Awareness of open educational resources (OER) and open educational practice (OEP) in Scottish Higher Education Institutions Survey Results

Interim Report

Beatriz de los Arcos, Pete Cannell, Rosemarie McIlwhanAugust 2016

Executive Summary

Key findings Awareness of open educational resources (OER) among Scottish HE educators is generally

low Awareness of CC licenses is lower than public domain or copyright (but awareness of all

license types is higher than awareness of OER in general) Most educators share teaching materials via their institutions VLE but few share them

openly online Lack of awareness is perceived as the highest barrier to adoption of OER Scottish HE educators use OER to broaden the range of materials available to their

students Staff who attend CPD opportunities are more likely to engage with OER and OEP

Recommendations Efforts to raise awareness of OER and OEP among HE teaching staff in Scotland need to

be scaled up Opportunities for development around the use of OER in the curriculum, and especially

the affordances and limitations of open licenses, should be provided Institutions should consider the possibility of ‘opening up’ their VLEs, and establish how

to best support and encourage their teaching staff to share resources openly

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The HE survey

Context The Opening Educational Practices in Scotland (OEPS) project1 facilitates best practice in Scottish open education. The project aims to enhance Scotland’s reputation and capacity for developing publicly available and licensed online materials, supported by high quality pedagogy and learning technology.

Part of the project’s objectives is to identify current awareness of open educational resources (OER) and open educational practice (OEP) in Scotland across tertiary education and informal learning. This survey is part of that work and also forms part of a wider engagement with Scottish higher education institutions (HEIs). The project has held four open forums, which have been attended by staff from eighteen out of the nineteen HEIs. It has also held numerous workshops and discussions with staff from all HEIs; co-produced a free openly licensed course with one HEI and is working with other HEIs on further exemplar courses. The project team see the project as a large-scale action research project in which qualitative data is garnered through an iterative cycle of action, evaluation and reflection. This process of participatory events and collaborative activity has been a source of valuable insights into the level of awareness of OER and OEP in Scottish institutions.

About this surveyThe Open Educational Practices in Scotland (OEPS) Project conducted a survey to find out about the level of awareness of OER and OEP among HE institutions in Scotland. The survey questions were adapted from research instruments by the Open Education Research Hub2 (OERH), the Babson Survey Research Group3 and the Boston Consulting Group4, which allowed, to a certain extent, for comparison of results across educational contexts around the globe. The survey was constructed in SurveyMonkey and shared online by institutional contacts. In total 235 valid responses were collected in a five-week period from 19th October 2015 to 23rd November 2015. The survey was distributed in 19 HE institutions, and responses were obtained from 15 of them; however, as Figure 1 shows, most respondents came from the University of Glasgow (n=59), The Open University in Scotland (n=54), Scotland’s Rural College (n=42) and the University of St. Andrews (n=28), making unadvisable any conclusion that these results are necessarily representative of the sector as a whole. Having said that, it is worth highlighting that findings hereby reported do not differ radically from findings obtained in previous research (de los Arcos,

1 www.oepscotland.org

2 http://oerhub.net/

3 http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/oer.html

4 http://www.hewlett.org/sites/default/files/The%20Open%20Educational%20Resources%20Ecosystem_1.pdf

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Farrow, Perryman, Pitt, & Weller, 2014; Allen & Seaman, 2014; de los Arcos, Farrow, Pitt, Perryman, Weller & McAndrew, 2015).

Figure 1. Distribution of responses

University of AberdeenAbertay University

University of DundeeUniversity of Edinburgh

Edinburgh Napier UniversityUniversity of Glasgow

Glasgow Caledonian UniversityGlasgow School of ArtHeriot-Watt University

University of the Highlands & IslandsOpen University in ScotlandQueen Margaret University

Robert Gordon UniversityRoyal Conservatoire of ScotlandScotland’s Rural College (SRUC)

University of St AndrewsUniversity of Stirling

University of StrathclydeUniversity of the West of Scotland

0%

1.3%4.3%

0.4%1.3%

25.2%0.4%

0%

0%

0.4%23.1%

0.9%7.3%

2.6%17.9%

12%

0%

1.7%1.3%

Characteristics of the sampleThe sample (Table 1) comprises of a majority of female (54.5%, n=128), highly experienced educators –29.5% (n=69) with over 20 years of teaching experience. Most teach full-time (55.4%, n=129), face-to-face (62.1%, n=146) and at undergraduate level (73.9%, n=173). Figure 2 shows a breakdown of responses by discipline taught.

