ASSESSMENT OF STUDENTS’ AWARENESS AND UTILISATION OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES IN EDUCATION IN SELECTED NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

This research examined the level of students' awareness, utilisation and challenges of using open educational resources (OERs) for learning in Nigerian universities. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select two (2) universities (both federal and state-owned) that are running open and distance learning programmes in each of the six (6) geographical zones of Nigeria, and to select a total of two thousand nine hundred and eight-seven (2,987 students). To guide the study, three research questions were raised and answered, while three hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data obtained were analysed using descriptive statistics of mean, standard deviation and inferential statistics of ANOVA. The main structured research questionnaire used in the study was titled: “Student’s Use of OERs Questionnaire” (SUOER; r=0.78). The findings revealed that students had a high level of awareness (? = 2.92; SD = 1.02) of open educational resources for learning and also aware of the effect (? = 2.58; SD = 0.98) of the use of OERs on their academic achievements also with a range of identified challenges of the proper use of OERs for education. Findings also established significant institutional affiliation differences in the levels of students’ awareness (F_(11,2986) = 14.15; p = 0.00 < 0.05), perceived effect of the use of OERs on academic achievements (F_(11,2986) = 32.97; p = 0.00 < 0.05) and perceived challenges (F_(11,2986) = 15.85; p = 0.00 < 0.05) towards the utilisation of OERs for education. Implications to meeting the global challenges were discussed. It was recommended among others that modalities to provide free access to data within the campus environments needed to be worked out for the students.