Despite the existence of many successful initiatives to promote the sharing and use of Open Educational Resources (OER), sharing and use of OER is not a widely accepted practice in higher education. The reasons for lecturers' choices on whether or not to contribute OER are poorly understood. This thesis develops a theoretically-based explanation of both why lecturers contribute and why they do not. The thesis addresses the question: How do the relations between culture, structure and agency influence lecturers' contribution and non-contribution of OER in a higher education institution? A mixed methods approach was used to gather quantitative (questionnaires) and qualitative (interviews) data. Fourteen lecturers from the University of Cape Town (UCT) were interviewed (two from each of its seven faculties), seven who had contributed OER and seven who had not. The analysis adopted an Activity Theory framework to highlight the enablers and barriers to contribution present in the institutional system. The Social Realism of Margaret Archer (1995, 2003, 2007a, 2012) was used to explore the power of academics' agency and their internal conversations arising from their personal concerns in deciding on their courses of action. This study illustrates how capturing lecturers' internal conversations and analysing how they think about their social contexts is valuable not only in the context of OER but also as a way of understanding their role as social actors more generally. Analysing the relations between culture, structure and agency in institutions explains why some institutions are slow to change and/or prefer to maintain current practices. At UCT, where institutional culture allows academic freedom of choice and structure supports that choice, it is the academic agents themselves who hold the power of action to contribute or not to contribute OER. Academics have the power to change their practice if it makes sense in terms of their projects, the activities that they are involved in and their concerns. Thus in this context, the long term sustainability of the OER movement rests firmly on the willingness of individual lecturers to share and use OER. By understanding the institutional context in which the individual is placed, OER can be encouraged appropriately

