The University Libraries is contributing a learning module on student publishing to the international course “Open Knowledge”, organized by the Public Knowledge Project. The course, scheduled to begin in September 2014, will be taken for credit by students in Ghana, Mexico, Canada, and the U.S., and by anyone around the world with an internet connection as a non-credit MOOC.

The learning module supports an increased focus on publishing student research at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Students benefit not only from publishing their own research but by becoming active participants in the publishing process. Issues in journal publishing such as peer review, editorial policies, licensing, attribution, plagiarism, reproducibility, and open access are introduced. Learning about research dissemination supports curricular goals and prepares future scholars on an international level.

The project will include collaborators at Virginia Tech as well as at our sister institution, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Cape Town, South Africa. In addition to advocating for the open dissemination of scholarly information, the module will utilize and contribute to existing open educational resources (OER) on student publishing, and will remain available after course completion. Internally, this project supports the development of student publishing at Virginia Tech through strengthening library capacities in information literacy and publishing services.