Open Access

Policy obstacles for open education in Ontario

Graham Yeates — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 19:11:18 +0000

Policy obstacles for open education in Ontario Graham Yeates Fri, 09/28/2018 - 15:11

This eCampusOntario webinar, facilitated by James Skidmore, Associate Professor and Director, ��ݮ��Ƶ Centre for German Studies, and Open Education Fellow at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ, panellists will identify signs of progress and discuss where open educators might best concentrate their efforts to make a difference in institutional policy.

One of the issues preventing greater instructor involvement in open education is professional recognition; they question whether the effort required will be rewarded. Top-down signs of support (e.g. acknowledging open educational practices in tenure and promotion) are rare; bottom-up activism feels like an uphill battle. Can anything be done?

Embedding Open Educational Resources in online course development

Graham Yeates — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 19:11:17 +0000

Embedding Open Educational Resources in online course development Graham Yeates Fri, 09/28/2018 - 15:11

This eCampusOntario webinar, presented by Maureen Glynn, Open Education Fellow at Ryerson University, will discuss practical strategies, tools, and ideas that will help instructors unlock the potential of open educational resources (OER) to enrich and strengthen their online teaching and learning.

Are you in the middle of developing an online course, or are you collaborating with someone who is? Would you like to learn more about how OER can support and streamline this process? In this webinar, we will consider the integration of OER into the online course development process from the planning stage through to full production of course materials. A range of resources will be shared, along with tips on how and when they can be best employed as part of online course design.

Open Access panel: Scholarly communications - beyond journal publishing

Sara Perkins — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 17:41:21 +0000

Open Access panel: Scholarly communications - beyond journal publishing Sara Perkins Mon, 09/24/2018 - 13:41

Though the “gold standard” of academic research is the peer-reviewed journal article, the publishing landscape of the 21^st Century has opened up a multitude of other options for disseminating our work. How do we share our work beyond academic journals that are increasingly expensive to publish in and read? How does the creation and sharing of code differ from the publishing of text?

Our three panellists bring insightful experiences from academia and industry:

Nancy Worth, assistant professor, Geography & Environmental Management
Qian Zhang, CLIR postdoctoral fellow in software curation, Department of Computer Science/University of ��ݮ��Ƶ Library
Gregory Lui, analytical scientist at A123 Systems, and second place winner of the 2018 Canadian Three-Minute Thesis Competition

Pizza and a movie: Paywall, the business of scholarship

Sara Perkins — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 17:31:59 +0000

Pizza and a movie: Paywall, the business of scholarship Sara Perkins Mon, 09/24/2018 - 13:31

Enjoy some pizza while you learn more about the costs of scholarship in the movie Paywall: The business of scholarship.

From the producer:

“Paywall: The Business of Scholarship is a documentary which focuses on the need for open access to research and science, questions the rationale behind the $25.2 billion a year that flows into for-profit academic publishers, examines the 35-40% profit margin associated with the top academic publisher Elsevier and looks at how that profit margin is often greater than some of the most profitable tech companies like Apple, Facebook and Google.”

View the trailer.

What is Open Access?

Sara Perkins — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 17:24:10 +0000

What is Open Access? Sara Perkins Mon, 09/24/2018 - 13:24

Drop by the Dana Porter Library lobby to learn more about Open Access and share what access to research means to you.

What is Open Access?

Sara Perkins — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 17:23:33 +0000

What is Open Access? Sara Perkins Mon, 09/24/2018 - 13:23

Drop by the Dana Porter Library lobby to learn more about Open Access and share what access to research means to you.

Journal price guessing game

Sara Perkins — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 17:19:51 +0000

Journal price guessing game Sara Perkins Mon, 09/24/2018 - 13:19

Do you know what it costs to access research? Try your hand at guessing the cost of a journal subscription, learn more about Open Access, and enjoy some halloween candy!

Open Access Day 2018

Sara Perkins — Wed, 19 Sep 2018 19:19:11 +0000

Open Access Day 2018 Sara Perkins Wed, 09/19/2018 - 15:19

The Open Scholarship Committee brings you Open Access Day - a day-long conference of speakers and workshops discussing the various methods, benefits and challenges of Open Access, and the services and resources available to scholars across the university.

