Open access of scholarly journals is a welcome development. DOAJ indexes almost 10,000 peer reviewed open access journals.
This sort of index site is part of "the ongoing transition from subscription-based to open-access publishing of the scholarly research" (MacCallum, 2007).
This transition has implications not only for how researchers work, but also for how teachers teach and how learners learn.
From the teacher's point of view, it is getting easier to find primary material that students can use directly. In the past, teachers would create "course packets" that might include licensed material, that were copied and maybe bound by an off campus copy center and that students were required to buy. When open access is combined with online access, the "course packet" can be transformed into an electronic resource that can be updated easily and at any time.
From the student's point of view, open access is part of the trend for learning to become unlinked from "learning institutions".
MacCallum CJ, (2007) When is open access not open access? PLoS Biol 5(10): e285. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050285
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