The cost of licensing academic research journals and acquiring instructional books has increased considerably in recent years resulting in many educational crises. Such crises have forced libraries and educational leaderships, especially in developing economies to cancel journal subscriptions and reduce library holdings. The problem challenges many institutions of higher education and policy makers to begin supporting a so called “Open Access Movement” (OAM). The OAM advocates the free and immediate access to electronic publications directly downloaded from networked institutional repositories and a model of publication that offer open online access to full text contents. The movement believes that OA can significantly contribute in removing financial barriers that prevent scholars in developing economies from accessing full text quality journals and publications. There are currently an estimated 761 registered open access repositories in the world. The OA Model has been adopted by many international and governmental organizations such as the World Summit in the Information Society (WSIS), for disseminating full-text publications to online communities distributed around the globe. This presentation intends to raise awareness about the potential afforded by OA and the advantages and opportunities for African universities to join the OAM and receive free or discounted electronic subscriptions to scientific journals and books to support their institutional education and research agenda.
SPEAKER BIO :
Diack is professor of Science/Mathematics education at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA. His specialty is in e-learning Technology and Design. He currently serves as President of the LA Academy of Science (LAS) and Director of the MERLOT Africa Network (MAN). He represents the State of Louisiana to MERLOT and the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Technology Cooperative. He is a member of the eLearning Africa Conference Advisory and is founding Chair of the Pan-African Fora on Open Education Resources (OER) and Open Access (OA), that are held as part of the eLA Conference. His research interests are in the areas of (a) Open Access and Open Education, (b) Assessment of Web 2.0 Technologies and Virtual Communities of Practice (VCP); (c) Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) design and assessment of VLEs in training, teaching and learning.
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Moustapha Diack
