International Federation of Medical Students' Associations (IFMSA), representing 1.3 million medical students worldwide, is a firm proponent of the Open Education movement. IFMSA has solidified stances on Open Education in its two
Policy Documents, ‘Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data’ and ‘Open Science’, and has committed to promoting the movement through its Global Priorities, activities, programs, and initiatives.
IFMSA has aimed to increase awareness of Open Science among medical students through the annual Open Access Week campaign and promoting NMO activities on Open Science. IFMSA has further created educational activity toolkits and introduced Open Educational Resources that can be useful to medical students. Along with these capacity-building efforts, IFMSA has strengthened the presence of students in events discussing Open, such as OpenCon and Open Education Conference 2020.
This session will feature panel discussion introducing the existing barriers that students face during their studies and research, why involving students in the Open movement is important, and local, national, and international efforts of students to advocate Open Education.
The panel will consist of student organization representatives who will introduce the existing barriers that students face during their studies and research, why involving students in the Open movement is important, and how they are spreading the idea through local, national and international efforts. They will also share his/her story of how being introduced to the Open Movement at an early stage in their career has impacted their paths and how to make the Open movement sustainable. Along with discussing the pre prepared questions, the panels will receive questions from the participants and provide specific advice to the students and mentors.
After participating in this session, attendees will be able to:
- Understand the importance and the impact of involving students in advocating the Open
- Understand student-led strategies to advocate Open Science and can implement them back in their local and national communities
- Share ideas on sustainable ways to spread the Open movement.
Disclosure: This session was added to the program through special approval by the Steering Committee after the call for proposals closed.
