Leveraging the Power of Social Learning

A recent case study of a course journal using the Public Knowledge Project’s (PKP) Open Journal Systems (OJS) allows students to facilitate the creation of an online, open access journal by soliciting contributions “across mediums from artists, students, activists, and scholars” (Przybylo, 2018). As the benefits of Open Pedagogy for student learning and engagement become more widely recognized, programs such as SFU’s Library’s Digital Publishing division continue to “leverage the power of social learning” by allowing students to share their work in course-based, online, open access journals (Moore, 2018). Typically, students working on a course journal submit their own work to OJS while learning about the scholarly publishing process, reviewing one another’s work, and writing for a broader audience beyond “disposable assignments” (Stranack, 2017; Wiley, 2013). However, issues of student privacy have arisen, along with questions about the potential implications of students “putting work into the public commons that might reflect poorly on them because it is not polished or sophisticated” (DeRosa & Robison, 2017, p. 121). This case study addresses these concerns and increases students’ community engagement by allowing them to work in project teams which each take a focused approach to one element of journal publishing. In this model, students develop a deeper understanding of journal publishing options, opportunities, and challenges, while building relationships with community partners. In this presentation, we will outline this model of employing OJS in the classroom, with recommendations for implementing similar projects.