Scholarship in the digital age: Open educational resources, publication and public engagement

This paper explores the impact of the digital age on the work life of academics and reports research on how and whether technologies are facilitating and adapting the teaching and research practices of academics, offering a description of scholarship for the digital age. A changed landscape is emerging, which offers academics new ways of working in research and new kinds of academic output for them to use in their teaching. Two areas are considered: the conduct of research (in particular the range of activities associated with publication and dissemination of research findings) and the conduct of teaching. The links between these practices are explored in terms of a revised view of scholarship, the perspective of digital scholarship. The paper begins with a review of literature and draws on an interview study to illustrate changes in academic practice, both for teaching and research. The study of 22 academics with expertise in educational technology provides a commentary on the changes, identifying open access as important in both teaching and publication. The paper concludes with some suggestions for future work in this area.