I just introduced an inquiry project to my Biology 11 students.  The way in which I approach inquiry based projects has changed drastically in recent years, largely due to an experience I had accompanying a student to the BC Cancer Agency in Victoria several years ago. I nominated a student of mine (at their request) and attended a one day workshop at the Cancer Agency where we learned of recent developments in the treatment of Cancer, and spent time in the lab performing the experiments that inform doctors of the best methods of treatments for individual patients. Part of the internship required a formal research paper to be submitted and I realized that my senior science students were not prepared for such a task.  I was not requiring my students to access scientific journals and articles, and the depth of the research was limited to using google and google scholar.

This realization prompted me to redesign my inquiry assignment’s introduction, criteria, and assessment. I collaborated with our librarian and now all my students receive a lesson on identifying and avoiding fake news, using databases to access journal articles, and why scholarly resources are superior to popular resources. Today while I listened to the presentation being given by our librarian I had new questions and concerns that were prompted from recent readings regarding OER. We teach our students that scholarly resources (those accessed through academic journal subscriptions) have gone through several levels of rigorous editing and review, and hence are valid, reliable, and trustworthy sources. For popular sources we advise students to find the same information reported on 3 different sites and to use their ‘ABC’s’ when navigating information on the web to ensure it is valid and reliable:

  • A: Author Who is the author? What is their education?
  • B: Body Does their experience relate? Does the information sound far-fetched?
  • C: Currency How recent was the piece written?
  • S: Sources Do they included sources?

When listening to our librarians presentation, I was compelled to ask about google scholar and other sites that do not require subscriptions and hence might not go through the same levels of rigorous review as journal articles. The reputations of journals rely on the quality of the research they include, so I have confidence encouraging my students to use journals. I can not be certain of which steps, if any, were taken to ensure the reliability or validity of research provided on open sources. As we broaden the definition of ‘Open’ resources to included resources that can be remixed or adapted, my confidence plummets considerably.

My conclusion after introducing my inquiry project is that I still highly value research contained in journals because of the processes that are in place to ensure a high level of quality. It follows that I do not hold the same confidence or have the same respect for Open Resources, and unfortunately I admit that this extends to all areas of Open Educational Resources.  Without having the economic scaffolding that supports and expects excellence, I will always question the material I am being presented. I am thankful and relieved that I can encourage my students to look to Journals for reputable research. Yes, they still need to be critical thinkers when they navigate the research and information contained in journals. And yes, it is unfortunate that the school district (or university, or students) has to pay to access the journals.  But at the end of this day, I still think it’s worth it.