After reading several of my coursemates’ blog post, some of them included how content(photos, blog and video) is available for everyday users. Whereas others provided how open access relates to academic literature.
Teresa’s post about content producers that post their materials freely online. I find the points made on her post about the advantage, such as increased visibility and building reputation similar to open access in academic papers.
Jules revealed in her post on how open access benefit each audience in an info graphic. I find it refreshing as it allows me to have several perspective on who and how it benefit them. She also introduced the idea of Open Educational resources which further reinforce the importances of Open Access is to education.
Gin’s post emphasise on the high cost of producing academic materials. I find her point about customising paid content through browser history interesting but at the same time it raise some questions such as whether it is ethical and the accuracy of the recommendation- is it what subscribers are exactly looking for?
Let’s provide an example, in a world without free content and you need to pay for these information. Here comes Lacy a student who have a deep passion for chemistry, she wants to gain more knowledge. But she was immediately denied entry as it cost way too much. And she is not able to justify her purchase as that book might not provide what she is looking for.
But with open access, the situation depicted in the comic will have a different conclusion. Lacy might have find the knowledge from open access scholar books without having to pay an absurd amount of money to gain access to it.
So what exactly is Open Access?
It refers to the practice of making peer reviewed scholarly research available on the public internet. This allow users to use these information either to built on their knowledge or use it on their research with citation.
I have included this video as I find it interesting and it provide some basic ideas on how Open Access work. It also includes how both authors and users benefit with the barrier removed.
According to reports from the non-profit Student PIRGs (Public Interest Research Groups). Since 2006, the cost of a college textbook has increased by 73%; that is almost 4 times the rate of inflation.
There are only 5 major publishers which controls 85% of the textbook market
Students do not get to choose which textbooks to purchase; they have to buy the books assigned.
NBC’s review of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data shown that even with the soaring prices of textbooks , student now spends $62 lesser than students in 1998. How is that possible?
They save by not taking the traditional method (buying textbooks), but choose way to obtaining information:
Renting textbooks
Photocopy textbook from school library
Obtaining Digital resources (Open access)
By having open access textbooks, it release some financial burdens of students as well as parents. Using my example, I have to pay S$34,240 tuition fees (excluding hidden cost) for this degree programme. This amount isn’t small and with open access it allows me not to incur further expenditure by purchasing textbooks.
(numbers from 
(numbers from 
Zin Cheong - jyzc1e16 