Table 1. Sample Characteristics

ALL RESPONSES N=235

Gender Female 54.5%Male 42.1%

Teaching experience

> 20 years 29.5%16-20 years 13.2%

Teaching mode Full-time 55.4%Part-time 44.6%

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Teaching context Face-to-face teaching 62.7%Blended teaching 21.7%Online teaching 15.5%

Teaching level Undergraduate 73.9%

Figure 2. Breakdown of responses by discipline

Arts & Literature6% Business Adminis-

tration6%

Computer & In-formation Science

4%Economics

4%

Education6%

Engineering7%

Humanities3%

Linguistics / Language

3%Mathematics

4%Medicine

3%

Natural Sciences23%

Psychology4%

Social Sciences7%

Health & Social Care14%

Other6%

Awareness of OER Respondents were asked to self-report their awareness of OER, after reading the following definition:

“OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and repurposing by others. Unlike traditionally copyrighted material, these resources are available for "open" use, which means that users can edit, modify, customize, and share them”.

Results show that level of awareness of OER in this particular sample is generally low: 40.4% (n=95) of respondents indicated they were unaware of OER, 40% (n=94) that they heard of OER but didn’t know much about them, and 19.6% (n=46) that they were aware of OER and knew how to use them in the classroom. Note that 6 out of the 46 respondents who declared themselves aware of OER also said that they did not use OER; accordingly, responses were merged to create three groups for comparative analysis, as shown in Table 2.

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Table 2. Categories of survey respondents

ALL RESPONSESN=235

Count % Valid %

OER users 40 17 17

OER aware but non-users

100 42.6 42.6

OER unaware 95 40.4 40.4

Total 235 100 100

These findings mirror those reported by the Babson Survey Research Group (Allen & Seaman, 2014) in their examination of the attitudes, opinions and use of OER among teaching staff in US higher education, wherein only 20% of those surveyed claimed to be aware or very aware of OER.

Selecting resources for teachingAll respondents were asked to rate on a four-point Likert scale a series of factors in relation to their selection of resources for teaching. A majority (98.3%, n=228) selected ‘high-quality and factually correct’, followed by ‘current and up-to-date’ (96.1%, n=221) and ‘easy-to-use’ (93.5%, n=214) as important or very important.

When comparing groups (Table 3), we found that 100% of OER users select teaching resources that are of high-quality and factually correct, and 97.5% current and up-to-date, but consider discoverability, having materials that are adaptable and editable, and proven to improve student performance ahead of ease of use or subject coverage, setting them apart from the other two categories of respondents.

Table 3. Factors influencing selection of teaching resources

ALL RESPONSES

N=235

OER usersn=40

OERnon-users

n=100

OERunaware

n=95

Count Valid % Count

Valid % Count Valid %

Count Valid %

Cost 171 75.7 27 73 74 74.7 70 77.8

Proven to improve student performance

200 87.7 36 90 85 86.7 79 87.8

Easy to find 210 90.9 38 95 90 90 82 90.1

Includes all the materials 145 63.1 24 60 59 59.6 62 68.1

5

I need

High-quality and factually correct

228 98.3 40 100 98 98 90 97.8

Covers my subject area sufficiently

206 89.9 33 84.6 89 90.8 84 91.3

Mapped to learning outcomes

154 66.4 27 67.5 64 64 63 68.5

Current & up-to-date 221 96.1 39 97.5 92 93.9 90 97.8

Easy to use 214 93.5 33 84.6 94 94.9 87 95.6

Used by other colleagues in my Department

46 20.1 27 69.2 19 19.4 21 22.8

Provided by my institution 88 38.3 8 20 40 40.4 40 44

Ready to use 154 67 28 65 69 70.4 59 64.1

Adaptable/editable 202 87.1 36 90 84 84 82 89.1

Invited comments on other factors that influence choice of teaching resources reveal a student-centered approach: HE educators in Scotland look for resources that are “engaging, interesting”, “novel, attention-grabbing for students”, “free of copyright complications”, “likely to prompt discussion by students”, “user-friendly for students” or resources that “explain a point or technique better than the course materials [students] already have”.

Use of repositoriesThe most commonly used repositories and educational sites reported in this particular sample are YouTube (85.2%, n=196), followed by TED Talks (46.1%, n=106) and Creative Commons (30.9%, n=71) (Figure 3). YouTube remains the most popular when comparing the three groups of respondents, but Creative Commons is ahead of TED Talks among OER users, and OpenLearn takes third place among OER non-users (a third of these being OUiS responses). The latter point raises the argument that use of repositories of open content does not necessarily imply awareness of OER.