This event is free, and participants may attend all or some of the sessions. Registration is required.

Open Access Day schedule:

Time	Description
9:10 a.m. to 10:25 a.m.	Keynote: Challenging the digital consensus - The Open Data and Open Access endgame Bianca Wylie After decades of investment in a movement of openness by a range of stakeholders and actors, where is the idea of openness helping and where might it be hurting progress and equity and democracy? How will the role of the government change as this movement evolves? Should it? What about civil society institutions and professional bodies? Open as a normative good has been challenged by many. With entrenched digital power structures and disparities it's time for the open movement to consider progress and challenges to date, and to redefine the open movement's endgame.
10:30 a.m. to 11:15 a.m.	Arctic and Inuit communities: The meaning and practice of 'Open' and 'Equity' Chantel Ridsdale Since the late 1990’s, CCIN has maintained an outreach and education website (https://ccin.ca) of cryospheric information for the public. In response to increasing demand for proper stewardship of valuable research datasets and information, CCIN and partners came together in the mid-2000’s to develop a more sophisticated online presence and database to serve Canada’s northern research community. The resulting database, the PDC (https://polardata.ca), began as a metadata discovery portal to facilitate exchange of information about Canada’s Arctic and the Antarctic among researchers, northern Canadians, and other user groups. Since its online launch in 2007, the PDC has become Canada’s primary on-line source for data and information on research and monitoring in the polar regions. CCIN’s main objectives are to: Provide a data and information management infrastructure for the Canadian cryospheric research community; Enhance public awareness and access to cryospheric information and related data; and Facilitate the exchange of information between researchers, northern communities, decision makers, and the public. Open and Equity in the context of Inuit communities and Arctic research is very important for CCIN/PDC, as can be seen in our objectives. We value the FAIR principles as a best practice, ensuring data and information on our catalogue is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. These four tenants of OA are at the core of equity, and we work every day to ensure that this is undertaken with pride, precision, and patience with our research partners. In this session, I will be discussing both historic and current challenges and issues, as well as solutions that are being implemented and considered, in partnership with Inuit communities and regional and federal representatives. Additionally, Indigenous Knowledge is important in the context of this session, and the development of locally created Atlases have been key in open and equity on the communities’ terms.
11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.	Free? Open? Commercial? Trying to find balance in the Faculty of Mathematics Steve Furino The Faculty of Mathematics has prepared digital assets that are used by thousands of degree enrolled students and hundreds of thousands of students, teachers and parents in outreach programs. There has been lots of interest expressed by others to adopt, adapt and distribute these interactive assets. Given the expense in preparing, deploying and maintaining these digital assets, the Faculty must now consider how it wishes to continue to support the evolution of course content.
12: 15 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.	Lunch Registration required. In room DC 1301. Generously co-sponsored by the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) and the Centre for Extended Learning (CEL).
1:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.	Creative Commons Kathryn Blair Thinking of making some of your work available for others to use for certain reasons without having to ask your permission? This session will help you choose and use a Creative Commons license.
1:45 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.	Tri-Agency Open Access Policy: From author rights to UWSpace Lauren Byl, Rebecca Hutchinson and Will Roy This workshop will review the Tri-agency (CIHR, NSERC & SSHRC) Open Access policy on publications, which applies to all NSERC or SSHRC grants awarded on or after May 1, 2015, and CIHR grants awarded on or after January 1, 2008. The session will cover: outline the policy and its requirements present an introduction to author’s rights and responsibilities demonstrate how to use UWSpace and its copyright review and deposit service to easily comply with the policy ��ݮ��Ƶ researchers who have received grant funding or have an interest in making their research Open Access are encouraged to attend.
2:45 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.	Primer on predatory publishing Lauren Byl This session will provide an introduction to the basics of the issue of predatory publishing. Participants will understand what predatory publishing is, and gain a few tips on how to spot a predatory journal or publisher.
3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.	Open Education initiatives in Ontario James Skidmore James Skidmore will bring us up to speed on the state of Open Education in Ontario. Skid is currently an Open Education Fellow with eCampusOntario (ecampusontario.ca), a provincially-funded centre of excellence in online and technology enabled learning for higher education. After explaining the various ways eCampusOntario facilitates open education, Skid will look more closely at the obstacles facing open education, and introduce some ideas that he has been working on to address those issues. He will also introduce his own project, Open German Studies, which can serve as one model for increasing open education in the humanities.

