INFLUENCE OF OPEN ACCESS RESOURCES ON THE STUDENTS OF SELECTED ENGINEERING INSTITUTIONS IN TELANGANA STATE: A STUDY

The study explores the influence level of open access resources on the academic related activities among the students of selected engineering institutions in Telangana state by a survey of 1473 participants through a questionnaire. It was found that the level of influence was found to be quite significant. In addition, the open access resources accessible through online have been utilized significantly. Out of various types of OAR, the influence of academic social networking sites, open access journals, e-books, online lecture videos, open access digital libraries, etc was found to be high. However, a meager portion of the respondents expressed that some open access resources like reference management tools, plagiarism detection tools, manuscript editing tools, etc could not influence much on the respondents. Analysis on the negative influence of open access resources revealed that the respondents also had some negative influences such as inadequate search facility, Lack of up-to-date information, Slow and hidden feedback, Lack of subject coverage, Non-availability of full text, and Lack of Speed. These facts brought out by the present study are worth considering since the positive influence predominate the negative influence of OAR on the respondents.