Relationship between students’ perceptions and utilization of open educational resources for academic work in private universities in Kenya

Abstract

Teaching and learning resources in the competitive world of higher education were often considered as key intellectual property accessible exclusively to privileged groups of students and instructors. Today, an increasing number of institutions and individuals share digital resources via the Internet free of any legal, financial or technical barriers. As such, open educational resources may be part of a solution to this problem. The purpose of this study was to establish the relationship between students’ perceptions and utilization of open educational resources for academic work in private universities in Kenya. The study used the correlational research design. The study targeted 5,375 undergraduate part time students. While the accessible population was 2716 bachelor of Education part time students drawn from five private universities purposively chosen. Proportionate sampling was used to determine the subjects from each university. Simple random sampling was used to select respondents from the 3rd and 4th years. Data was collected using students’ questionnaire and focus group discussion groups. There was also a positive relationship between utilization of open educational resources and students’ perceptions on open educational resources and therefore the relationship is significant (r (321) = 0.394; p <0.05). This means that the more students have positive perceptions on the open educational resources the more they will use open educational resources for academic work. Descriptive statistics (percentages and frequencies) were used to analyze quantitative data while Regression analysis was used to test the hypothesis.