Findings from a survey of educators around the world conducted by OERHub show very similar figures: while YouTube, TED and Khan Academy are widely-used, repositories of open resources occupy a much less prominent position (de los Arcos et al., 2014).

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Figure 3. Use of repositories

iTunes/iTunesU

YouTube

TED talks/TED-Ed

Merlot

OpenLearn

Khan Academy

Jorum

Connexions

MIT Open Courseware

Creative Commons

OER Commons

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

45.0%

97.5%

57.5%

2.5%

75.0%

25.0%

17.5%

5.0%

40.0%

65.0%

30.0%

19.2%

83.8%

43.4%

3.0%

30.3%

19.2%

5.1%

7.1%

16.2%

29.3%

0.0%

13.2%

81.3%

44.0%

1.1%

11.0%

7.7%

3.3%

0.0%

6.6%

17.6%

0.0%

OER unaware OER non-users OER users

Sharing teaching resourcesResults indicate that sharing teaching resources is common practice among surveyed educators, with only 6.8% (n=16) declaring their unwillingness to part with their materials. Overall, a majority share via their institution’s VLE (65.5%, n=154), via email if asked privately (48.5%, n=114) and in person (37.4%, n=88). In this sample of educators in Scottish HE institutions, only 9.4% (n=22) publish their teaching materials publicly online. The following quotes are relevant as they exemplify current attitudes towards sharing:

“I post my slides, weblinks and readings on our Moodle website for students to access. Would be happy to share with colleagues if they asked”.

“No, I don’t [share]. Only because no one has expressed an interest in my material”.

“I tend to share the [materials] I've created myself”.

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“Of course, this is a nonsense question. Some yes, some not. As long as we put hundreds of hours developing new teaching material, where only the delivery and not the development counts in our workload, giving it away for free seems like a bad idea... I still do this with some of it, but far from all my teaching material and try to make it the way that it is very obviously mine...”

Figure 4 shows the differences in sharing practice by group. Respondents who use OER also engage in sharing (and sharing publicly online) more often than their counterparts; respondents who declare themselves unaware of OER tend to share much less.

Figure 4. Sharing teaching resources

Don’t share

Through institution's VLE

Publicly online

In person

Via email, privately

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

3%

80%

23%

40%

40%

4%

69%

7%

39%

53%

11.6%

55.8%

6.3%

34.7%

47.4%

OER unaware OER non-users OER users

Awareness of Creative Commons LicensesRespondents were asked to rate how they perceived their awareness of Public Domain, Copyright and Creative Commons (CC) licenses on a four-point Likert scale (Figure 5). 82.4% said they were aware or very aware of Copyright, 60.6% that they were aware or very aware of Public Domain, and a lower 50.3% aware of CC licenses. Note the disparity: while overall awareness of CC stands at 50.3% (counting only ‘Aware” and ‘Very Aware’ responses), awareness of OER stands at 19.6%.

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Figure 5. Awareness of licensing

Very Aware

Aware

Somewhat aware

Unaware

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120%

18.5%

42.1%

24.5%

15.0%

34.3%

48.1%

15.9%

1.7%

18.5%

31.8%

20.6%

29.2%

Public Domain Copyright Creative Commons

Table 4. Awareness of licensing by group

OER usersn=40

OER non-usersn=100

OERunaware

n=93

Count Valid % Count Valid % Count Valid %

Public Domain 30 75 62 62 49 52.7

Copyright 38 95 79 79 75 80.6

Creative Commons 36 90 46 46 35 37.6

A comparison of responses by group (Table 4), reveals that awareness of CC is high among OER users (but not at 100%), while it is at its lowest among those unaware of OER (but not at 0%).

OER users: types of OER used, purpose and impact Users of OER in this particular sample (n=40) reported using OER regularly as supporting material to enhance teaching or as further reference for students rather than primary course material (30% versus 10.3% respectively). When used occasionally however, the difference between OER as primary or secondary material used in class is much smaller (66.7% versus 70% respectively).

Figure 6 shows the wide range of OER used by surveyed educators: images (97.5%, n=39) and videos (92.5%, n=37) are the most popular type of OER, while at the lower end of the scale we find whole courses (15%, n=6) and lesson plans (20%, n=8). This diversity finds a parallel in results reported by OERHub (de los Arcos et al., 2015) and Babson Survey Research Group (Allen & Seaman, 2014), where images and videos are also the highest ranked type of educational resource used by educators.

