This week’s topic of Open Access was incredibly interesting as this very course is a product of Open Access. The basis of UOSM2033 is online, all resources, feedback, peer comparison etc. is done online. A somewhat new way of teaching, and so far, it has been incredibly enjoyable. The ability to work whenever and wherever has made the starting of each assignment within this module much less daunting.
Without the Internet and Open Access, this module would simply not exist. Even with the multitude of resources available online, there are still some articles that I would have loved to have had access to when researching certain. Many of my peers feel the same when it comes to being able to access academic literature, this was noticed in many of their blogs.
Many people saw the benefits of Open Access and were much on the side of online material being free. One of these people was Gus, he managed to outline how beneficial having free online content would be for many people, like myself. However, I noticed not much of the blog was dedicated to content developers themselves. This is the complete antithesis to Chris’s blog. His sole focus was the content developer. So much so his viewpoint wasn’t that of the masses. He felt not all online content should be free as the content developers are still producing a product that in some cases may pay their bills. I thoroughly enjoyed his blog and the way he conveyed his point as it challenged the norm and my own opinions.
After reading the comments I received, and Chris’ blog, I feel the topic of Open Access isn’t as black and white as I first thought and making all content online free maybe isn’t always feasible. With that said, I am still a massive advocate for Open Access and feel the positives for both content developers and those who access the content to be far superior than the negatives.
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Thoughts by Kevin Irikefe 