Date of Award
1-1-2020
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. in Education
First Advisor
Marie Barnard
Second Advisor
Whitney Webb
Third Advisor
Stephen Monroe
School
University of Mississippi
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
The primary drivers of open educational practices, open educational resources (OER), and OER enabled pedagogy are the faculty who will help transform higher education in these domains. The purpose of this study was to understand factors that lead faculty to use OER and to learn how their use is related to teaching behaviors. It is broadly based on an OER Research Hub hypothesis that the use of OER leads to critical reflection by the educator with evidence of improvement in their practices. Within that hypothesis is the suggestion that the use of OER causes faculty to incorporate a wider range of content, consider different teaching approaches and reflect on their practices as an educator. In this study, the components of this hypothesis are dissected by directly measuring faculty teaching and reflective practices and using the components of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to explain factors that contributed to the behavior. This research looks at faculty perceived attitudes towards OER, their subjective norms of peers, and their self-efficacy in teaching as determinants of behavior. This yields three research questions. What are the attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control of faculty in relation to three behaviors: use of OER to prepare for instruction, use of OER within a course, and reflective practices. Higher education faculty in the United States were surveyed (n=414) using questions adapted from the Attitude Towards Open Education Resources (ATOER), the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES), and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). Data were analyzed using univariate and multivariate regression. The findings show the impact that OER use has on how teaching faculty change the way they prepare for classes, the way they engage with students in the classroom, and the way they reflect on their teaching. When looked at independently, attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control each significantly explained the use of OER in preparing for instruction and reflective practices. Perceived behavioral control was not significant in explaining use of OER in a course. Multivariate models incorporating all three of the major constructs of the TPB, found the models to be a significant predictors of use of OER in preparing for instruction, use of OER in a course, and faculty reflective practice. However, in both the univariate and the multivariate models, the amount of variance explained was very low, with there being no explanation above 20%. The findings also identified the need for interventions that facilitate transformative teaching using OER. A deeper understanding of the faculty who use OER and the factors related to OER that influence faculty practices is an important contribution to the research.
Recommended Citation
Tipton, Jocelyn, "Faculty Use Of Open Educational Resources: Attitudes, Norms, And Self-Efficacy As Behavioral Predictors." (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1825.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1825