We are pleased to announce the successful completion of the training program “Quickstart in Open Access”, which was delivered online in four weekly sessions. The sessions took place every Tuesday from October 14 to November 11, 2025, via Zoom.
A total of 28 valid applications were submitted for participation in the program, primarily by postgraduate researchers and PhD candidates from a range of academic institutions across Greece. Participants came from the Agricultural University of Athens, Democritus University of Thrace, Ionian University, Athens University of Economics and Business, University of Thessaly, University of Patras, and University of the Peloponnese. Actual participation during the program was lower than the initial number of applications: 13 participants attended at least one session, while 17 participants registered on the Projects platform.
Each session lasted two hours and included a short break. To enhance interactivity, participants were encouraged to actively engage in discussions by submitting comments and questions related both to the course content and to their personal experiences when it came to Open Access publishing, if any. Although active participation mainly came from a small group of particularly engaged participants, their contributions significantly enriched the sessions.
The educational material of the program was based on content developed by the relevant team of the PATTERN project, which was translated into Greek and, where necessary, adapted to meet the needs of the audience. Each thematic unit included dedicated presentations (PowerPoint files), as well as short questionnaires and polls created for the course and conducted during the lectures. The Projects platform of the Learning Planet Institute served as a central repository for all educational material, while communication between participants and instructors took place primarily via e-mail.
At the end of each session, participants were asked to evaluate their overall experience by rating their level of satisfaction on a scale from 1 to 5 (where 1 = not at all satisfied and 5 = completely satisfied). The average rating across all sessions was 4.85. During the final session, participants also completed the mandatory overall program evaluation titled “Evaluation Feedback.” In addition, a self-assessment questionnaire was distributed to all participants, which they could complete at their own pace using the available educational material.