Higher Education Faculty Perceptions of Quality of Open Educational Resources in India

Commonwealth Educational
Media Centre for Asia
Higher Education
Faculty Perceptions of
Quality of Open
Educational Resources
in India
Sanjaya Mishra, PhD
Education Specialist, eLearning
Commonwealth of Learning, Canada

Background
 Access to quality educational materials
 Prohibitive costs of textbooks
 Slow adoption of OER
 Teachers as producers of educational
materials
 Why many teachers do not share with
others?

Conceptual Framework
Background

Research Questions
1. How are teachers’ attitudes towards OER situated
in the context of teaching and learning?
2. Is there any difference in attitude towards OER
between teachers according to different
demographic variables?
3. What are teachers’ motivations for using OER and
sharing their work as OER?
4. Is there any difference in motivations between
groups of teachers?
5. What barriers to using OER do teachers perceive?
6. How do teachers perceive the quality of OER?
7. Are there relationships between teachers’ attitudes,
motivations and perceptions of quality when it
comes to them using and adapting OER?

Methods, Instruments and Data
Sources
 Qualitative and quantitative
 Survey, interviews and workshops
 Questionnaire
 ATOER Scale (0.897 reliability coefficient
Cronbach’s α)
 Interview schedule (Activity theory based)
 WikiEducator India group and participants in
4 workshops

Workshop at Institutions
• Dual-mode University
• Single-mode Open
University
• University in rural
setting
• Private, multi-campus
University

Workshop Objectives
 Assist the participants
to understand history
and development of
OER;
 Enable them to relate
the need of OER in
their work
environment;
 Facilitate appreciation
of the importance of
open license in
educational materials;
and
 Collect data on the
research.

Workshop strategies
 Just a minute (JAM)
Session

Workshop strategies
 Interactive Q & A
session on
Motivations

Workshop strategies
 Group Discussion on Barriers to OER

Workshop strategies
 Debate on Quality
 Audio recording of
views of participants

Data Sample
 28 Participant interviews
recorded post workshop
 Survey of 227 teachers
including 107 WikiEducator
India members; with 117
usable responses
 42.7% were female
respondents and 57.2% male

Literature Review
 Quality is an important concept in education
 There are many models of assuring quality
 Quality is the result of a deliberate,
transparent, participatory negotiation process
 OER useful for improving teaching quality in
areas such as providing illustrations, teaching
difficult subjects, and supporting student
progression
 Sharing teaching materials that are incomplete
makes the faculty vulnerable to criticism

Some Key Issues
 OER to be accurate and authentic
 Appropriate to learning objectives
 Up-to-date
 Trust of the source
 Reusable
 Retaining integrity

Quality Guidelines for Open
Educational Resources
Teaching and learning
processes
Information and
material contents
Presentation, products
and formats
System, technical and
technology
http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/562

OER TIPS Framework
 Teaching and learning processes
– Pedagogical issues, including student learning,
assessment and support
 Information and material contents
– Content accuracy, relevance and content load
 Presentation, products and formats
– Openness, multimedia, design issues and open formats
 System, technical and technology
– Discoverability, support localization and people with
disability

How do teachers
perceive OER
quality?

Perceptions of Quality OER
Statements Mean
If OER are appropriate in their content, I prefer to use
them.
4.46
I prefer to use OER from trustworthy sources. 4.37
Open licensing of OER enables continuous quality
improvements.
4.17
I use trustworthy OER from reputed institutions. 4.09
I often use OER, which fulfil the pedagogical needs
of the teaching–learning process.
4.07
OER need localisation. 3.97
Lack of peer review of OER makes them susceptible to
poor quality.
3.74

Perceptions of Quality OER
Statements Mean
OER are free resources available through open
licences.
4.41
OER bring down the cost of learning materials. 4.37
OER saves teachers’ time. 4.23
OER help developing countries obtain quality
materials.
4.05
I don’t need permission to reuse OER. 3.76
The quality of OER is questionable. 3.49

Contributors vs. Non-contributors
Previous OER contribution and Quality of OER
MEAN QUALITY Total
Undecided Agree Strongly
Agree
Previous OER
contribution
No Count 1 57 24 82
% within
Previous
OER
contribution
1.2% 69.5% 29.3% 100.0%
Yes Count 3 13 16 32
% within
Previous
OER
contribution
9.4% 40.6% 50.0% 100.0%
Total Count 4 70 40 114
% 3.5% 61.4% 35.1% 100.0%
Chi-Square = 10.31, df = 2, N = 114, p = 0.006
Significant difference in perceptions of quality between contributors and non-contributors

Panel Discussion on OER Quality
“…some materials are not that well designed,
not well structured,… we must be concerned
about content …let it be unstructured but if
content is good then fine”.

“…it’s only the quality issue, which bothers
sometimes. If I am going to a very reputed
forum, there is information which is not from a
very trustworthy source, I may not quote it. I
will search for something, on which nobody
will question. Because if somebody questions
than your credibility depends on that”
Credibility; Trustworthiness

“Quality is necessary. First of all we should be satisfied
about what we have written. Does it fulfill the needs and
expectations of the learners? There should be an
authenticity. Nothing should be wrong in the Self Learning
Materials which we prepare. Secondly I think there should
be an editor or board of editors who check it seriously all the
text [contents] not only the language. So it should be
checked on the both levels -- individual as well as
institutional”
• Role of the institution
• Peer Review of OER

“…collaboration will help building good content
and also different thinking… By collaboration
these materials can be well designed and better
prepared…”
Course Team to Develop OER

Key Findings on OER Quality
 Personal criteria of appropriateness to measure
OER quality
 Trustworthiness of OER sources and reputation of
the source are important consideration when
deciding about quality
 To be considered quality materials, OER should
support the pedagogical needs of the teaching and
learning processes
 An open licence is itself an indicator of quality, as
it provides the opportunity for continuous
improvement of the resource

Key Findings on OER Quality
 OER need to be localised and adapted to
specific contexts to be fit for purpose
 OER should undergo the rigour of peer
review to be considered quality materials
 Quality assurance of OER should be the
responsibility of those who prepare the
materials, and institutions should create
mechanisms to assure quality

Other Related Resources
 ATOER Scale
 Open Praxis Paper
 Presentation at OE Global 2015
 Monograph: Promoting Use and Contribution
of Open Educational Resources
 Poster Presentation at PCF8, 2016
 Presentation at Dissemination workshop

THANK YOU
This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International
Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada as part of the Research
on Open Educational Resource for Development (ROER4D) Project.
(Grant: 107311-001). Thanks are also due to Cheryl Cheryl Hodgkinson-
Williams and colleagues at UCT for supporting the research work.

Higher Education Faculty Perceptions of Quality of Open Educational Resources in India

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