Equity in science education
Equity in education refers to equitable distribution of educational
resources and emphasizes both equity in opportunities and equity in
educational outcome (Opheim, 2004). While the topic of equity in
education is very broad and beyond the scope of this work, examples of
online science education activities during COVID-19 lockdowns resulted
in a more widespread access to education material, which would have been
otherwise limited to members of one institution. For example, the
Harvard University Microbial Sciences Initiative organised the annual
symposium online and open to everyone from around the world or the
Microbiome Data Congress initially planned to be held in Toronto moved
online, considerably increasing the participation above expectations.
Interestingly, many pay-walled publications are now freely available
such as like Oxford University Press, Digital Public Library of America
(DPLA), and MIT Press eBooks (Lowrie). While these are commendable
activities, we need to ensure continued accessibility to the scientific
body of knowledge beyond the COVID-19 pandemics.