Research Article:

Growing OER Awareness in K-12 – Introduction Methods for OER

As part of our ongoing research on the evolution of education in the U.S., Bay View Analytics has been tracking the steady growth in awareness of open educational resources (OER). Our year-over-year studies have shown that general OER awareness is on the rise. That research also shows that higher levels of OER awareness coincide with higher levels of OER adoption: educators are likelier to adopt OER once they are aware those options exist and can potentially meet their needs.

OER Awareness in K-12

That being said, K-12 educators show significantly lower levels of awareness than their higher education counterparts. At the elementary school level, just 17% of respondents report some level of awareness of OER. Of that number, just 2% self-identify as "very aware" of OER, while the majority (8%) report being somewhat aware, if unsure of the details. Levels of awareness improve at the high school level, where 35% of respondents report some level of awareness of OER.

Teacher/faculty OER awareness by grade level

Teacher/faculty OER awareness by grade level

These results are a stark contrast to our survey of higher education faculty, where two-thirds of respondents reported some level of OER awareness. Driving OER awareness is an important factor in increasing OER adoption; so how are K-12 educators becoming aware of OER?

Introduction Sources for K-12

The most common source of information about OER was from peers: 35% of the K-12 teachers we surveyed report first learning about OER from a colleague. A slightly smaller percentage of teachers (33%) learned about OER through their own personal research. These results are similar (in scope, if not scale) to our survey of higher education faculty, where nearly half of respondents (47%) reported learning about OER from a peer (you can download that report (PDF) from our website, to learn more). We call these "one-on-one" discoveries, and they generally arise from casual conversation, or teachers asking colleagues for help filling a specific request.

How did you first learn about OER

District-, state-, and school-level programs, professional development courses, or similar initiatives were among the lowest sources of information on OER from our teacher respondents. We refer to these as "one-to-many" discoveries; just 3% of teachers report learning about OER from a state-level initiative. Seven percent of teachers first learned about OER from an initiative at their school, and 8% learned through a district-wide OER initiative. That's decidedly lower than their higher education counterparts, where 41% of respondents report hearing about OER from an institution-level program, department course, or initiative.

Thirty-two percent of K-12 administrators (and 15% of K-12 teachers) first learned about OER while attending a professional conference, meeting, or webinar. These specifically are not vendor- or publisher-sponsored events, which suggest that concerted programs to drive OER awareness have a measurable impact. Personal research and colleagues were the next highest source of information about OER for administrators, as reported by 30% and 29% of respondents, respectively.

K-12 administrators were slightly more amenable to the aforementioned larger scale initiatives. Thirteen percent of administrators first learned about OER from a district-level initiative. Twelve percent first learned about OER from a state-level initiative, and 9% first learned from a school-level initiative. Administrators were also receptive to OER vendors, with 12% first learning about OER through them (as opposed to just 2% of K-12 teachers).

OER awareness in K-12 educators is growing slowly, lagging considerably behind higher education faculty. Teachers most commonly cited doing their own research as the source of their knowledge on OER, while administrators appear receptive to professional conferences, meetings, and webinars.

Growing OER Awareness in K-12

These lower levels of OER awareness may not be too surprising. In general, there are more OER materials and options available at the higher education level than K-12, and what is available in K-12 is generally targeted at higher grade levels. This means that it’s less likely for a K-12 teacher to come across OER materials because there are just fewer out there. Additionally, the curriculum adoption process for a K-12 classroom is very different from higher education. Specifically, many K-12 course material decisions are not under the teacher’s control, and can be dictated from administrators, districts, or even the state legislature. Taken together, the current K-12 course curriculum space has limited opportunities for teachers to learn about OER unless they are specifically looking for the option or the OER material fits their criteria.

In order to bolster the spread of OER awareness in the K-12 segment, OER advocates will need to devise methods to reach unaware faculty who are potentially seeking resources to help meet their teaching goals. We'll continue to track these metrics, and more. You can find all our OER research, and more, on our website.

Bay View Analytics, with support from the Hewlett Foundation, conducts annual, national surveys of faculty and administrators on topics related to curricula adoption, and tracking awareness levels of Open Educational Resources (OER) — learn more here.