Assumptions and Challenges

I've finished reading an article by George Veletsianos and Royce Kimmons about the Assumptions and Challenges of Open Scholarship written in 2012. With five years of change since this piece was written, I looked for shifts in understanding from this article.

They describe the current and emerging stances around open scholarship. This includes

• publication in open access journals
• providing and using open educational resources while leading and engaging in open courses and open teaching practices
• managing and maintaining a digital presence in networked participatory spaces

These forms of open scholarship are founded on ideologies and assumptions. These include:

• open scholarship has an ideology rooted in democracy, human rights, and justice
• open scholarship emphasizes digital participation focused on improved scholarly outcomes
• open scholarship is co-evolved with technological advancements
• open scholarship is a practical & effective way to achieve socially valuable scholarly aims

The authors continue to critically examine the unintended consequences.

Open scholarship requires a paradigm shift in "the ways we think about education, knowledge, learning, teaching and research" (p. 181). Future research needs to continue to explore the assumptions using "both theoretical and empirical approaches" while sharing the challenges that individuals face while engaging in open scholarship.