The Open Scholarship Committee is comprised of representatives from the Library, Centre for Extended Learning (CEL), Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE), Retail Services (now Print + Retail Solutions), Federation of Students (FEDS), and James Skidmore.

Open Access Day speakers:

Keynote speaker: Bianca Wylie

Bianca is an open government advocate with a dual background in technology and public engagement. She is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in the Global Economy program and is the co-founder of Tech Reset Canada, a group that advocates for maximizing public good in the innovation economy.

She worked for several years in the tech sector in operations, infrastructure, corporate training, and product management, most recently at Thomson Reuters. As a facilitator at Swerhun Inc., she designed, delivered and supported public consultation processes for various governments and government agencies.

In 2014, Bianca founded the Open Data Institute Toronto. In 2016 she co-founded Civic Tech Toronto. She is a columnist, guest lecturer, and speaker on open government and public sector technology policy. She is also a member of the Toronto Public Library's Innovation Council.

Kathryn Blair

Kathryn Blair has a varied background in publishing. She is currently Copyright Specialist at the Centre for Extended Learning where she advises on the application of copyright law.

Lauren Byl

Lauren Byl is the copyright and licensing librarian at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ.

Steve Furino

Dr. Steven Furino was the inaugural author and instructor in the fabulously successful Master’s of Mathematics for Teachers program directed by the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing and founded by Dr. Brian Forrest. Dr. Furino is a winner of the University’s Distinguished Teacher Award and is currently the Assistant Dean for Online Studies in the Faculty of Mathematics.

Rebecca Hutchinson

Rebecca Hutchinson is the liaison librarian for computer science, mathematics and physics at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ.

Chantel Ridsdale

Chantel Ridsdale is Project and Outreach Coordinator for the Canadian Cryospheric Information Network/Polar Data Catalogue (CCIN/PDC). Chantel graduated from Dalhousie University with a Masters of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) in 2016 and has been involved with data management ever since, with experiences primarily with federal not-for-profit organizations: Research Data Canada, Leadership Council for Digital Research Infrastructure, and now CCIN/PDC. Chantel’s broad experiences with policy and best practices provides a novel outlook for Data Management (DM) and Open Access (OA) in Canada.

Will Roy

Will Roy is the digital repository scholarship specialist at University of ��ݮ��Ƶ Library.

James Skidmore

James Skidmore is a faculty member at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ and Director of the ��ݮ��Ƶ Centre for German Studies, a research institute at the University. His teaching centres on general and cultural studies, and he recently won a national award for innovation in online teaching.

Open Access Week 2018

Sara Perkins — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 19:53:48 +0000

Open Access Week 2018 Sara Perkins Tue, 09/11/2018 - 15:53

Open Access Week celebrates open scholarship in its many forms. University of ��ݮ��Ƶ Library has a week filled with programming to help you learn more about Open Access scholarship, including:

Learn more about Open Access at your library.

Pizza & movie: "The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz"

Graham Yeates — Wed, 04 Oct 2017 14:16:35 +0000

Pizza & movie: "The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz" Graham Yeates Wed, 10/04/2017 - 10:16

With an intent to raise awareness of Open Access, Creative Commons, and Open Access Week, the Library is please to offer a pizza dinner and screening of The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz.

"Premiered at the 2014 Sundance Festival, The Internet’s Own Boy details renowned ‘hactivist’ Aaron Swartz's early fascination with computers and eagerness to learn, which helped him become one of the brightest minds involved with the creation of the Internet as we know it today. Some of his achievements including creating RSS, helping develop Creative Commons, and co-founding Reddit. Although he wasn't interested in formal schooling, Swartz believed people should always be questioning society in order to understand how we can make it better. His passion for libraries and accessible information drove him to download almost 4 million scholarly journals from JSTOR. Unfortunately, this led to his arrest and a two-year legal battle under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act before his tragic death. Swartz's dedication to prevent SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act) from passing inspired many, including major companies like Wikipedia and Google, to create a blackout for a single day emphasizing his belief that the Internet should be free and open for everyone.”
- Commonsensemedia.org

Pizza will be provided on a first-come first-served basis.