Removing the barriers to adoption of social OER environments

Henri Pirkkalainen, Jussi P P Jokinen, Jan M. Pawlowski, Thomas Richter

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionScientificpeer-review

    1 Citation (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Despite the opportunities and benefits of OER, research and practice has shown how the OER repositories have a hard time in reaching an active user-base. The opportunities of experience exchange and simple feedback mechanisms of social software have been realized for improving the situation and many are basing or transforming their OER offerings towards socially powered environments. Research on social software has shown how knowledge-sharing barriers in online environments are highly culture and context-specific and require proper investigation. It is crucial to study what challenges might arise in such environments and how to overcome them, ensuring a successful uptake. A large-scale (N = 855) cross-European investigation was initiated in the school context to determine which barriers teachers and learners perceive as critical. The study highlights barriers on cultural distance, showing how those are predicted by nationality and age of the respondents. The paper concludes with recommendations for overcoming those barriers.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationComputer Supported Education - 6th International Conference, CSEDU 2014, Revised Selected Papers
    PublisherSpringer Verlag
    Pages19-34
    Number of pages16
    Volume510
    ISBN (Print)978-3-319-25767-9
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2015
    Publication typeA4 Article in conference proceedings
    Event6th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, CSEDU 2014 - Barcelona, Spain
    Duration: 1 Apr 20143 Apr 2014

    Publication series

    NameCommunications in Computer and Information Science
    Volume510
    ISSN (Print)1865-0929

    Conference

    Conference6th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, CSEDU 2014
    Country/TerritorySpain
    CityBarcelona
    Period1/04/143/04/14

    Keywords

    • Barriers
    • Knowledge sharing
    • OER
    • Social software

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Computer Science(all)

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