Category Archives: oa.students

» How College Students Are Improving Wikipedia

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“Some of that information has been added by college students from New England, written as a class assignment. Wiki Education, a small nonprofit, runs a program called the Wikipedia Student Program, in which we support college and university faculty who want to assign their students to write Wikipedia articles as part of their coursework.

Why do instructors assign their students to edit Wikipedia as a course assignment? Research shows a Wikipedia assignment increases motivation for students, while providing them learning objectives like critical thinking, research, writing for a public audience, evaluating and synthesizing sources and peer review. Especially important in today’s climate of misinformation and disinformation is the critical digital media literacy skills students gain from writing for Wikipedia, where they’re asked to consider and evaluate the reliability of the sources they’re citing. In addition to the benefits to student learning outcomes, instructors are also glad to see Wikipedia’s coverage of their discipline get better. And it does get better; studies such as this and this and this have shown the quality of content students add to Wikipedia is high.

Since 2010, more than 5,100 courses have participated in the program and more than 102,000 student editors have added more than 85 million words to Wikipedia. That’s 292,000 printed pages or the equivalent of 62 volumes of a printed encyclopedia. To put that in context, the last print edition of Encyclopedia Britannica had only 32 volumes. That means Wikipedia Student Program participants have added nearly twice as much content as was in Britannica. …”

UGA Libraries’ Pilot Open Access Publishing Fund to Benefit Graduate Students

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UGA Libraries has established a new fund that supports open access to knowledge while helping graduate student researchers fulfill their academic goals.

 

The pilot program provides funding for open access publication fees for graduate students whose research papers have been accepted by peer-reviewed academic journals. Those fees make research available freely online, but can be costly for students. The fund is a way for the Libraries to partner with other academic departments to enable that avenue of publication.

Dissertating in Public | hc:45003 | Humanities CORE

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Abstract:  Kathleen Fitzpatrick analyses the sudden isolation graduate students find themselves in during the dissertation process. In the humanities, she observes, graduate students are regularly habituated into an anxiety of intellectual independence whereby sharing ideas, collaboration and publishing work in progress is to be considered suspect and potentially diminishing scholarly value. Digital scholarship, she argues, can eliminate or at least sideline such anxieties (and their untimeliness) by creating a participating public, testing ideas, interesting possible publishers early and creating a community of scholarship that, together with the support of PhD-granting institutions, endorses ‘new kinds of open work’.

SPARC Announces Knowledge Equity Seminar for LIS Students – SPARC

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“In cooperation with the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, SPARC is sponsoring the Knowledge Equity and Justice Spring Seminar (KEJSS), an intensive learning opportunity open to graduate students in Information Studies programs that will focus on critical issues in epistemic justice relevant to Library and Information Studies.

Convened by Dr. Stacy Allison-Cassin, the seminar will take place online over three weeks from May 9-26, 2022 and will cover topics including scholarly communication, language and marginalization, Indigenous knowledge, and issues related to knowledge, citation and the Global South. The seminar will invite participants to recognize knowledge as a site for justice and consider how to put knowledge justice into practice as future information professionals. 

Seminar guest speakers will include Leslie Chan (University of Toronto Scarborough); Priyank Chandra (Faculty of Information, University of Toronto); Alan Corbiere (York University); Stefanie Haustein (uOttawa); and, Anasuya Sengupta & Adele Vrana (Whose Knowledge?). These guest lectures will be open to the community, and SPARC will provide additional information about joining each in the next month….”

Welcome to the Student Initiative for Open Science

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“Thank you for being interested in our initiative. We are a group students that saw the need to further spread the message and practices of Open Science (OS) within the student community. In that we aim to promote information about Open Science within the student community, emphasize the relevance of OS for students and finally, try to inspire students to become as excited as we are about Open Science.

If you are new to Open Science, please see Open Science to get an introduction to open science, why it is relevant to all students and recommendations for very interesting readings, blogs, and podcasts.
Please see About Us if you want to learn more about our goals, Blogs to read about our activities and if you have any questions or would like to get involved, please send us an email. Finally, as we are organizing very exciting events such as talks, trips and debates, make sure to not miss an amazing event, by checking our agenda.”

