Few studies have been conducted to examine the usability of OER. This section provides an overview of some of these investigations.
At the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, Hettige et al. (2022) investigated student use of OER. At the University of Kelaniya's Faculty of Medicine, a cross-sectional study was done. 257 students from the first to the last year were chosen using stratified random sampling. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The majority of the students used OER, according to the findings. The accessibility of OER was primarily motivated by the availability of information at any time and the simplicity with which it could be accessed. The study resolved that training in literacy skills should be organized to increase medical students' information literacy.
Nagaiah & Thanuskodi (2021) investigated the use of OER by college students at Alagappa University in India. The study's participants were Alagappa University, college students. The online questionnaire was emailed to 245 students via WhatsApp and Gmail, and 121 students responded. The data revealed that most students are aware of OER and use them for educational reasons. Student-related factors, content-related factors, Internet-related factors, and environmental factors all pose problems in the use of OER. Padh (2018) examined the adoption and usability of OER in Indian higher education. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model was used in the research. An online questionnaire was used to collect data. A total of 202 replies were received from 800 professors from 22 universities across India, representing 26.43 percent of the population. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) version 20. The findings show that university teachers are well-versed in the notion of OER, but are unsure about their application in teaching and learning. Most of them have not used OER in their classrooms but are willing to distribute their courses as OER. According to the correlation study, three variables, namely performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and facilitating conditions, are substantially loaded to utilize OER, as well as social influence. Lack of resources and supporting conditions, as well as a lack of expertise on how to use and integrate OER into their courses, are all problems in the usage of OER. They are also uncertain whether or not they will receive assistance from their university for using OER.
The usability of digital instructional tools was studied by Odiel et al. in their multidisciplinary examination of two systematic studies published in 2021. This study's goal is to analyze empirical studies to see if there is any convergence between educational and computational research about how well digital educational resources are used. The PRISMA procedure was utilized to conduct two systematic reviews and provide answers to the two scientific questions to achieve the goal. The findings demonstrate that there are few instances where the criteria for evaluating usability as established by software engineering, the techniques and computational models to assess usability, and the criteria established in pedagogical usability are all successfully integrated. These flaws have led to the proposal of a paradigm for assessing the usefulness of digital educational resources as future work. It ends by highlighting the value of interdisciplinary integration in evaluating the usability of digital learning tools.
A study on the adoption and usability of OER in Indian higher education was done by Padhi (2018). The study's findings show that university professors are well-versed in the idea of open educational resources. However, they are not yet certain how OER will be used in classroom instruction. The majority of them are willing to distribute their courses as OER even though they haven't used OER in teaching. Lack of supporting environment and favorable societal effect on the use of OER provide obstacles for them. Additionally, it is believed that adequate policy should be in place, and that governing organizations and policymakers should set standards. To fully utilize OER, appropriate infrastructure and training should be offered.
Isbandiputra et al. (2016) used a variety of methodologies to assess the usability evaluation of open educational resources in Indonesia. To provide the best user experience for its users, this research intends to build I-OER employing interaction design concepts. The results show that I-OER complies with the eight golden rules of interface design and the five usability criteria. Despite some participants not finishing some tasks, participants were able to complete the assignment in a reasonable amount of time. Participants also agreed that I-OER is an intriguing and cool concept, but that the website navigation needs to be improved.
The study by Hu et al. (2015) looked at Chinese college students' OER usage and perceived impediments to OER diffusion. The data was gathered at Zhejiang University during the 2012–2013 academic year. A total of 1239 students were polled using a two-part survey instrument. The findings demonstrate that most university students have used open educational resources (OER), however, there are problems linked to student, content, interface, and environment variables that have slowed the coverage of OER. The study emphasized the significance of universities and faculty members in spreading the concept and practice of OER and suggested OER-related efforts for faculty and college students to encourage OER adoption.
In the African context, Oppong et al. (2022) evaluated user knowledge and use of research assistance platforms among undergraduates at Kumasi Technical University in Ghana. A total of 126 people were chosen at random. A questionnaire was used to collect data via a descriptive survey technique. The data were analyzed using percentages, SPSS, and Excel 2016. The findings show that most of the students were unaware of the university library's online library research help platforms. They were unable to identify the online library research help platforms they had lately utilized in the university library or elsewhere. They also did not use the research platforms regularly, which was uninspiring. It was also shown that undergraduate students found the research platforms difficult to use. Some respondents, on the other hand, were pleased with the research platforms and thought they were user-friendly. According to the survey, the University library should think about innovative approaches to raise awareness to entice a new generation of students to the library. Introduce multimedia technology that will allow students to engage, and construct a large number of open places with Internet cables so that other technological equipment and gadgets can be connected.
