Open Access and Higher Education: Benefits to Educating the Public | Sci-Ed

" ... we’ve moved into a world where everything is done electronically. Through the power of PubMed, Google Scholar and numerous others, you can obtain PDFs of many articles via your institution. And now, many of those articles are available under Open Access rules – so anyone can access them, regardless of academic affiliation. Restrictions around accessing articles have several major consequences for those of us teaching courses in higher education. These range from the mundane, such as how it prevents us from emailing journal articles to each other, to the dramatic, in that it limits how easily we can share lecture notes and discussions with the public at large. One of the most apparent consequences of restricted access to articles is that we can’t simply send out articles to students... For medical professionals, there are more serious benefits to papers being published under open access licences. Healthcare professionals, such as those in medicine, nursing, physical therapy and other fields can keep up to date, without having to purchase expensive articles (which can be range from $5 to $50+ each). Thus, they can keep current with their field, without having to spend a small fortune on papers. This has particular relevance for doctors who may want to learn about a new drug before making a decision about whether or not to give it to their patients. But these benefits can start even earlier. For students of these fields still in school, they can get the latest information easily, and share that information with others. This is of particular relevance for those taught using Problem Based Learning, which is where they are given a scenario and, under the guidance of a tutor, develop their knowledge about that particular condition. While they may have access through their school to some articles, they may be unable to access others...  Perhaps the most drastic consequence is if we then want to make our courses and notes available to anyone. One of the great “dreams” of the internet is that anyone who wants to learn about a subject can. Sites such as SlideShare and YouTube have led to a proliferation of lectures and seminars. If you want to learn about something, odds are someone has a video or PowerPoint on the internet that you can access. I recently bought a ukulele, and through the power ofYouTube and UkuleleMike, have been able to teach myself how to play a number of songs. And the same applies for science. Someone, somewhere has taught the subject you’re struggling with. With Open Access and Creative Commons, that person can have their work freely available, and still be credited for their effort (click here for a great post on the 10th Anniversary of Creative Commons by PLOS CEO Peter Jerram).  At a bigger level to this would be Massive Open Online Courses – university level courses that are available for free. It’s great for those who are tangentially interested in the material, or are at other institutions that may not have a focus on the subject you want to learn about. MOOCs are becoming very common in the higher education sphere – sites such as EdX, a non-profit led by MIT, Harvard, and UC Berkeley and Academic Room, from Harvard, MIT, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Duke and Carnegie Mellon, have lectures freely available for those who are interested ..."