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Figure 6. Types of OER

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100% 93%

60%

98%

50%43%

65%

51%55% 55%

15%

53%

20%

43%

Table 5. Purpose of using OER

ALL RESPONSESn=40

Count % Valid %

To prepare for my teaching 37 92.5 92.5

To get new ideas and inspiration 38 95 95

To broaden the range of my teaching methods 34 85 85

To broaden the range of resources available to my students 40 100 100

To make my teaching more culturally diverse 21 52.5 52.5

To stay up-to-date in a subject or topic area 32 80 80

To engage my students more fully in a topic area 36 90 90

To interest hard-to-engage learners 23 57.5 57.5

To be able to accommodate diverse learner needs in class 32 80 80

All the educators in this particular sample (Table 5) indicated that they use OER to broaden the range of resources available to their students. In addition, and coinciding with findings reported in de los Arcos et al. (2015), 95% (n=38) said they use OER to get new ideas and inspiration, and 92.5% (n=37) to prepare for their teaching. Using OER to make theirs a more culturally diverse classroom received the smallest number of responses.

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When asked about the most important reason why they use OER, flexibility and modularity of materials was ranked highest (28.1%, n= 9) –“I am prepared to use material that is not ‘perfect’ providing that it can be adapted to suit my particular circumstances”, followed by subject coverage (25.8%, n=8) and low cost (21.2%, n=7). The fewest number of preferences were recorded in relation to materials being of trusted quality (6.9%, n=2), having been adopted by others or suggested by Faculty/Department (3.3%, n=1), and seen as an opportunity for sharing (3.2%, n=1). A study by the Boston Consulting Group (2013) reports similar findings in the context of K12 education: 29% of US schoolteachers adopt OER mainly for the flexibility they afford to adapt the content, and their low cost.

A majority (60.5%, n=23) of OEPS-surveyed educators said they were aware of OER being used by students, i.e. YouTube and Wikipedia content, OpenLearn, FutureLearn, etc. A majority (89.7%, n=35) also said they encourage their students to use OER, particularly “If they need to develop some skills that are not adequately taught or addressed in the course that I teach”.

Table 6. Impact of OER use

OER usersn=40

Count % Valid %

Use of OER leads to improvement in student performance 20 50 54.1

Use of OER leads to improvement in student satisfaction 17 42.5 45.9

The open aspect of OER creates different usage and adoption patterns than other online resources

26 65 70.3

Open educational models lead to more equitable access to education, serving a broader base of learners than traditional education

27 67.5 73

Use of OER is an effective method for improving retention for at-risk students

8 20 22.2

OER adoption at an institutional level leads to financial benefits for students and/or institutions

16 40 43.2

Use of OER leads to critical reflection by educators 16 40 43.2

Engaging in staff development or CPD opportunitiesOverall data show that the percentages of those who have attended CPD events were generally much higher across all development opportunities in the group of users of OER compared with non-users of OER.

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Table 7. Development opportunities attended by OER users/non-users

ALL RESPONSESN=140

OER usersn=40

OER non-usersn=100

Count % Valid % Count % Valid %

Open licensing 11 27.5 28.9 12 12 12.4

Use of already existing OER 28 70 73.7 39 39 40.2

Creation of new OER 21 52.5 55.3 16 16 16.5

Remixing of OER 13 32.5 34.2 8 8 8.2

Open educational practice 15 37.5 39.5 15 15 15.5

Open scholarship 9 22.5 23.7 15 15 15.5

Open research 12 30 31.6 31 31 31.2

Barriers to the adoption of OERA majority of OEPS respondents considered lack of awareness of OER the biggest barrier for the adoption of OER –82.5% (n=32) of those who use OER, 88.3% (n=83) of those who don’t use OER despite being aware of them, and 93.3% of those unaware of OER (n=83) (Figure 7). These results correspond to findings reported in other international studies: Dhanarajan and Abeywardena (2013) highlight that awareness and knowledge of OER in the higher education community in Asia is low; in the US, schoolteachers who self-classify as non-OER users mention that lack of awareness, and not being sure how to use OER, together with time constraints are the main barriers to their adoption of OER (Boston Research Group, 2013).

The second biggest barrier in the OEPS survey for those unaware and those who don’t use OER is knowing how to use resources (71.6% and 77.7% respectively), while users of OER rank second most important barrier to the adoption of OER the lack of knowledge about permission to use or change OER (64.9%, n=24). This serious concern with licensing and its implications when using and/or adapting open resources has also been found in research by Allen and Seaman (2014), concerning US HE educators.

