository
Birkbeck Law Review (student led) - in print and link to open access site
Does your library provide training or
support to staff on how to produce
open licensed materials?
Does your library provide training or
support to students on how to produce
open licensed materials?
4 YES, 5 NO
2 YES, 5 NO

18. Responses about our libraries
 Does your library provide
 Does your library provide
 3 YES, 7 NO
 3 YES, 7 NO
training or support to staff on
how to find open licensed
materials and assess their
quality?
 Do you think a collaborative
scheme for drawing together
an open access repository
across the colleges involved
in the UoLIP would be
useful?
 8 YES, 3 NO
training or support to students
on how to find open licensed
materials and assess their
quality?
 Do you have any plans to
make open access materials
more available via mobile
technologies and tablet PCs?
 5 YES, 6 NO

19. Responses about our libraries
 What is your opinion on the
current quality and usefulness
of open licensed materials?
(Programme directors)
“All books should be available online.
I am a strong supporter of Google's
scanning program”.
“There are many good resources of
information, including informal ones”.
“Variable. until there is a way of
screening /rating that is robust
difficult to recommend”
“MOOCs and open journals generally
of very high standard in my
experience”.
“I think that it is useful to use open
licensed materials where possible but
aware of them being carefully used in
context”

20. Responses about our libraries
How do you promote your open access
collection?
 LINKING
 Research Online (repository)
 Indexed to library’s resource
 MARKETING
 via social media, emails and




RSS feeds
Mailouts and blogs,
at conferences ,workshops,
school committees and
department meetings
via informal academic
networks
Fliers and working closely with
IT services and Dept
Administrators
discovery tool: Summon
 EthOS,
http://ethos.bl.uk/Home.do
 Open to Google Scholar




TRAINING
Information Skils
Guides
Online resources

21. Responses about our libraries
What is your view on how significant open
access materials are likely to become in the
next 5-10 years?
 “would be significantly increased”.
 “Indispensible”
 “OA publishing will become part of the default”
 “I think there will be increasing pressure to make research
findings available”.
 “With shrinking budgets, growing awareness of open
access & research council funders mandating deposit,
significance will grow - although unevenly across
disciplines”.
 “if the academics are changing their practice, so too must
students be prepared to learn in this new research
environment”
 I think this will be hugely significant for us, and has both
positive and negative implications.

22. Advantages of OA
 Many students in developing countries, and libraries globally
becoming more digital and serving people who are not physically
present
 Promotes access, availability and usage
 Gain more feedback and engagement with readers, who can
collaborate on ongoing development of ideas and resources
 New ways to measure impact
 Supports more effective ‘browsing’ – purchase not needed
 Enables data mining as it allows simultaneous access to many articles

23. Some conclusions for ODL/HE
 Reaching a global audience, off campus and distance students
 Engaging with MOOCs – becoming a new driver
 Rights and equity issues: How do they apply in UoLIP ?
 Digital Repositories, Standards, Quality & Linkages – librarians,
IT departments, course leaders and researchers need to work
closely together
 Build awareness of students, and make resources available as
OA, e.g. data sets for ODL students to work on
 Author open licensed ODL materials with references to open
licensed research. Value citations of OA materials – markers
can more easily access this
 Plagiarism awareness !
 Recognise and support and reward OA initiatives and systems