Acceptance and Usability of OER in India: An Investigation Using UTAUT [Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology] Model

In the global movement towards open knowledge society, open educational resources (OER) have become a prominent contributor as a medium of education, research and training. In India, the phenomenon of OER is still in nascent stage. Although the country has been massively investing on growth and usage of ICT, it still requires acceptance of OER as a medium of education, research or training. Particularly, adoption and usage of OER posses several challenges such as accessibility, reliability, copy right etc. There is plethora of research studies on the ICT usage in education in India, but there is hardly any empirical research evidence on OER in India. With this backdrop, at the first instance it is very much essential to investigate the acceptance and usability of OER in India. This paper focuses on faculty perception by applying Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model. Apart from this, the study also identifies the challenges associated with OER. For the purpose of this survey data is collected from 22 Indian universities located pan India. The outcome of this empirical research shall certainly useful and provide guidelines for the policy makers and users of OER in India.