The relevance of open educational resources for post-soviet higher education in the digital age

ABSTRACT

The digital era has seen the rise of innovations such as online training platforms and digital toolkits for teaching and learning whilst at the same time open access initiatives are losing the attention of educators. The problem under consideration in this paper is the replacement of open educational resources (OER) with digital innovations in higher education (HE). The purpose of this study is to identify the relevance of OER to post-Soviet HE in the digital age. The research employed methods of descriptive analytics to process data on users’ activities extracted from OER repositories with web-analytic apps. The survey was conducted among 441 lecturers to elucidate their request for access to and patterns of usage of digital OER. The findings confirmed the relevance of OER in contemporary education through the similarity of lecturers’ experience worldwide. During the urgent transition to remote learning owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, OER helped lecturers access informed digital practices through appropriate methods and content. OER has thus retained its relevance against the backdrop of the emergence of digital innovations in HE. The international comparison of findings demonstrates the existence of a shared awareness of the importance of OER and similar drivers for OER production and usage.

KEYWORDS:

• Open education
• open access
• lecturer practice
• e-learning
• Creative commons

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Natalya Dneprovskaya

Natalya Dneprovskaya received her first degree (PhD) in IT from MESI University, Moscow (2005), and her second (Doctor of Science) in Economics at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow (2020). Currently, she is with the Graduate Business School, HSE University, Moscow, Russia. Over the last few years, she has become increasingly interested in the research of knowledge sources and management in particular in the area of higher education development.

Inessa Shevtsova

Inessa Shevtsova received her PhD degree in Economics at MESI University, Moscow (2005). She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematical Methods and Information Technologies in Management, Lomonosov Moscow State University. Her research interests include educational technology, big data, and AI in higher education.

Marius Vacarelu

Marius Vacarelu holds a PhD and is a researcher in political sciences and a legal expert. He has been teaching public law in the National School of Political Science and Public Administration, Bucharest, since 2005. Currently, his research interests include the regulation of education, international collaboration in the academic community, and policy development in foreign affairs.