Validation of a Scale to Measure the Adoption of Open Educational Resources: Students' Perspective

Abstract

It is increasingly evident that using technological resources has broadly impacted people's lives, including their education. One of the technologies implemented for several years is Open Educational Resources (OER), with elements of open practice to mitigate the impact of the digital divide. This article describes the validation process of an instrument to measure the adoption of OER as perceived by higher education students in Mexico (means, standard deviations and normality, construct validity and reliability). The study included 392 participants, of whom 117 (29.8%) were male, 273 (69.6%) were female and 2 (.5%) did not identify with either sex. Ages ranged from 18 to 62 years (M= 22.0 years, SD= 5.8). The instrument underwent descriptive statistics techniques, univariate normality analyses, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis using the maximum likelihood estimation method. The reliability of the measurement model was confirmed using Cronbach's Alpha and McDonald's Omega index. The resulting validated instrument investigates students' perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude, subjunctive standards, and behavioral control. For future studies, the application of the scale is suggested because of its manageable number of items and ease of administration, along with the examination of other validity tests that will help increase the robustness of the proposed measurement model, this measurement scale will be useful for teachers and researchers interested in understanding the impact of OER in education.