Implementation of Open Education Resources in Higher Education: Experiences of Scholars, Librarians, Administrators, and Advocates

Abstract

Open Education Resources (OER) provide free educational resources, tools, software, and learning material to the world. However, just because a resource is free, it does not mean it was produced for free. While there is a consensus regarding the positive impact of OER, the issue of how individuals are implementing and sustaining OER has received limited attention. This dissertation explored how individuals at higher education institutions are implementing and sustaining OER initiatives. To obtain data to answer the research questions an exploratory case study, incorporating thematic analysis was used in the study. The research examined different perspectives of participants' experiences leading, creating, or adopting an OER initiative. Findings from the research reveal the following: (1) OER initiatives start on campus with faculty who wish to exercise more control over their teaching materials and scholarly publishing; (2) individuals get involved in OER initiatives either because they are employed at an organization that has OER initiatives or they come from a previous institution that had an OER initiative that they wish to continue at the current institution; (3) higher education institutions benefit from OER at three levels: faculty, students, and institution. Participants also indicate that amongst the challenges they face is a lack of consensus on how to implement and sustain OER and that not all institutions give tenure credit to faculty that create OER.