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During the capstone module, you’ll be asked to work on a project in which you’ll apply one or more aspects of open scholarship to your scholarly practice. In this activity, please take a moment to reflect on Open Access and think about some different ways it could be applied to your work. This activity draws upon the Stanford University design thinking framework and a goal is, as a group, to generate and capture different ideas that could later be developed into capstone projects. This activity should take approximately 20 minutes.

Scenario: Breaking News!

Your university has just instituted an Open Access mandate!  To help this mandate succeed, your department or unit head has just given you a meeting release that has freed up three whole hours in your schedule. During these three hours, you must develop an idea for how you will address the mandate.

Step 1: Brainstorm!

Take three minutes and think about a recent practice, project, or process that is not currently open. How could you change that practice or project to help meet an open access mandate? Write down as many ideas as you can generate in three minutes.

Examples: 

• My last publication was in a non-open access journal. I could look at publishing in open access journals.
• I spend a lot of time developing resources (modules/quizzes) for my courses but I never share them with my colleagues. I could share more.

Step 2:  Reframe the Idea!

In this step, please take one of your ideas that you have jotted down and reframe it in terms of the practice that you would like to change. Please restate your idea using the following format: Transform [the practice] to [the goal].

Examples:

• Transform [my publishing] to [be more accessible].
• Transform [my resource development process] to [include more sharing] 

Step 3: Getting Started:

Take your reframed idea and write down two or three steps that you could accomplish in three hours that would help you begin to meet your idea.

Examples:

• Transform [my publishing] to [be more accessible].
  • Research what are the open access journals in my subject area
  • Review my past publisher agreements to see if there are any open access polices (such as if I’m allowed to deposit copies in open repositories).
  • Investigate Creative Commons licenses so I’m more familiar with the different license options.

Step 4: Share!

Take your ideas and getting started steps and share them with the group. To do so, we’ll be using a padlet, which is a form of an online sticky note board. To get started, click on the + symbol in the bottom right of the below padlet to start a blank note and then write or paste your idea into the new note.

Add your reflections to the padlet below.