Teacher Education Lecturers' Views of Open Educational Resources: A Case of South African Universities

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Literature reflects that universities freely share their teaching materials as Open Educational Resources (OER). The major objective of this study was to investigate lecturers at faculties of education views of the usefulness of OER for academic purposes at selected South African universities. This study is grounded in the Technology Acceptance Model, TAM (Davis, 1989); and the Unified Theory of Technology Acceptance and Use, UTTAU (Bagozzi, 2007) and Theory of Diffusion of Innovations, TDI (Rogers, 2003). These theories justified this investigation explores lecturers at faculties of education views of the usefulness of OER for academic purposes at selected South African universities. The study was informed by the qualitative research approach, which employed semi-structured interviews. Four lecturers were sampled purposively from each university to participate in the study and the data were analysed thematically. The findings of this study are that although the lecturers had an inadequate understanding and knowledge of OER, they were able to display their disposition toward in the usefulness of OER in applying in their pedagogical practices. What is now needed is for South African universities to ensure greater OER awareness and assist lecturers to acquire knowledge of OER so that they can infuse and utilise it effectively in their daily teaching-and-learning environments.