"I Don?t Gamble To Make My Livelihood": Understanding the Incentives For, Needs Of, and Motivations Surrounding Open Educational Resources in Computing

Abstract

Background: Prior work has primarily been concerned with identifying: (1) how Open Education Resources (OERs) can be used to increase the availability of educational materials, (2) what motivations are behind their adoption and usage in classrooms, and (3) what barriers impede said adoption. However, there is relatively little work investigating the motives and barriers to contribution in OER. Objectives: Our goal is to understand what motivates and dissuades instructors to contribute to and adopt OERs. Additionally, we wish to know what would increase the likelihood of instructors contributing their work to OER repositories. Method: We conduct a 10 question survey with computing instructors on OER, with a heavy emphasis on what would lead to OER contributions. Using thematic analysis, we mine the broad themes from our respondents and group them into broader topical areas. Findings: Novel contributions include discussions of what faculty are not willing to share as readily - in particular, exam questions are of concern due to possible student cheating - as well as discussions of different views on monetary and non-monetary (e.g., promotion and tenure value) incentives for contributing to OER efforts. With respect to the kinds of OER faculty want to use, findings line up with prior literature. Implications: As course materials become more sophisticated and the range of topics taught in computing continue to grow, the communal effort required to maintain a broad collection of high quality OERs also grows. Understanding what factors influence instructors to contribute to this effort and how we can facilitate the contribution, discovery, and use of OERs is fundamental to both how OER repositories should be organized, as well as how funding initiatives to support them should be structured.