An OER framework, heuristic and lens: Tools for understanding lecturers’ adoption of OER

Glenda Cox; Henry Trotter

doi:10.5944/openpraxis.9.2.571

An OER framework, heuristic and lens: Tools for understanding lecturers’ adoption of OER

Open Praxis

Volume 9 (2017): Issue 2

By: Glenda Cox and Henry Trotter

Open Access

|Apr 2017

Abstract

This paper examines three new tools – a framework, an heuristic and a lens – for analysing lecturers’ adoption of OER in higher educational settings. Emerging from research conducted at the universities of Cape Town (UCT), Fort Hare (UFH) and South Africa (UNISA) on why lecturers adopt – or do not adopt – OER, these tools enable greater analytical insights at the institutional and cross-institutional level, and hold the potential for generic global application. The framework – the OER Adoption Pyramid – helps distinguish and compare the factors shaping lecturers’ OER adoption which are both immediate (over which they have personal control) and remote (over which they have less or no control). The heuristic – the OER Readiness Tables – derives from the Pyramid and provides a visual representation of the institutions’ obstacles and opportunities for OER engagement. The lens – of “institutional culture” – nuances these comparisons so that the analysis remains attentive to granular, idiosyncratic variables shaping OER decisions. We believe this research will have value for scholars interested in researching OER adoption, and institutions interested in promoting it.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.9.2.571 | Journal eISSN: 2304-070X

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Language: English

Page range: 151 - 171

Submitted on: Jan 24, 2017

Accepted on: Apr 14, 2017

Published on: Apr 1, 2017

Published by: International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE)

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

institutional culture

© 2017 Glenda Cox, Henry Trotter, published by International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE)
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 9 (2017): Issue 2