exploring the non-obligatory use of open educational resources: a case study
TRANSCRIPT
Exploring the Non-obligatory Use of Open Educational Resources: A Case Study
SECIL TISOGLU KADIR YUCEL KAYA
PROF DR. KURSAT CAGILTAY
MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY
METU OCW
OCW Resource / Video
OCW Resource /Simulation
Purpose of the Study The primary purpose of this study is to;
◦ provide a detailed perspective for the reasons of the non-obligatory use of OER within a formal education context.
The specific purpose is to explore;
◦ why and how students prefer to use / not to use OER
Research Questions Why do students use and do not use OER in their Chemistry laboratory courses?
◦ What are the contributing factors for the students to use OER through their Chemistry laboratory courses?
◦ What are the factors for the students not to use OER through their Chemistry laboratory courses?
Methodology Qualitative methodology
◦ Multiple case study
Research population◦ freshmen students in a General Chemistry course. ◦ 16 participants were selected through purposeful sampling method
Data Collection◦ Interviews (3 week period/ F2F)◦ Observation (5 week period)
Research Design Process
Research Problem
Exploring OCWenvironmentLiterature review
Instrument Design
Semi-structured interviews20 questionsApprox 40 min
Data Collection
Laboratory environment observations (5 weeks periodInterviews (3 weeks period)
Data Analysis
Content analysisLiterature review
Research Design ProcessFIRST GROUP
8 students (3 female, 5 male)
Announcement at the beginning of the semester (also flyers were distributed)
Before each lab, an e-mail send to students about the materials
SECOND GROUP
8 students (1 female, 7 male)
Announcement at the beginning of the semester (also flyers were distributed)
Only before 4. lab, an e-mail send to students about the materials
Groups were selected based on the suggestions of the research assistants responsiblefor the laboratory courses. These two groups were defined to have the similar performance and the same courses contents.
Number of students to use of OCW
Second week Third week Fourth week Fifth week
First Group(35)
20 15 17 17
Second Group (50)
5 5 15* 10
* Fourth week is important (for second group) to see whether sending e-mail makes a change of usage .
Number of participants to use of OCW
Second week Third week Fourth week Fifth week
First Group(8)
7 8 7 8
Second Group(8)
2 3 8* 4
* Fourth week is important (for second group) to see whether sending e-mail makes a change of usage .
The reasons to use 2 themes were emerged from interviews and observations;◦ Motivation
◦ means the users’ internal demand to use of OER. Under this theme several codes were emerged as seen below
◦ Sustainability◦ means the users’ demand to continue to use of OER
The reasons to use Themes Codes
Motivation Curiosity
Performance effects
Supplementary material
Language choices
Individual learning
Sustainability Performance effects
Length of the materials
Weekly information
Enjoyable materials
Motivation Curiosity
Participants motivation to use OCW was their curiosity about the system as a whole and the materials.
They decided to use OCW to explore the environment;
“ I was curious, I just wanted to see what is going on there ”
Motivation Supplementary Material
Most of the students used OCW as supplementary material for their laboratory courses.
“ both video and simulation should be beside lab book because I may need different resources while studying ”
“ some people may need to practice more than once so that these supplementary materials can help to have better understanding ”
“ I like these videos because it increases the diversity ”
Motivation Language Choices
Multi-language options (Turkish and English versions) increase their motivation to use the materials.
“ yeah it was nice to have language choices, I preferred to watch Turkish version ”
“ I have problems to understand the lab book so I used these materials through Turkish version ”
Motivation Performance Effects
OCW helped them to get higher scores in their laboratory courses.
“ of course I am using these materials to get higher scores”
“ in the first lab, my scores were not higher but in this semester OCW affected my scores, I am taking higher scores ”
Motivation Performance Effects
OCW had an significant contribution on the students’ confidence on conducting experiments in an efficient and effective way;
“OCW helped me to be more relieved in the lab environment because I knew what to do”
“in the first semester, my lab partner did the whole process but in this semester I can involve myself in the lab procedure”
“we can finish the experiment faster when my partner and I used OCW”
Motivation Performance Effects-level of understanding the content
OCW improved their level of understanding of the content
“ sometime we don’t understand what we are doing in the laboratory for example you are mixing two chemicals but you can understand what you are doing when you use video and simulations ”
“ I used because you have information about the experiment and also to know which materials or chemicals will be used or mixed, it is beneficial for me ”
“ in the lab environment you could miss something while assistants covering the experiment so it is much better to know in advance ”
Motivation Performance Effects-satisfactory experience
Some students described their use of OCW as having a more satisfactory learning experience.
“ when I finished the experiments, I didn’t know what I had done but now I have an idea about the experiment, it is more meaningful ”
“ if you don’t have information about the experiment, it remains abstract to understand so I used OCW to get familiar with the content ”
Motivation Performance Effects
For some students, within the use of these materials, they experienced multi-channel of learning (visual and experiential learning) environments
“ because at times you couldn’t understand what you read on book (lab book) but you can understand when you see that, at least it works for me like that so it is better to use video ”
“ I don’t know, the visual materials are much effective than printed materials, both printed and visual materials should be there ”
Sustainability Majority of the students continued to use materials for the benefits to their performance and learning experiences.
