Group Admins
Description
Research in collaboration with the OER Hub that investigated the perceptions and use of OER by 78 BC faculty adopters revealed that a majority of respondents perceived OER to be comparable or superior in quality to traditional, proprietary materials (Jhangiani et al., 2016). Furthermore, the inability to locate high-quality, relevant and up-to-date OER and lack of institutional support for the use of OER were reported to be more significant barriers by faculty at teaching-intensive universities or colleges than faculty at research-intensive universities. However, the self-selection of a sample comprised almost entirely of OER adopters raises questions about representativeness, particularly for OER advocates who routinely engage with those who are not already positively disposed towards the creation, adaptation, or adoption of OER.
This presentation provides an overview of the results of an online survey of over 200 BC post-secondary faculty, including both adopters and non-adopters of OER during the Fall of 2016. The survey was designed to better understand the factors that influence how BC faculty select and assign required course materials (including textbooks), along with their perceptions of students’ textbook-purchasing behaviours, their awareness of OER, and both institutional and individual factors that inhibit them from adopting OER. The results are disaggregated by type of institution (e.g., research-intensive vs. teaching-intensive university). The implications of this research for policy makers and OER advocates are discussed.
References
BCcampus. (2016, November 20). Open Textbook Stats. Retrieved from https://open.bccampus.ca/open-textbook-stats/
Jhangiani, R. S., Pitt, R., Hendricks, C., Key, J., & Lalonde, C. (2016). Exploring faculty use of open educational resources at British Columbia post-secondary institutions. BCcampus Research Report. Victoria, BC: BCcampus. Retrieved from https://open.bccampus.ca/2016/01/18/new-study-exploring-faculty-use-of-oer-at-bc-institutions/
