Community College Faculty Attitudes Toward Adopting Open Educational Resources

Date of Conferral

10-31-2023

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

Sydney Parent

Abstract

The focus of this project study was the lack of adoption of open educational resources (OER) by community college faculty members at a rural community college in the southwestern United States. The study site failed to meet their strategic plan goal of having 50% of all courses using OER by July 2022. The purpose of this exploratory, basic qualitative study was to understand faculty attitudes towards adoption of OER and identify potential barriers to OER adoption to reveal strategies the institution can use to achieve their goal. Two theories informed the conceptual framework for this study: O’Banion’s guiding principles for learning colleges and Kotter’s eight-step process for leading change. The research questions explored faculty attitudes towards adoption of OER and their perceptions of benefits and barriers to adopting OER. Semistructured interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 15 participants drawn from the pool of the full-time faculty members at the college, sorted into groups of full adopters, partial adopters, and potential adopters of OER. Data were analyzed using in vivo, values, and axial coding methods to identify patterns, categories, and emergent themes from the interview data. The findings from this study revealed that faculty were open to adopting OER for their classes but needed more training and guidance to locate and adopt quality materials. Faculty also indicated that they needed time to collaborate and a means to share OER with colleagues. These findings were used to develop a 3-day professional development training for faculty to help the college reach its goal of OER adoption, making college more affordable to students and improving students’ learning outcomes through increased access to learning materials.

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