Encouraging impacts of an Open Education Resource Degree Initiative on college students’ progress to degree | SpringerLink

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Textbooks are traditional and useful learning resources for college students, but commercial texts books have been widely criticized for their high costs, restricted access, limited flexibility, and uninspiring learning experiences. Open Education Resources (OER) are an alternative to commercial textbooks that have the potential to increase college affordability, access, and instructional quality. The current study examined how an OER degree—or pathway of OER courses that meet the requirements for a degree program—impacted students’ progress to degree at 11 US community colleges. We conducted quasi-experimental impact studies and meta-analysis examining whether OER course enrollment was associated with differences in credit accumulation and cumulative GPA over multiple terms. Overall, we found a positive effect of OER degrees on credit accumulation and no significant difference on cumulative GPA. Taken together, these results suggest students are maintaining their GPAs despite taking more courses, on average. This suggests that students taking OER courses were making faster progress towards degrees than their peers who took no OER courses.

Open medical textbook series offers curriculum flexibility for faculty and cost savings for students | VTx | Virginia Tech

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“Renée LeClair, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine associate professor, remembered her frustration when she designed an integrated course for first-year medical students and couldn’t find a single textbook or resource to support the classroom experience she envisioned. Thanks to a VIVA Open Course Grant, University Libraries Open Education Initiative, LibreTexts, and Virginia Tech Publishing, she and her colleague Andrew Binks teamed up to author their own.

Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Virginia Tech Publishing, through Virginia Tech’s Open Education Initiative housed in the University Libraries, are publishing a five-volume textbook series for pre-clinical medical students that is adaptable and freely downloadable through Pressbooks and LibreTexts. This series aligns with the United States Medical Licensing Examination and is based on faculty experience and peer review….”

New student-led diamond OA journal: Rangahau Aranga: AUT Graduate Review

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Rangahau Aranga: AUT Graduate Review is a forthcoming open access, peer-reviewed journal set up and run by and for postgraduate students at Auckland University of Technology, showcasing their research. Rangahau Aranga is being established as an initiative in coordination with AUTSA and AUT Library’s Tuwhera. 

The journal welcomes submissions from students engaged in postgraduate level study at AUT, across a range of disciplines and study areas and in multiple forms, including research articles and short form research summaries, case studies, abstracts, commentary, book reviews and creative works.  

The M?ori words Rangahou (from the verb to seek or search and the noun research) Aranga (from the verb to emerge, ensue or arise) speak to the emerging and arising voices in our academic community. The naming of this journal was agreed through a consensual process of k?rero (or conversation and consultation) with the AUT Library M?ori Engagement Group and the Office of M?ori Advancement.

In honouring the words, Rangahau Aranga seeks to centre hitherto marginalised, less visible postgraduate researchers. Submissions from M?ori and Pacific postgraduate academics are particularly welcomed. The journal will enable those at the beginning of their publication journey a unique, supportive opportunity to develop new skills, hone their academic writing skills and add to their profiles with citable, quality publication credits.  

The journal will be fully open access with content shared under Creative Commons licences, and where appropriate utilising the Local Contexts labels for indigenous research. Each item published on Aranga will be given a DOI, be indexed by CrossRef and preserved through CLOCKSS. 

Rangahau Aranga will not charge fees for submission or publication.

Use and trustworthiness of Wikipedia information: students’ perceptions and reflections | Emerald Insight

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Abstract:  Purpose

This study aims to explore the trustworthiness of Wikipedia information in terms of accuracy, stability, objectivity and validity among university students along with their perceptions toward the quality of the information in Wikipedia.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used to use a quantitative research design based on the survey method. The questionnaire was designed with the help of literature followed by a pilot study to check its validity and reliability before data collection. A proportionate stratified sampling technique was used to collect data from students in the graduate program.

Findings

Data showed that the majority of the respondents used Wikipedia information regularly for both academic and leisure purposes. It is also noted that they usually did not edit/add content in Wikipedia entries, though they observed incomplete content in it. Findings revealed that among the four constructs of trustworthiness (accuracy, stability, validity and objectivity), respondents had certain reservations about the accuracy of Wikipedia information. They opined that content from Wikipedia is not stable and is susceptible to alternation. Nevertheless, they believed in the objectivity of Wikipedia information as the contents are verified by an editor/expert and this information is considered unbiased and impartial.