Presented at 2014 Arizona Library Association Annual Conference, Scottsdale, AZ / Open educational resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are free to use, customize, and share. There’s a goldmine of OER online, but locating them is like trying to herd cattle (or cats). It takes persistence and a knack for tracking down things that are scattered all over. OER range from digital textbooks, lesson plans, and games to assignments, videos, and lab notes. Learn about the benefits of OER, potential barriers, where to find high-quality OER, and how to increase customers’ awareness of them. The target audience for this presentation is anyone who works with K-12 classes, college students, instructors, and lifelong learners.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-11-24Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:53:53Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 santos_kdc_me_prud.pdf: 1062577 bytes, checksum: 3beb729579b5b550f6c058767121f435 (MD5) / A presente pesquisa, vinculada à Linha de Pesquisa: ―Práticas e Processos Formativos em Educação‖, tem como objetivo geral investigar e analisar o emprego do ―jogo‖, no contexto educacional e parte do pressuposto de que o jogo é uma atividade existente no âmbito do Ensino Fundamental do Colégio de Aplicação João XXIII, da rede de ensino Federal de Juiz de Fora/MG. Fator este que gera questionamentos sobre os limites e as possibilidades do emprego dessa atividade como recurso pedagógico. A pesquisa estabelece como objetivos específicos: investigar e analisar o emprego do ―jogo‖, por uma professora do 4º ano do Ensino Fundamental que atua com 14 alunos; levantar as opiniões das professoras e dos alunos sobre o emprego de ―jogo‖ no contexto escolar; e em quais aspectos os jogos são importantes para a formação dos educandos. A pesquisa é de natureza qualitativa, cuja abordagem é o estudo de caso, considerando que a investigação se debruça sobre uma realidade específica e peculiar. Para tanto, a investigação contempla análise bibliográfica, procedimentos de observação e entrevista semiestruturada com a professora da turma e com a professora mentora do projeto; com 09 alunos emprega o grupo focal para coleta de dados. A importância desta pesquisa está voltada para a compreensão de processos que se passam no interior do colégio, no ―Módulo de Jogos Educativos‖, é revelada pela significação dos processos vivenciados e a produção do conhecimento poderá também subsidiar práticas educativas e servir de referência para outras realidades. Por fim, destacamos que os resultados da investigação apontam que o emprego do jogo como recurso pedagógico, nesta fase da Educação Básica, pode contribuir de maneira significativa no processo de... / This research, linked to the Research Line: ―Formative Processes and Practices in Education‖, aims to investigate and analyze the general use of ―game‖ in the educational environment and assumes that the game is an existing activity within Elementary School at John XXIII Application School, from the federal school system of Juiz de Fora/MG. Factor that generates questions about the limits and possibilities of employing this activity as an educational resource. The research establishes specific objectives: To investigate and analyze the use of ―game‖ by a teacher in the 4th year of elementary school that works with 14 students; get the opinions of teachers and students about the use of game in the school context, and in which aspects are games important for the formation of students. The research is qualitative in nature, whose approach is the case study, considering that research focuses on a specific and peculiar reality. To this end, the investigation covers literature review, observation procedures and semi-structured interview with the classroom teacher and the teacher, mentor of the project; with 09 students uses focus groups to collect data. The importance of this research is focused on understanding the processes that take place within the college, in the ―Module Educational Games‖, is revealed by the significance of the processes experienced and knowledge production may also subsidize educational practices and serve as reference for other realities. Finally, we emphasize that the research results indicate that the use of gaming as an educational resource at this stage of basic education, can contribute significantly in the learning process and the integral development of students, enriching... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Orientador: José Milton de Lima / Banca: Célia Vectore / Banca: Gilza Maria Zauhy Garms / Resumo: A presente pesquisa, vinculada à Linha de Pesquisa: ―Práticas e Processos Formativos em Educação‖, tem como objetivo geral investigar e analisar o emprego do ―jogo‖, no contexto educacional e parte do pressuposto de que o jogo é uma atividade existente no âmbito do Ensino Fundamental do Colégio de Aplicação João XXIII, da rede de ensino Federal de Juiz de Fora/MG. Fator este que gera questionamentos sobre os limites e as possibilidades do emprego dessa atividade como recurso pedagógico. A pesquisa estabelece como objetivos específicos: investigar e analisar o emprego do ―jogo‖, por uma professora do 4º ano do Ensino Fundamental que atua com 14 alunos; levantar as opiniões das professoras e dos alunos sobre o emprego de ―jogo‖ no contexto escolar; e em quais aspectos os jogos são importantes para a formação dos educandos. A pesquisa é de natureza qualitativa, cuja abordagem é o estudo de caso, considerando que a investigação se debruça sobre uma realidade específica e peculiar. Para tanto, a investigação contempla análise bibliográfica, procedimentos de observação e entrevista semiestruturada com a professora da turma e com a professora mentora do projeto; com 09 alunos emprega o grupo focal para coleta de dados. A importância desta pesquisa está voltada para a compreensão de processos que se passam no interior do colégio, no ―Módulo de Jogos Educativos‖, é revelada pela significação dos processos vivenciados e a produção do conhecimento poderá também subsidiar práticas educativas e servir de referência para outras realidades. Por fim, destacamos que os resultados da investigação apontam que o emprego do jogo como recurso pedagógico, nesta fase da Educação Básica, pode contribuir de maneira significativa no processo de... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This research, linked to the Research Line: ―Formative Processes and Practices in Education‖, aims to investigate and analyze the general use of ―game‖ in the educational environment and assumes that the game is an existing activity within Elementary School at John XXIII Application School, from the federal school system of Juiz de Fora/MG. Factor that generates questions about the limits and possibilities of employing this activity as an educational resource. The research establishes specific objectives: To investigate and analyze the use of ―game‖ by a teacher in the 4th year of elementary school that works with 14 students; get the opinions of teachers and students about the use of game in the school context, and in which aspects are games important for the formation of students. The research is qualitative in nature, whose approach is the case study, considering that research focuses on a specific and peculiar reality. To this end, the investigation covers literature review, observation procedures and semi-structured interview with the classroom teacher and the teacher, mentor of the project; with 09 students uses focus groups to collect data. The importance of this research is focused on understanding the processes that take place within the college, in the ―Module Educational Games‖, is revealed by the significance of the processes experienced and knowledge production may also subsidize educational practices and serve as reference for other realities. Finally, we emphasize that the research results indicate that the use of gaming as an educational resource at this stage of basic education, can contribute significantly in the learning process and the integral development of students, enriching... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

