Open access, megajournals, and MOOCs: On the political economy of academic unbundling
| Published | October 2013 |
| Journal | SAGE Open Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 1-16 |
ABSTRACT
The development of “open” academic content has been strongly embraced and promoted by many advocates, analysts, stakeholders, and reformers in the sector of higher education and academic publishing. The two most well-known developments are open access scholarly publishing and Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), each of which are connected to disruptive innovations enabled by new technologies. Support for these new modes of exchanging knowledge is linked to the expectation that they will promote a number of public interest benefits, including widening the impact, productivity, and format of academic work; reforming higher education and scholarly publishing markets; and relieving some of the cost pressures in academia. This article examines the rapid emergence of policy initiatives in the United Kingdom and the United States to promote open content and to bring about a new relationship between the market and the academic commons. In doing so, I examine controversial forms of academic unbundling such as open access megajournals and MOOCs and place each in the context of the heightened emphasis on productivity and impact in new regulatory regimes in the area of higher education.| Keywords | academic productivity · megajournals · · open access · scholarly publishing |
| Refereed | Yes |
| Rights | by/3.0/deed.en_GB |
| DOI | 10.1177/2158244013507271 |
| URL | http://sgo.sagepub.com/content/3/4/2158244013507271.article-info |
| Other information | SAGE Open |
| Export options | BibTex · EndNote · Tagged XML · Google Scholar |
AVAILABLE FILES
Viewed by 242 distinct readers
CLOUD COMMUNITY REVIEWS
The evaluations below represent the judgements of our readers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cloud editors.
Click a star to be the first to rate this document
▶ POST A COMMENT
SIMILAR RECORDS
Perspectives on the open access discovery landscape
Fahmy, Sarah
Open access discovery tools enable users to find scholarly articles that are available in open form, whether on a publisher’s website or elsewhere. This is a technically-challenging endeavour and also requires a deep ...
Match: open access
The Open Textbook Toolkit: Seeding successful partnerships for collaboration between academic libraries and university presses
Waller, Mira; Cross, William M.
Libraries and university presses coexist in a complex and increasingly consolidated scholarly communication ecosystem. Each brings different strengths, values, and viewpoints that can inform and enrich a joint project. ...
Match: open access
Exploration of open educational resources in non-English speaking communities
Cobo, Cristobal; McGreal, Rory; Conrad, Dianne
Over the last decade, open educational resources (OER) initiatives have created new possibilities for knowledge-sharing practices. This research examines how, where, and when OER are attracting attention in the higher ...
Match: open access
Recursos educativos abiertos: Repositorios y uso
Santos-Hermosa, Gema; Ferran-Ferrer, Núria; Abadal, Ernest
Resumen:
Se presenta una revisión bibliográfica, estado del arte, historia, características, desarrollo, proyectos y líneas de investigación de los recursos educativos abiertos (OERs), así como su disposición en ...
Match: open access
Open: The philosophy and practices that are revolutionizing education and science
Jhangiani, Rajiv; Biswas-Diener, Robert; Kwantlen Polytechnic University, CA; Noba Project
Affordable education. Transparent science. Accessible scholarship.
These ideals are slowly becoming a reality thanks to the open education, open science, and open access movements. Running separate—if ...
Match: open access
Localizing OER in Afghanistan: Developing a multilingual digital library for Afghan teachers
Oates, Lauryn; Hashimi, Jamshid
The Darakht-e Danesh (‘knowledge tree’) Online Library is the first open educational resource (OER) initiative in Afghanistan, established to enhance teacher subject-area knowledge, access and use of learning ...
Match: open access
Open content: From walled gardens to collaborative learning
England, Ashley
The 2009 Horizon Report for Australia and New Zealand lists Open Content as one of the key emerging educational technologies in the next two to three years. While Open Content appears to be relatively straightforward it ...
Match: open access
Free learning: Essays on open educational resources and copyright
Downes, Stephen
There is a story to be told about open source, open content, and open learning from the point of view of the person desiring access to these things, rather than from the point of view of the provider. This book is a ...
Match: open access
Prospect for development of open access in Argentina
Miguel, Sandra; Bongiovani, Paola C.; Gómez, Nancy D.; Bueno-de-la-Fuente, Gema; et al.
This perspective article presents an overview of the Open Access movement in Argentina, from a global and regional (Latin American) context. The article describes the evolution and current state of initiatives by ...
Match: open access
Open Educational Resources: Access to high-quality education for all
Evertse, Judith
This article deals with what Open Educational Resources (OER actually are, what the benefits are, and what points need to be considered.
Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning materials that are freely available ...
Match: open access