Practical implications

These findings may be helpful to fill the knowledge gap in the body of literature and to understand the accuracy.

Originality/value

The current study is the first one to analyze the trustworthiness of information in Wikipedia entries among university students in the context of a developing country.

Toward scientific dissemination of undergraduate thesis in physical therapy programs – a cross-sectional study | BMC Medical Education | Full Text

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Abstract:  Background

The execution of undergraduate thesis is a period in which students have an opportunity to develop their scientific knowledge. However, many barriers could prevent the learning process. This cross-sectional study aimed to analyze the scientific dissemination of results from undergraduate theses in physical therapy programs and verify the existence of barriers and challenges in the preparation of undergraduate thesis. Second, to investigate whether project characteristics and thesis development barriers were associated with the dissemination of undergraduate thesis results.

Methods

Physical therapists who graduated as of 2015, from 50 different educational institutions, answered an online questionnaire about barriers faced during the execution of undergraduate thesis and about scientific dissemination of their results.

Results

Of 324 participants, 43% (n?=?138) of participants disseminated their results, and the main form of dissemination was publishing in national journals (18%, n?=?58). Regarding the barriers, 76% (n?=?246) of participants reported facing some difficulties, and the main challenge highlighted was the lack of scientific knowledge (28%, n?=?91). Chances of dissemination were associated with barriers related to scientific understanding and operational factors, such as the type of institution, institutional facilities, and involvement with other projects.

Conclusion

Scientific knowledge seems to be a determining factor for the good development of undergraduate theses. In addition, it is clear the need to stimulate more qualified dissemination that reaches a larger audience. Changes in operational and teaching factors may improve the undergraduate thesis quality. However, the importance of rethinking scientific education within physical therapy programs draws attention.

Assigning Public Philosophy Projects to Undergraduates (guest post) | Daily Nous

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“In several recent undergraduate courses, I’ve offered students the option to design a creative “public philosophy project” in lieu of writing a traditional term paper. Typically, around 10-15% of students choose this option, and I’m consistently impressed with the quality and creativity of their work.

I let students know about this option at the very beginning of the semester, and I direct them to a blurb on my syllabus with some examples of what their projects might look like, including:

Create a YouTube video or podcast.
Propose a substantive edit to a Wikipedia article or propose an entirely new Wikipedia article.
Write a philosophical op-ed or blog post.
Conduct a philosophically substantive interview with someone whose work is related to course content (philosopher, academic, artist, journalist, etc.).
Utilize another online medium or social media platform (Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, etc.), perhaps by designing some way to engage non-course participants in philosophical activity….”

How To Reuse Your Prior Publications in Your Thesis/Dissertation – Harvard Library Calendars – Harvard Library

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“Are you a Harvard student working on your thesis or dissertation? Do you want to reuse your prior publications as chapters? In this virtual January@GSAS workshop led by the Harvard Library Office for Scholarly Communication, you will learn how to read your publishing agreements for comprehension so that you can feel confident about your ability to reuse your work and understand the conditions under which you may also share it publicly in DASH, Harvard’s open-access institutional repository. Get tips for exploring publisher policies and asking permission for reuse. Open to all graduate students. Contact the Office for Scholarly Communication with questions about the event and accessibility.”

Preprint articles as a tool for teaching data analysis and scientific communication

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Abstract:  The skill of analyzing and interpreting research data is central to the scientific process, yet it is one of the hardest skills for students to master. While instructors can coach students through the analysis of data that they have either generated themselves or obtained from published articles, the burgeoning availability of preprint articles provides a new potential pedagogical tool. We developed a new method in which students use a cognitive apprenticeship model to uncover how experts analyzed a paper and compare the professional’s cognitive approach to their own. Specifically, students first critique research data themselves and then identify changes between the preprint and final versions of the paper that were likely the results of peer review. From this activity, students reported diverse insights into the processes of data presentation, peer review, and scientific publishing. Analysis of preprint articles is therefore a valuable new tool to strengthen students’ information literacy and understanding of the process of science.