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Working through the sections of this Pressbook, you have had a chance to understand what it means to do open research, what are some of the ethical issues that may arise from doing research in the open, and to discuss the benefits and shortcomings of public dissemination. In this chapter we invite you to reflect on your own experience of being an open researcher.
Learning Objectives
You will gain an understanding of:
- Why open researchers reflect in the open
- When to reflect and who is involved in open reflection
- Some tools to help open reflection
4.1. Researchers Reflect on Reflection
You may not realize it but the act of reflecting is a constant activity, which for the most part remains elusive. We go through our day thinking about what’s been happening, how we feel about it, how we react to events and what are the next steps to take. In research, we tend to record these thoughts as a way of evaluating our progress.
In these three short audio podcasts some researchers talk about their take on reflection in research and how reflection can happen openly.
You can find transcripts of all the audio in the Appendix.
Leigh-Anne Perryman (Academic Staff Tutor and OER Research Hub Open Fellow) on the role of reflection in research.
Tita Beaven (Head of Department and Senior Lecturer, The Open University) on the role of reflection in research.
Tita Beaven (Head of Department and Senior Lecturer, The Open University) on conducting research in the open.
4.2. Blogging and Reflection
Reflection in research is closely linked to evaluation: it is about making sense of what we have done, what we are doing and how we are going to evolve. What do we gain or lose when we share this evaluation publicly? Why reflect in the open?
Activity 16: Catherine and Megan (45 minutes)
We invite you to read two blog posts: in the first one, Catherine Cronin, a lecturer in Information Technology at the National University of Ireland, Galway, reflects on her topic of research: digital identity practices in open education. The second blog post is a reflection by Megan Beckett, Project Manager at Siyavula, on her experiences of sharing.
Read both blog posts and think about the following questions:
- Why do Catherine and Megan blog?
- Do you think they achieve what they set out to do?
- Would you be comfortable sharing as they do? If not, why not?
Here are some other examples of blogs where reflection serves different purposes:
- Gráinne Conole’s e4innovation blog (see for instance Introduction to Designing for learning in an open world book), where she shares some of her book chapters ahead of publication, an ‘open approach’ to writing a book
- Steve Wheeler’s blog,especially his post Goodbye and the follow up Seriously… on the rewards and challenges of having your ideas “out there”
- Academic blogging and collaboration make demonstrating pathways to impact an easier matter; Peter Mathews details the benefits he has achieved by publishing his impact funding statement and invi