OER in Higher Education in the Global South 2014-2015
International, 2014 - 2015
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Reference ID
zaf-roer4d-ohgs-2014-2015-v1.1
Producer(s)
Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D)
Created on
May 19, 2017
Last modified
Jul 29, 2021
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30412
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3180
Identification
Survey ID Number
zaf-roer4d-ohgs-2014-2015-v1.1
Title
OER in Higher Education in the Global South 2014-2015
Country
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| International | int |
Study type
Education Survey [es]
Abstract
Despite the many useful studies on the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in higher education, most are focused on the activity of students and instructors in the Global North who enjoy comparatively higher levels of economic development, educational provision, policy elaboration, and technological access than those in the Global South – the region where OER is touted as having its potentially greatest impact. This dataset arises from a survey focusing on higher education instructors and students in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and Southeast Asia. This was a cross-regional survey of 295 instructors at 28 universities in nine countries, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, India, Indonesia, Malaysia. This research seeks to establish a baseline of empirical data for assessing OER awareness and use in the Global South.
The overarching research questions that this study set out to answer are:
1. What proportion of instructors in the Global South have ever used OER?
2. Which variables may account for different OER usage rates between respondents in the Global South?
In order to address these questions, survey responses were correlated against the question (26) of the survey which directly addresses OER usage: "Have you ever used OER that are available in the public domain or has an open license (e.g. Creative Commons) that allows it to be used and/or adapted by others?" A core purpose of the overarching ROER4D project is the development of an empirical baseline of OER and Open Educational Practice (OEP) activity in the Global South. OER itself is a novel concept, and is tied to a broader spectrum of OEP that overlap with, but do not always exactly coincide with, formal OER practice. As such, an investigation into the use, reuse, adaptation, and sharing practices performed by higher education instructors, and the digital infrastructure and foundational literacies that underpin these practices (regardless of their knowledge of formal OER activity) is integral in ascertaining baseline practice. This dataset includes responses by instructors who engage in reuse and sharing activities, irrespective of whether they have consciously used OER in their practice. As such, it offers insights into the practices that exist outside of formally-labelled OER production. Dimension 2 of the survey instrument "Educational Resources" is framed around general practice relating to sharing, use, reuse, creation, and licensing of educational materials, rather than OER per se. Data arising from these responses are to be treated with caution in terms of making inferences around OER, but remain useful in terms of gaining a more informed sense of instructors’ everyday practice. The survey was conducted in four languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Bahasa Melayu); as such, four research instruments were originally produced and four sets of microdata collected. The microdata have been translated into English, and only the English instrument and the aggregated, translated instructor- response microdata is included here. The student-response microdata is not part of this dataset. The dataset is considered to be of interest to OER scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers, as it seeks to provide a useful cross-regional comparison of various aspects of OER adoption.
The overarching research questions that this study set out to answer are:
1. What proportion of instructors in the Global South have ever used OER?
2. Which variables may account for different OER usage rates between respondents in the Global South?
In order to address these questions, survey responses were correlated against the question (26) of the survey which directly addresses OER usage: "Have you ever used OER that are available in the public domain or has an open license (e.g. Creative Commons) that allows it to be used and/or adapted by others?" A core purpose of the overarching ROER4D project is the development of an empirical baseline of OER and Open Educational Practice (OEP) activity in the Global South. OER itself is a novel concept, and is tied to a broader spectrum of OEP that overlap with, but do not always exactly coincide with, formal OER practice. As such, an investigation into the use, reuse, adaptation, and sharing practices performed by higher education instructors, and the digital infrastructure and foundational literacies that underpin these practices (regardless of their knowledge of formal OER activity) is integral in ascertaining baseline practice. This dataset includes responses by instructors who engage in reuse and sharing activities, irrespective of whether they have consciously used OER in their practice. As such, it offers insights into the practices that exist outside of formally-labelled OER production. Dimension 2 of the survey instrument "Educational Resources" is framed around general practice relating to sharing, use, reuse, creation, and licensing of educational materials, rather than OER per se. Data arising from these responses are to be treated with caution in terms of making inferences around OER, but remain useful in terms of gaining a more informed sense of instructors’ everyday practice. The survey was conducted in four languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Bahasa Melayu); as such, four research instruments were originally produced and four sets of microdata collected. The microdata have been translated into English, and only the English instrument and the aggregated, translated instructor- response microdata is included here. The student-response microdata is not part of this dataset. The dataset is considered to be of interest to OER scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers, as it seeks to provide a useful cross-regional comparison of various aspects of OER adoption.
Kind of Data
Qualitative data
Unit of Analysis
Individuals
Version
Version Description
v1.1: Edited, anonymised dataset for public distribution
Version Date
2016
Version Notes
Version 1 of the dataset was deposited with DataFirst on 18 April 2017.
Version 1.1 has been anonymised further.
Version 1.1 has been anonymised further.
Scope
Notes
Individual characteristics (learners):
name of the educational institution, digital proficiency, access to the internet, satisfaction with internet connection, access to educational material
Individual characteristics (instructors):
experience in teaching, areas of expertise, educational attainment, access and use of educational resources/technologies, opinions on free access to educational resources, knowledge of intellectual property, barriers of access to eduational material, opinions on the resources/characteristics of his/her educational institution, perceived outcome of open research education
name of the educational institution, digital proficiency, access to the internet, satisfaction with internet connection, access to educational material
Individual characteristics (instructors):
experience in teaching, areas of expertise, educational attainment, access and use of educational resources/technologies, opinions on free access to educational resources, knowledge of intellectual property, barriers of access to eduational material, opinions on the resources/characteristics of his/her educational institution, perceived outcome of open research education
Keywords
| Keyword |
|---|
| Access |
| Infrastructure |
| Instructor attitudes |
| OER |
Coverage
Geographic Coverage
The survey was conducted in nine countries in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and Southeast Asia.Countries covered were Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, India, Indonesia, Malaysia.
Geographic Unit
The lowest level of geographic aggregation of the data is an individual country.
Universe
The study engaged instructors in higher education institutions in the nine countries involved in the study.
Producers and sponsors
Primary investigators
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) | University of Cape Town |
Producers
Funding Agency/Sponsor
| Name | Abbreviation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| International Development Research Centre | IDRC | Funder |
Sampling
Response Rate
The survey gathered 295 usable responses from instructors.
Data Collection
Dates of Data Collection
| Start | End |
|---|---|
| 2014-10 | 2015-08 |
Data Collection Mode
Face-to-face [f2f]
Data Collection Notes
The surveys were conducted in 28 higher education institutions across nine countries, and the questionnaire was comprised of 30 questions. The primary collection mode was via an online service (SurveyMonkey) but hard copies of the survey were also produced.
Access policy
Contacts
| Name | URL | |
|---|---|---|
| DataFirst Support | support@data1st.org | support.data1st.org |
Access conditions
Public use files, available to all
Citation requirements
Research on Open Educational Resources for Development [ROER 4D]. OER in Higher Education in the Global South 2014-2015. (ROER4D Sub-project 2) [dataset]. Version 1.1. Cape Town: ROER4D [producer], 2017. Cape Town: DataFirst [distributor], 2017. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25828/mt7b-mx25
Access authority
| Name | Affiliation | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DataFirst | University of Cape Town | support@data1st.org | support.data1st.org |
Metadata production
Producers
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| DataFirst | University of Cape Town | Metadata producer |
Date of Metadata Production
2020-04-15
DDI Document version
Version 5