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In this chapter we’ll be thinking about what open research is. In what ways does open research differ from traditional research? What kind of benefits could open research bring? What kind of challenges might an open researcher encounter? You’ll also have the option to explore open tools you could use to help conduct your research.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter you will be able to:
- Understand what it means, and how, you can conduct open research
- Be able to structure your own open research project
- Understand some of the challenges and benefits of different aspects of open research
1.1 What does openness mean to you?
As we mentioned in the introduction, as researchers we are interested in the impact of open education resources (OERs) that are being used within an educational context. OER are resources which are often available online, can be remixed and repurposed, are available in the public domain and are usually openly licensed. The Hewlett Foundation describes OER as:
OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and repurposing by others. Open Educational Resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge. (Source)
Activity 1: Openness (10 minutes)
Openness is not just applicable to research. You can practice openness in lots of different contexts. As you can imagine there are lots of different ways to define openness. Take a moment to think about what you think ‘openness’ means.
If you are interested in finding our more about debates around the meaning of openness, check out another School of Open course Why Open?
Commentary
There was a wide range of responses from course participants which reflected a range of interconnected ideas about the meaning of “open.” In summary:
- Sharing was highlighted as an important aspect of openness and can be linked to the idea of openness as a practice. Releasing your material into the open, making it available for comment and reuse and letting people know how you would like it to be used and attributed (e.g. through open licensing) were all highlighted as important aspects of this
- Openness was associated with increased visibility and usability through there being “no barriers” to reuse and minimal or no technical barriers
- There was some discussion around whether releasing material in the open entailed loss of ownership of that resource. A distinction between “authorship” and “ownership” was noted to highlight that open licensing requires you to attribute the creator of a resource, for example
- Transparency and honesty. By sharing resources and material in the open you are enabling others to comment on your material and inviting feedback
- Openness was also highlighted as a potential “social justice enabler” by removing t