Open Access, Open Data, Open Educational Resources, Open Methodology, Open Science, Open Source, Open Peer Review – movements dedicated to the openness, transparency and accessibility of information. These values are associated with the prospect of participation, diversity and equality. If possible, knowledge should be available and usable free of charge for all. But what exactly does openness mean?
Openness – it is not really tangible
In times of rapidity openness is always needed and demanded. Openness to new tasks. To new ideas and alternative ways of communication. Openness as a basic prerequisite for comprehensive social participation. In science, openness is often understood as the general expression of established scientific principles using the potential of digitisation. What these will look like in the future can only be guessed today, if at all. A constant exchange on methods, experiences, legal and technical challenges of open science and teaching is necessary. The TUHH supports this with its policy for openness in research and teaching:
TUHH members are explicitly encouraged and helped to make their scientific findings in research and teaching publicly available and to try out new forms of open collaboration (openTUHH 2018, paragraph 17).
tub.torials – living openness
In principle, much more exchange should take place around openness and its movements as currently is the case. Experiments are necessary. And so the tub. dedicates itself to cultural openness, e.g. through tub.torials. Tub.torials is our current project at the Hamburg Open Online University (HOOU). The term “tub.torials” consists of the abbreviation of the Hamburg University of Technology Library (tub.) and the term “tutorials” (kind of user manual that explains topics, processes or functions in a written, cinematic or interactive way). Accordingly, the contents offered on the subject of openness in science, research and teaching should be presented in a way that is easy to understand, in order to make “openness” more tangible from different perspectives. Thematically, contributions (e.g. blog posts, interactive elements and AV media) from the entire life cycle of scientific communication are planned, in which information literacy – a core task within the scope of library services – plays an increasingly important role.
With this approach we want to make our experiences, questions, successes and challenges transparent and offer readers points of contact for their own learning and teaching activities. In addition, we hope that practical experience with workflows, information science topics and applications that we have tested ourselves will provide an opportunity for exchange and support the courage and openness to try out new things.
Further use as OER expressly permitted: This work and its contents are – unless otherwise stated – licensed under CC BY 4.0. Please mention according to TULLU-rule as follows: “#OAWeek2019 „tub.torials – thoughts, ideas and materials about openness in science research and teaching” by Florian Hagen, License: CC BY 4.0.
