Institutional access to open and affordable educational resources – A conversation with Tom Mosterd

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In this episode, Tom Mosterd – co-founder of Sylla, talks about his journey in the open-access movement and the vision behind Sylla’s innovative approach to scholarly publishing. The team at Sylla works with educators and university librarians to adopt open and affordable scholarly resources.

LinkedIn: /in/tom-mosterd-667497a4

With experience at Knowledge Unlatched and the OAPEN Foundation, Tom joins Jo to share key insights that have shaped his perspective on making academic books and journals more accessible. They discuss the challenges and opportunities in expanding open access, the financial sustainability of Open Educational Resources (OER), and how initiatives like Sylla can support universities and educators. They also dive into global equity in higher education, particularly in regions with limited resources, and the future of open-access publishing.

Listen here:

To view all our podcast episodes, go to https://access2perspectives.org/conversations/

How institutions can work with Sylla

  1. Find Free Learning Materials – Sylla helps universities and colleges find high-quality, free teaching materials instead of expensive textbooks.
  2. Save Money for Students – By using free educational materials, institutions can reduce the cost of learning for students.
  3. Enable Personalised Teaching – Teachers can choose and mix different open resources to create a richer and better learning experience tailored to how they would like to teach and their students needs.
  4. Partner for Big Impact – Universities can work with Sylla to shift from using closed resources to a more open future with affordable learning options for all.
  5. Use Technology to make your life easier – Sylla makes it easier for institutions, libraries and teachers to find, assess, design and adopt digital learning resources – meeting them where they are and saving time in the process.
  6. Get Expert Support – Sylla provides help and guidance to institutions looking to make learning more open and affordable.

Sylla Website: sylla.io
OAPEN: oapen.org
Knowledge Unlatched: knowledgeunlatched.org

Quick recap

Tom and Jo discussed the challenges and potential solutions for delivering educational content at scale, emphasizing the need for more diverse approaches – combining open access materials with open textbooks and affordable options. They also explored the potential of their digital service, Sylla, to enhance accessibility and the importance of efficiency and inclusivity in scholarly services and research article publishing.

Summary

Hybrid Approach for Educational Content

Tom and Jo discussed the challenges and potential solutions for delivering educational content at scale. They agreed on the need for more innovative and forward-thinking approaches, combining open access materials with open textbooks, chapters and affordable options, to meet the diverse needs of educators and students. They also acknowledged the importance of incentives and programs for creating and maintaining open access content. Tom suggested that their platform could help libraries and educators assess their current reading list portfolios and identify open access alternatives, potentially reducing costs and freeing up funds that can enable the creation of new open and high quality materials. Jo agreed, noting the current movement in the industry and the potential for their platform to facilitate this transition.

Efficiency, Inclusivity, and Scholarly Services

Tom and Jo discussed the importance of efficiency and inclusivity in scholarly services and research article publishing. They agreed that streamlining infrastructure, whether self-hosted, open source, or proprietary, could make knowledge more accessible globally. They also discussed the potential of AI and technology to source relevant information efficiently, and the possibility of using closed access materials to complement open access. Tom expressed curiosity about how these developments might evolve, particularly around global inclusivity and the cost of building and maintaining infrastructure.

Enhancing Education With Sylla

Tom and Jo discussed the potential of their digital service, Sylla, to enhance the accessibility of educational resources. Tom emphasized the importance of working closely with universities and libraries to understand their needs and make the service user-friendly. He also highlighted the need for the service to integrate with other systems, such as virtual learning environments and learning management software. Jo raised concerns about connectivity issues for universities with unstable internet, to which Tom responded that they are working on a solution that would allow users to download materials for offline use. Tom also shared his vision for the future, where Sylla would be used by many more universities and help streamline the process of bringing relevant research content into the classroom. He expressed interest in the development of open publishing models and how their work could potentially spark further innovation in the education sector.

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