South Africa - Research into Social and Cultural Acceptability of Open Educational Resources in South Africa 2015, ROER4D Sub-project 4

This is the dataset informing the ROER4D Sub-project 4 - Research into Social and Cultural Acceptability of Open Educational Resources in South Africa 2015This project aimed to describe and explain the barriers and enablers of Open Educational Resources (OER) contribution at institutions in South Africa. The key objective of the research was to understand why scholars contribute or refuse to contribute their teaching materials as OER.The project utilised a mixed methods approach. Surveys and interviews with academics at three South African institutions were conducted to understand the conditions under which the contribution and/or use of OER would be considered socially and culturally acceptable.Focusing on academics’ teaching practices at the University of Cape Town (UCT) (urban, contact), the University of South Africa (UNISA) (distance, online/correspondence), and University of Fort Hare University (rural, contact), this dataset includes the interview and survey data gathered during OER workshops conducted by the authors at these universities in March 2015. The interviews – comprising 50–56 questions depending on the answers given – lasted between 30 minutes and 1 hour. Of the 18 people that interviewed (6 per university), 11 (61%) were female and 7 (39%) were male. Of the 37 respondents to the “Attitudes Towards OER” survey, 27 (75%) were female and 9 (25%) were male.This dataset makes a unique contribution to establishing empirical evidence about the value systems of academics at South African universities as relates to sharing open educational content. It surfaces both country-­‐specific and international dynamics, and will be of use to researchers and practitioners working in the areas of OER, open education, open access and higher education studies.The dataset was originally published in DataFirst. The files included contain a dataset description including the de-identification protocol, the qualitative data (and associated interview schedule) and the quantitative data (and associated survey instrument).