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Im Kontext der Digitalisierung vollzieht sich an Hochschulen aktuell ein umfassender Transformationsprozess. Gerade im Bereich der Lehre scheinen die Möglichkeiten digitaler Technologien unbegrenzt. Lernmaterialien, bspw. Texte, Bilder, Videos, Online-Kurse sind ubiquitär verfügbar. Doch wie können diese Materialien sinnvoll und legal integriert, genutzt und verbreitet werden? Sog. Open Educational Resources (OER) bieten Möglichkeiten, den aktuellen Herausforderungen – rechtlicher, didaktischer sowie organisatorischer Natur – adäquat zu begegnen und die Potentiale digitaler Bildung nachhaltig zu erschließen: ... [... aus dem Text]

Im Kontext der Digitalisierung vollzieht sich an Hochschulen aktuell ein umfassender Transformationsprozess. Gerade im Bereich der Lehre scheinen die Möglichkeiten digitaler Technologien unbegrenzt. Lernmaterialien, bspw. Texte, Bilder, Videos, Online-Kurse sind ubiquitär verfügbar. Doch wie können diese Materialien sinnvoll und legal integriert, genutzt und verbreitet werden? Sog. Open Educational Resources (OER) bieten Möglichkeiten, den aktuellen Herausforderungen – rechtlicher, didaktischer sowie organisatorischer Natur – adäquat zu begegnen und die Potentiale digitaler Bildung nachhaltig zu erschließen: ... [... aus dem Text]

In this paper, 936 faculty free response reviews of open textbooks from the Open Textbook Library were analyzed for content and themes. The reviews were completed by faculty members at institutions in the United States and Canada. The textbooks were evaluated regarding their comprehensiveness, content accuracy, relevance longevity, clarity, consistency, modularity, organization structure flow, interface, grammatical errors, and cultural relevance. The results of the reviews found that the across 9360 comments regarding the quality of open textbooks, of these comments 97.3% reflected adequate or exceptional reviews of the textbooks. Faculty often compared the texts to traditional textbooks and in all mentions of comparison, the open textbook were regarded to be of equal or superior quality. The results of this study aid in alleviating concerns regarding quality of Open Educational Resources (OER) and provide peer reviews that faculty who consider adopting these textbooks often request. Limitations of the study and further prescriptions for research regarding OER quality and peer review research have been explored in the study.

The cost of textbooks has continued to increase, and the financial effect on students in higher education is significant. Numerous studies have been done to learn more about student and faculty perceptions toward Open Educational Resources (OER) use. Recent studies confirm that most instructors would use OER in order to alleviate the financial burden placed on students; however, OER adoption rates do not reflect this belief. In my study I sought to better understand what instructors experience when they search for OER. In this phenomenological study, I interviewed faculty who expressed a desire to use OER and to capture their lived experiences of adopting and adapting OER. I would like to better understand what is working well for these faculty and what challenges exist as they seek to find and adopt OER and identify possible solutions that could improve OER adoption rates. I learned that there is a desire to use OER to reduce the financial burden that textbooks impose on students, but that there is very little understanding on where to find quality OER and tools that are needed to adapt it. Future research may focus on ways to improve the process of finding and customizing OER so that it can be an alternative to expensive textbooks.

This dissertation examines Utah resident views of incentives and disincentives for use of OpenCourseWare (OCW) and how they fit into the theoretical framework of perceived innovation attributes established by Rogers. Rogers identified five categories of perceived innovation attributes, which include relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability. A survey instrument was developed using attributes that emerged from a Delphi technique with input from experts in the OCW field. The survey instrument was sent to 753 (n = 753) random individuals between 18 and 64 years of age throughout Utah based on information obtained from Alseco Data Group, LLC. Results indicated that the greatest incentives for OCW use were (a) no cost for materials (M = 4.59, SD = .68), (b) having resources available at any time (M = 4.35, SD = .89), (c) pursuing in depth a topic that interests me (M = 4.24, SD = 0.93), (d) learning for personal knowledge or enjoyment (M = 4.22, SD = .93), and (e) materials in an OCW were fairly easy to access and find (M = 4.12, SD = .98). Results indicated that the greatest disincentives for OCW use were (a) there was no certificate or degree awarded (M = 3.28, SD = 1.54), (b) it did not cover my topic of interest in the depth I desired (M = 3.17, SD = 1.31), (c) lack of professional support provided by subject tutors or experts (M = 3.14, SD = 1.25), (d) lack of guidance provided by support specialists (M = 3.09, SD = 1.26), and (e) feeling the material was overwhelming (M = 3.06, SD = 1.31).