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

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