“ if you don’t send e-mail weekly I may not use them but I used because they contribute my performance and I want to know the logic of the experiment, it is intellectual culture ”
“ I remembered last day before the lab because I just wanted to know what to do ”
“ I continued because it was beneficial for my performance ”
Sustainability Preferred to receive weekly e-mails was a reminder for them so they keep on using the materials.
“ I remembered to use when you send e-mail “
and the feature of the materials was appropriate to their learning styles.
“ simulations are more enjoyable, I don’t know, I liked to study with them more than books ”
“ they were (she/he is talking about videos) 5-6 min long, they are not too long, what would I lost? so I watched them ”
Reasons not to use For the reasons of not using OCW, 3 themes were emerged from interviews & observation;
◦ Quality of the resources
◦ Need for the use of OCW
◦ External factors
Reasons not to use Themes Sub-themes Codes
Quality of the resources Simulation Technical problems
Childish environment
Not user-friendly environment
Video Update problems
Need for the use of these resources
No different learning experience
Importance of the course
External factors Low advertisement
Being busy
Forgot to use
Don’t have enough information
Quality of the Resources Participants complained (both regular and irregular users) as the poor quality of the simulation.
“ in simulation you cannot control most of the things, it is boring, it could give you much control for example we can enter ml of the chemical, we should have an effect on system ”
“ I spent some time to understand how to use simulation, we can have a guidance ”
“ I can’t pour the water into the glass so I had to tried it many times and I can’t pass this level, it is too boring ”
“ simulation looks like a little childish for me, it reminds me my 4.grade CDs ”
Quality of the Resources Some of the experiments are not up-to date (different chemicals) and it kept off students using the materials.
“ in one experiment, the chemicals are not the same that we used in the laboratory ”
“ 4. experiment video didn’t cover the first part of the experiment ”
Need for the use of OER:
Some students criticized the need for these kind of resources. While one participant didn’t have a need to use that;
“ I didn’t need these resources because I can understand it in the course”
Two participants didn’t perceive these resources to offer a different learning experience;
“ it didn’t give different information than lab book so I can do the same thing just reading the book ”
“ if OCW gives the information about theoretical ground of the experiments it could make a difference, now it not makes big difference ”
Need for the use of OER:
Some students don’t give enough importance for the course so that affects their preparations for the course. Two participants’ quotes demonstrate that situation below;
“ actually I don’t study hard for this course, I only look at it just before the course time so I don’t remember to use them ”
“ no, it is not because I don’t like it, I just forgot to have the course tomorrow ”
External factors: Complains about not being informed about the materials.
“I didn’t have information about that before” (7 people)
“if I know OCW, I would use that” (3 of 7 people above)
“I think the department, university don’t inform the students properly, I have never heard of that before”
External factors: students who don’t use the materials regularly mentioned their lack of time to use these materials.
“I don’t know, I think I don’t have time to use the materials”
and have more important things to do;
“ probably, I had an exam, I didn’t look at it, I had to work on something else ”
Suggestions Participants made suggestions to increase the level of awareness and usage of these materials;
◦ using flyers: Most of out participants are not eager to use flyers. They think that most people ignore these kind of papers.
◦ sending e-mail: all participants are supporter to receive e-mail for every week as a reminder for the resources.
◦ using posters: most of the participants are eager to use posters especially in the laboratories. They could attract attention by this way.
Suggestions◦ making announcements: all of our participants had complaints about their
teachers and assistants not to make enough announcements about the materials.
◦ giving extra point/bonus: participants were positive about giving extra point of using the materials but they were not supporters to give points that effect their original score because they thought that these resources should be used voluntarily.
◦ enrolling the course site: 2 participants proposed to enroll the OCW to watch the videos and in that way most people could think that it is an important thing to do.
Conclusion In this study,
◦ The reasons to use were summarized under the categories motivation and sustainability. The motivations to use these resources also affected the students’ eager to use these resources as continuum.
◦ The reasons not to use of these resources are mostly come from the poor quality of the resources (especially simulation), the students’ needs for the materials specifically for this course and the external factors.
Conclusion Through this study, the need for the open educational resources were explored within science laboratory course context. In this study,
◦ Most students were eager to use the resources as supplementary materials
◦ Majority of them had a need to use these resources for different courses.
◦ All participants were the supporter of having different resources and diversity of courses.
Conclusion◦ These kind of resources could be designed for other courses to make a part of their daily
study routine.
◦ Different communication channels should be used to remind using the resources
◦ Multi-language options should be provided.
◦ The content should be renewed with the changes in the context.
◦ More announcement and advertisement should be provided.
◦ Department/ teachers should give enough importance to these kind of resources
Limitations This study is limited with;
◦ Small groups (two groups in General Chemistry course)
◦ One course environment (Chemistry laboratory course)
◦ Laboratory course resources (videos and simulations)
Future Studies This study is designed to find out the students’ perceptions and behaviors through the use of open educational resources.
The follow up studies will be mainly focused on;
◦ the impact of OER on teaching and learning activities in science laboratory courses.
◦ the adaptation of these kind of resources into science laboratory courses.