Wiche & Ogunbodede (2021) studied awareness and use of OER by library and information science students at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education in Rivers State, Nigeria. The study used a descriptive survey design. A total of 248 undergraduate students were included in the study. The questionnaire was used to gather information. Descriptive statistics such as frequency counts and simple percentages were used to analyze the data. The findings demonstrated that students have a high degree of awareness of OER and a high level of use of various forms of OER. Inadequate information literacy skills, insufficient electrical supply, bad internet access, lack of library sensitization, and lack of support from lecturers on the usage of OER were all identified as some of the barriers to effective OER use. Based on their findings, the researchers suggested that school administration organize digital literacy skills training for students, enhance energy supply, and provide appropriate internet facilities so that students may fully utilize quality OER freely available on the Internet. Academic libraries and instructors should also play a role in encouraging students to adopt OER.
Ismail et al. (2019) studied OER awareness among students at Tanzania's State University of Zanzibar. The study's population included 713 undergraduate students, of whom 352 were chosen at random. The data was evaluated after an internet questionnaire survey was used. The findings revealed a significant knowledge gap in OER and a variety of structural and contextual hurdles. The study also found that more than 40% of students are unaware of OER offers and that OER usage at universities is low. However, because many students have mobile devices and use the Internet for education, there is room for OER to flourish. The majority of participants mentioned restricted access, low connectivity, and affordability as major roadblocks to greater OER adoption. There were also worries about SUZA's poor ICT infrastructure and the need to improve academics' OER integration capacity. According to the report, the institution should invest in OER to enhance the use of OER in higher education.
Khaoula et al. (2019) researched to assess the usability of a Moroccan university's research management web platform. The study used the Nielsen Attributes of Usability (NAU) questionnaire to conduct a usability test. This study took place from January to March 2018 and included questions from the Nielsen Model Standard's five usability areas. The questionnaire was for teacher-researchers (platform users) at Abdelmalek Essaadi University. The findings revealed that the platform has a high level of usability and that this affects the user's adoption of the platform. The report proposed that Moroccan universities establish distance learning to train teacher-researchers, structural managers, and administrative employees.
Onaifo (2016) investigated the use of open educational resources (OER) by students at the University of Lagos in Nigeria. A mixed-methods study design was used, which included two data collection methods (surveys and interviews) as well as two analysis methods (grounded theory and principal component analysis (PCA). The surveys were completed by 417 people, and 20 people were interviewed. The results show that, while individuals used OER often, their overall knowledge of the resources was limited. Participants' knowledge of the notion of OER and OER repositories was very inadequate. Participants had a positive view of OER in general, and they profited from using the materials in a variety of ways, according to the findings. When it came to using the resources, the participants faced several obstacles, including the expensive cost of an Internet connection. A model of OER utilization was created based on the findings. Finally, the study recommended that instructors encourage their students to utilize the different open educational resources (OER) that are available to them.
However, some of the reviewed studies are similar to this present study because some of the studies examined OER, usage, usability, and the challenges in the use of OER among undergraduate students. Most of the reviewed studies also used the descriptive survey design and the questionnaire method of data collection which is also in line with my study. However, the researcher identified some aspects of these studies that were different from this present study. For instance, none of the studies proved statistically the relationship that exists between awareness and use of OER. Furthermore, only a few studies have been conducted on the usability of OER platforms in India. This creates a gap that my study intends to fill. This study intends to fill this gap as it will prove statistically the relationship that exists between awareness and use of OER and also bridge the research gap on the usability of OER among students in a private polytechnic in India.
Usability Model
The Nielsen (1993) usability model is used in this study to investigate the usability of Open Educational Resources among Al Kabir Polytechnic students in Jamshedpur, India. Learnability (the system is simple and easy to perform tasks), efficiency (the system is efficient and saves users time), memorability (the system is easy to recall), mistakes (the system has a low error rate), and satisfaction are the five criteria related with usability according to Nielsen (users are likely to use it and are satisfied with the system). Because the structure of quality features is stated more systematically and the site of use is specified, Nielsen's model is preferable to Shackel and Richardson's (Kurosu, 2015).
Here is a map of the five usability attributes of the Nielsen model in the test method used in this research (Fig.1):