Figure 7. Perceived barriers to adoption of OER

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Lack of awareness about OER in general

Not sure how to use OER

Too hard to find

Not enough subject coverage

Not high-quality

Not current/up-to-date

Not relevant to one's local context

Too fragmented

Not knowing about permission to use/change

Lack of support from institutions

Too difficult to change/edit

Not effective at improving student performance

Not used by colleagues in my Department/Faculty

82.5%

59.5%

56.8%

48.6%

24.3%

24.3%

37.8%

36.1%

64.9%

56.8%

43.2%

10.8%

18.9%

88.3%

77.7%

26.9%

28.7%

16.0%

24.5%

25.8%

18.3%

43.6%

38.3%

16.0%

10.6%

14.7%

93.3%

71.6%

18.2%

12.5%

5.7%

4.5%

13.6%

4.5%

14.0%

19.5%

10.3%

5.7%

17.2%

OER usersOER non-usersOER unaware

DiscussionFewer than half of Scottish HEIs generated significant responses to the survey. The low response rate was disappointing, however, feedback from institutional contacts suggests that the primary reason for low take up was a lack of familiarity with the terminology associated with free openly licensed educational resources. These observations are consistent with the findings of the OEPS team’s other engagement with HEIs. Open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP) are not well known in Scottish higher education. It’s possible therefore that the respondents to the survey contained more staff who have some awareness than is true of the sector at large.

The survey finds that awareness of Creative Commons licenses and other license types is greater than explicit awareness of open educational resources (OER). Moreover, some staff are using material from sites that host openly licensed material without necessarily having knowledge of the terminology associated with these resources. Lack of awareness is perceived as the highest barrier to adoption of OER. Most staff share teaching materials with colleagues but this is usually through their institution’s VLE and few share openly online. In order to enable greater awareness of the issues relating to OER and open licenses and to potentially gain greater value from the propensity of staff to share good practice opportunities for continuing professional development (CPD) are important. A 2013 report commissioned by the Scottish Enhancement Themes (Cannell & Gilmour, 2013) highlighted that teaching staff in Scottish HEIs would like more opportunities to share practice with colleagues within and between institutions. The survey also shows that staff who

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attend CPD opportunities are more likely to engage with open educational resources and open educational practice.

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References:

Allen, I.E. & Seaman, J. (2014). Opening the Curriculum: Open Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2014. Available from http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/openingthecurriculum2014.pdf

Boston Consulting Group, The (2013). The Open Education Resources ecosystem: An evaluation of the OER movement’s current state and its progress toward main- stream adoption. Available from http://www.hewlett.org/sites/default/files/The%20Open%20Educational%20Resources%20Ecosystem_1.pdf

Cannell, P. & Gilmour A. (2013). Staff: enhancing teaching, Final project report. QAA Enhancement themes publications. Available from http://www.enhancementthemes.ac.uk/docs/publications/staff-enhancing-teaching-final-project-report.pdf?sfvrsn=8

Dhanarajan, G. & Abeywardena, I. S. (2013). Higher education and Open Educational Resources in Asia: An overview. In G. Dhanarajan & D. Porter (Eds.) Perspectives on open and distance learning: Open Educational Resources: An Asian perspective. Commonwealth of Learning. Available from https://oerknowledgecloud.org/content/higher-education-and-open-educational-resources-asia-overview

de los Arcos, B., Farrow, R., Perryman, L.-A., Pitt, R. & Weller, M. (2014). OER Evidence Report 2013-2014. OER Research Hub. Available from http://oro.open.ac.uk/41866/

de los Arcos, B., Farrow, R., Pitt, R., Perryman, L-A., Weller, M. & McAndrew, P. (2015). OER Research Hub Data 2013-2015: Educators. OER Research Hub. Available from http://www.slideshare.net/OER_Hub/oerrh-data-report-20132015-educators

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AcknowledgementsThe Opening Educational Practices in Scotland project gratefully acknowledges the support of each higher education institution who distributed the survey and to the participants who completed the survey.

We also acknowledge the financial support of the Scottish Funding Council which funds the project.

This report is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Survey data available at https://figshare.com/articles/Awareness_of_OER_OEP_in_HEIs_in_Scotland/3980256

Suggested citation: de los Arcos, B., Cannell, P., & McIlwhan, R. (2016) Awareness of open educational resources (OER) and open educational practice (OEP) in Scottish Higher Education Institutions Survey Results: Interim Report. Edinburgh, Opening Educational Practices Scotland

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Get in touchOpening Educational Practices in Scotland

Email: oepscotland@gmail.comWeb: www.oepscotland.org and www.oeps.ac.ukTwitter: @oepscotland

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