10.25375/uct.10007078.v1
Sanjaya Mishra
Sanjaya
Mishra
Alka Singh
Alka
Singh
Higher education faculty attitude, motivation and perception of quality and barriers towards OER in India
University of Cape Town
2019
Barriers to OER
Global South
higher education
India
oer
open education
open educational resources
quality
ROER4D
teacher attitudes
WikiEducator
Higher Education
Education
2019-10-29 06:42:09
Book
https://zivahub.uct.ac.za/articles/book/Higher_education_faculty_attitude_motivation_and_perception_of_quality_and_barriers_towards_OER_in_India/10007078
<p>The premise of this study is that teachers’ conceptions of the
quality of Open Educational Resources (OER) and their attitudes and
motivations towards using OER will influence whether and how they use
and or contribute open resources. Understanding teachers’ attitudes,
motivations and barriers to OER use and comparing data across
institutions may help to identify the issues that influence OER uptake
in India. This chapter attempts to answer the following four research
questions: How are teachers’ attitudes towards OER situated in the
context of teaching and learning? What are teachers’ motivations for
using OER and sharing their work as OER? How do teachers perceive the
quality of OER? What barriers to using OER do teachers perceive?</p>
<p>This study employed a mixed methods approach, using a survey to
gather the quantitative data which form the focus of this chapter, as
well as workshop engagements and interviews to collect qualitative data.
The research was carried out at four universities representing the
varying contexts of higher education teachers in India – one state, open
university; one dual-mode university; one semi-urban university; and
one multi-campus, private university – and amongst the WikiEducator
India community. At each university, a three-day OER workshop took place
where 30 teachers learned about OER and completed a survey. In addition
to the 120 workshop participants engaged at the four universities, the
survey was sent to the 107 members of the WikiEducator India community
who participated in the research process. Of the total of 227 teachers
who were asked to take the survey, 149 survey responses were received,
of which 117 (comprised of 43% females and 57% males) were useable. A
total of 28 educators from the universities were also interviewed.</p>
<p><br></p><p>Despite the relatively low levels of awareness of OER demonstrated by
Indian teachers prior to the research process, they were very positive
about creating and sharing OER, while being slightly less enthusiastic
about using externally developed materials. Many of the positive
attitudes stemmed from: the sense of satisfaction obtained when others
use and adapt their materials; useful feedback received from peers;
increased reputational profile experienced as a result of sharing;
collaborative opportunities introduced in the sharing process; and the
belief that their own sharing would encourage other teachers to do the
same. The teachers were mildly cautious about OER quality issues, but
said that they would use OER if they were appropriate for their needs.
They acknowledged a number of barriers to using and sharing OER,
including a lack of understanding of intellectual property, copyright
and open licensing; a lack of time; and the lack of funding,
institutional incentives and support for OER activities.</p>
<p><br></p><p>The authors recommend that advocacy to raise awareness of OER in
Indian universities should be a top priority, with a particular focus on
teachers and senior administrators; teachers should be released from
certain duties and provided with the time required to engage in OER activity; incentives in the form of
awards and/or recognition in promotion should be provided for teachers
to undertake OER development; quality assurance mechanisms for OER
produced should be introduced; and continuous professional development
opportunities should be provided to teachers through regular workshops
and training sessions on advanced information and communication
technologies and OER skills.</p>
<p><br></p><p>The dataset arising from this study can be accessed at:<br>
https://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za/dataportal/index.php/catalog/578</p>