DETERMINANTS OF LECTURERS’ ACCEPTANCE, USE, AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES FOR KNOWLEDGE SHARING IN UNIVERSITIES IN NORTH-EAST, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated the determinants of lecturers’ acceptance, use, and attitude towards open educational resources for knowledge sharing in universities in North-East Nigeria. The population of the study was 632 lecturers drawn from Federal Universities of North-East Nigeria. The sample of the study comprised of 338 lecturers purposively selected from the three Federal Universities; Adamawa, Bauchi and Borno State, Nigeria. The study adopted concurrent embedded mixed method research design in which eight quantitative and two qualitative (QUAN + qual) research questions guided the study with eight null hypotheses. The instruments used for data collection were closed ended questionnaire and focus group interview protocol. The instruments were validated by experts and subjected to reliability test using Cronbach’s alpha and a reliability coefficient of .956 was obtained. For the focus group interview protocol, Cohen’s κ = .611 and .688 was obtained for lecturers’ attitude toward knowledge sharing and the use of shared OER. The data was analysed using simple percentages (%), mean (x) and standard deviation (SD) for quantitative data. While thematic analysis was used for qualitative data using Atlas ti. Version 9.0. Similarly, sequential multiple linear regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance using SPSS version 23.0. The findings revealed that performance expectancy .432, effort expectancy .456, social influence .497, and facilitating conditions .499 collectively influence lecturers’ acceptance to share OER and use of shared OER. Similarly, the constructs collectively influence lecturers’ attitudes toward knowledge sharing on OER repository and use of shared OER. The findings of the regression coefficient of PE (β = 0.658; t = 16.001; p = 0.000), EE (β = 0.194; t = 3.802; p = 0.000), SI (β = 0.306; t = 5.246; p = 0.000), are positively and significantly correlated with the criterion; acceptance to share OER. While (β = .053; t = .899; p = 0.369), indicating that facilitating conditions does not have a predictive capacity to stimulate lecturer’s acceptance to share their resources on OER repository. The study recommends among others that the university management should consider adjusting OER policy to accommodate lecturers career progression to include promotion, book development, courseware development project and special award for community service in order to sustain OER activities in North-East universities.

The study investigated the determinants of lecturers’ acceptance, use, and attitude towards open educational resources for knowledge sharing in universities in North-East Nigeria. The population of the study was 632 lecturers drawn from Federal Universities of North-East Nigeria. The sample of the study comprised of 338 lecturers purposively selected from the three Federal Universities; Adamawa, Bauchi and Borno State, Nigeria. The study adopted concurrent embedded mixed method research design in which eight quantitative and two qualitative (QUAN + qual) research questions guided the study with eight null hypotheses. The instruments used for data collection were closed ended questionnaire and focus group interview protocol. The instruments were validated by experts and subjected to reliability test using Cronbach’s alpha and a reliability coefficient of .956 was obtained. For the focus group interview protocol, Cohen’s κ = .611 and .688 was obtained for lecturers’ attitude toward knowledge sharing and the use of shared OER. The data was analysed using simple percentages (%), mean (x) and standard deviation (SD) for quantitative data. While thematic analysis was used for qualitative data using Atlas ti. Version 9.0. Similarly, sequential multiple linear regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance using SPSS version 23.0. The findings revealed that performance expectancy .432, effort expectancy .456, social influence .497, and facilitating conditions .499 collectively influence lecturers’ acceptance to share OER and use of shared OER. Similarly, the constructs collectively influence lecturers’ attitudes toward knowledge sharing on OER repository and use of shared OER. The findings of the regression coefficient of PE (β = 0.658; t = 16.001; p = 0.000), EE (β = 0.194; t = 3.802; p = 0.000), SI (β = 0.306; t = 5.246; p = 0.000), are positively and significantly correlated with the criterion; acceptance to share OER. While (β = .053; t = .899; p = 0.369), indicating that facilitating conditions does not have a predictive capacity to stimulate lecturer’s acceptance to share their resources on OER repository. The study recommends among others that the university management should consider adjusting OER policy to accommodate lecturers career progression to include promotion, book development, courseware development project and special award for community service in order to sustain OER activities in North-East universities.