Awareness, attitudes, skills, and open educational resources usage among open and distance learners

Background of the study: Open Educational Resources (OER) are adjudged to be of tremendous benefit to open and distance learners due to the nature of their academic programs. However, a number of factors will determine the extent to which they will use these resources. Thus, this study examined the influence of awareness, attitudes, and skills on the usage of OER by postgraduate.

Purpose: this study examined the influence of awareness, attitudes, and skills on the usage of OER by postgraduate students at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), South-South, Nigeria.

Method: Four hypotheses were generated and tested to guide the study. On a population of 2,119 postgraduate students, the study used a descriptive survey design of the correlational type. Fifteen percent of the population (318) was sampled for the study. A questionnaire was used to elicit data from the respondents, and upon administration, a 95% response rate was achieved. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics (for the demographics) and inferential statistics (for the hypotheses).

Findings: The results revealed that the independent variables of awareness, attitude, and skills all had a moderate individual and joint influence on the usage of OER among open and distance learners.

Conclusion: The study concluded that, to stimulate the use of OER among postgraduate students, their awareness, attitude, and skills would have to be positively triggered. Consequently, recommendations were made.

Introduction

The widespread integration of ICTs in classrooms and the rise of the open access movement have led to the flourishing of open educational resources (OER).(Sandanayake, 2019)notes that OER is widely adopted as a learning approach enabling learners to combine online digital materials with traditional classroom methods. Similarly,(Orr et al., 2015), aligning with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), defines OER as educational materials utilizing open licensing tools, allowing for their free reuse, continuous improvement, and repurposing for educational purposes. These resources, available in digital formats, are freely shared and open for use by academia, students, and self-learners in teaching, learning, and research.

The OECD's definition broadens the scope of OER beyond non-commercial usage, encompassing all print-based information resources. Therefore, the core principle of OER is its fsree and open nature, facilitating the distribution of educational materials to support teaching, learning, and research. OER's appeal lies in its capacity to empower individuals to use, reuse, modify, and share information on diverse topics, making it a valuable resource for lecturers, researchers, students, and scholars(Inegbedion & Opateye, 2018). The global accessibility of OER has enhanced educational institutions' access to research data on a worldwide scale, garnering widespread acceptance among academics across various disciplines.

Despite its benefits, the use of OER is influenced by several factors, including awareness, attitude, and skills (usage abilities).(Akpojotor, 2016)defines awareness as the understanding and comprehension of a concept based on information and experience. Increased public awareness of OER and the promotion of their use are crucial for maximizing their potential benefits. However, the poor adoption of OER by students in Nigeria suggests that awareness has not received the required attention, despite its growing popularity and benefits(Sanjeeva & Powdwal, 2017).

Attitude also plays a significant role in the utilization of OER.(Aiyebelehin et al., 2017)state that attitude, influenced by past experiences, significantly impacts how individuals react to certain situations. Positive attitudes towards OER can significantly impact students' inclination to utilize these materials. Moreover, effective implementation of OER relies on students' competence in using them.(Basar et al., 2021)highlight that inadequate proficiency limits students' ability to leverage sophisticated tools for accessing educational resources, emphasizing the importance of acquiring ICT skills, information literacy skills, media skills, and digital literacy skills(Aiyebelehin et al., 2017).

According to(Itasanmi, 2020), OER usage and awareness are strongly positively associated among postgraduate students.(Kumar & Raja, 2019)found that understanding of OER in the higher education sector is limited, with(Rolfe et al., 2012)revealing that only 18% of students had heard of the phrase "open educational resources."(Keel, 2016)found a low percentage of awareness, whereas(Okonkwo, 2012)found a high percentage of awareness.

While these studies provide an overview of OER usage and awareness among postgraduate students and higher education in general, they do not focus on a specific institution or region. This study addresses this gap by investigating how awareness, attitude, and skills influence OER adoption among postgraduate students at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) in the South-South region. Given the sporadic transition to electronic resources, it is crucial to assess how well postgraduate students are "skill-ready" to optimize available OER for academic progress. This study aims to fill this gap by focusing on the specific context of NOUN and providing insights into the factors influencing OER adoption among postgraduate students in this region. The specific objectives of the study are to: 1) find out if postgraduate students in open and distance learning centers in southern Nigeria who are aware of OER are more likely to use them; 2) ascertain if attitude influences the postgraduate students' usage of OER; 3) find out if skills influence the postgraduate students' usage of OER; 4) ascertain if awareness, attitude, and skills will jointly influence postgraduate students' usage of OER.

Literature Review

The study's variables were looked at, with special attention paid to how each of the independent factors related to the study's dependent variable, as shown in the conceptual model of the study.

Theoretical Framework

Attempts have been made to explain why people are so quick to accept new products and technology, and several explanations have been proposed. Ajzen and Fishbein's Theories of Reasoned Action (TRA), Davis's Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), and Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation (TDI) are some of the models that fall under this category. However,(Halton, 2023)noted that TAM and TRA theories do not sufficiently create a general picture of factors that determine the use of new technologies by humans. The author asserted this to be a strength of the Diffusion of Innovation Theory, which is adopted in this study to describe awareness, attitude, and skills as factors influencing the use of OER among postgraduate students who are also open and distance learners.

Rogers (1995) defined diffusion as the steady dissemination of a new concept or technology through a predetermined set of intermediaries and channels. The study of diffusion focuses on the variables that determine the likelihood of cultural members adopting new ideas or habits(Halton, 2023). According to Roger's Theory of Innovation Decision Making, innovation is a process that takes place over some time and can be broken down into the following five stages: awareness, implementation, persuasion, decision, and confirmation. According to(Halton, 2023), the innovation-decision process is the progression of a person or other decision-making unit from the first