5 Faculty Perception of OER

Perceptions of quality

Material adopted from the exploring faculty use of Open Educational Resources in B.C. post-secondary institutions research report by BCcampus.

Although the question of the quality of a resource can make reference to a number of potential aspects/characteristics (e.g., Does it align with the curriculum? Is it fit for the specific purpose? Is it error free? Is it up-to-date?), the perception of OER as ‘poor quality’ when compared with proprietary material can act as a potential barrier to OER adoption and adaptation and is therefore a key area when exploring perceptions of OER (Bliss, Hilton III, Wiley, & Thanos, 2013; Bliss, Robinson, Hilton III, & Wiley, 2013; Clements & Pawlowski, 2012).

The Boston Consultancy Group report, which focused on US perceptions and uptake of OER, revealed that “proven efficacy” and “trusted quality” were the two most important factors for potential users of OER in the K-12 sector (2013, p. 8). Yet, whereas quality is of concern to non-OER users, it is of note that only 8% and 4% of K-12 current OER users in this study report “quality” and “efficacy” respectively as their reason for continued OER use (2013, p. 20). For this group of educators who are already using OER, almost 60% report “flexibility/modularity” and “low cost” as the most important factors for their current use of OER (29% & 29%, respectively; p. 20). Quality thus appears to be less of an issue once educators are using OER and therefore more familiar with the practice of using OER, its impact on students and the potential for remix.

Improved perceptions of quality and efficacy by educators using OER are also reflected in a number of research studies: Allen & Seaman (2014) report that nearly 85% of OER using respondents thought the “proven efficacy” of OER when contrasted with proprietary resources was “superior” or “about the same” (16.5% and 68.2%, respectively) whereas over 70% of participants thought the “trusted quality” of OER was “superior” or “about the same” (12.1% and 61.5%, respectively; 2014, p. 38). Moreover, in a 2014-2015 study of OpenStax College open textbook users (which utilised the same question as used in the OTP survey reported on below), 43.5% of OSC educators told us they thought OER was “comparable” when contrasted with “traditional, proprietary materials” (n=20) whilst 47.8% of respondents said they thought OER was “significantly better” or “slightly better” 5 . The remaining small number of respondents reported that they thought the quality of OER was “slightly worse” than that of proprietary resources (8.7%, n=4) (Pitt, 2015, p. 15)