The OER Knowledge Cloud makes use of cookies. By continuing, you consent to this use. More information.
Open access, megajournals, and MOOCs: On the political economy of academic unbundling
Wellen, R.

PublishedOctober 2013
JournalSAGE 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

RefereedYes
Rightsby/3.0/deed.en_GB
DOI10.1177/2158244013507271
URLhttp://sgo.sagepub.com/content/3/4/2158244013507271.article-info
Other informationSAGE Open
Export optionsBibTex · EndNote · Tagged XML · Google Scholar



AVAILABLE FILES
2158244013507271.full_.pdf · 364.8KB142 downloads



Viewed by 257 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

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

From open content to open course models: Increasing access and enabling global participation in higher education
Morgan, Tannis; Carey, Stephen
Two of the major challenges to international students’ right of access to higher education are geographical/economic isolation and academic literacy in English (Carey, 1999, Hamel, 2007). The authors propose that ...
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

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

Patterns of online student enrolment and attrition in Australian open access online education: a preliminary case study
Greenland, Steven; Moore, Catherine; Gil-Jaurena, Inés
Swinburne University of Technology has experienced tremendous growth in open access online learning and as such is typical of the many Australian institutions that have ventured into online tertiary education. While ...
Match: open access

Developing issues in licensing: Text mining, MOOCs, and more
Rathemacher, Andrée J.; Collins, Maria
This report covers a program co-sponsored by the Collection Development and Electronic Resources Management Interest Groups of the Association of College and Research Libraries New England Chapter (ACRL/NEC), an ...
Match: open access

Video for Wikipedia and the open web: A guide to best practices for cultural and educational institutions
Kaufman, Peter B.
Match: open access

OpenER, a Dutch initiative in Open Educational Resources
Schuwer, Robert; Mulder, Fred
Over the period 2006–2008, the Dutch Open Universiteit Nederland conducted an experiment in which Open Educational Resources (OER) were offered in an effort to bridge the gap between informal and formal learning and ...
Match: open access

Cost-savings achieved in two semesters through the adoption of open educational resources
Hilton, John; Robinson, T.; Wiley, David A.; Ackerman, J.
Textbooks represent a significant portion of the overall cost of higher education in the United States. The burden of these costs is typically shouldered by students, those who support them, and the taxpayers who fund ...
Match: open access

Institutional repositories of Open Access: A paradigm of innovation and changing in educational politics
Koutras, Nikos; Bottis, Maria
In the Lisbon Summit (2000), the European Commission adopted the triangle of knowledge (education, research, innovation). These three concepts are fundamental “ingredients” of the European educational policy. In ...
Match: open access