Adoption and Diffusion of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Education

Abstract

The concept of open educational resources (OER) is becoming increasingly prominent in education.However, research circles around defining OER, content and forms of OER, technological features of OER, and the importance of the issue or lack thereof. Vital aspects such as the notion of the adoption of OER by educational practitioners remain underdeveloped. In order to shed light on the question of how to adopt OER in education, the article presents findings of a meta-study which critically reviewed 25 state-funded OER projects located in Germany. All projects aimed to anchor OER across educational areas, such as school, higher, continuing, and vocational education. The meta-analysis disclosed a mixed bag of results. Although interest and willingness to deal with OER can be confirmed, reservation is rooted in the complexity of the topic and especially the legal concerns. However, the findings demonstrate that OER can by no means be ignored in the context of teaching and learning in a digital world. Integrating OER as an aspect of existing educational training should, therefore, be encouraged.Concerning future design recommendations, to conflate OER with other pressing issues and to simultaneously emphasise its added value explicitly is a promising approach. Moreover, establishing central contact points in educational institutions to accompany and monitor actors on their path to OER appears to be necessary. Notwithstanding the concrete measures, any strategy must operate persistently at both levels, institutional and practical, embracing all relevant stakeholders.

Driven by Emotions! The Effect of Attitudes on Intention and Behaviour regarding Open Educational Resources (OER)

“…In the next section and shown in Table 6, the participants had to indicate their agreement with the frequently postulated benefits of using OER, which we derived from the broader discussion in the OER literature (Delgado et al 2019;Otto 2019;Pawlowski & Bick 2012;Wiley & Hilton 2018). While the results demonstrate a high level of agreement with all of the benefits, it is noteworthy that abstract concepts such as sharing (4.29) and exchange (4.25) are exceptionally high.…”

“…Notwithstanding the significant accomplishments regarding OER in conceptual and technical terms, one pivotal problem is the slow uptake of OER for all fields of education (Otto 2019). This absence is clearly visible in the numerous studies which have been carried out to explain the paradox between the availability of OER and an insufficient adoption of OER by educational practitioners (Hart et al 2015; Kelly 2014; Percy & Van Belle 2012; Schuwer & Janssen 2018).…”

“…Notwithstanding that the interrelatedness of OER with other open concepts requires further research, the central problem of OER is that their adoption in educational practices is still low (Otto 2019). The latest UNESCO report on understanding the impact of OER underpins this observation by stating that:…”

“…Among others, Mishra (2017) stresses that empowering these actors is crucial, as they are the most critical stakeholders in the OER ecosystem. In many countries including Germany, a constant gap can be stated between the increasing availability of OER in several repositories and their limited use (Orr et al 2017;Otto 2019;Santos-Hermosa et al 2017).…”

Designing Open Informational Ecosystems on the Concept of Open Educational Resources

“…Another basic problem of OER is that it is primarily content and not an educational model per se (Otto, 2019). This shortage of OER has resulted in intensive debates about the pedagogical implication of using OER in teaching practices.…”