Teachers who share online homemade teaching materials such as worksheets, presentations or bundles as an Open Educational Resource (OER) also share knowledge and experience through their teaching material. Successful adoption of OER among teachers requires a large and varied supply of OER, which presupposes that
teachers are not only users but also distributors of OER.
In 2016, Bram Faems investigated
what influences the sharing intention of 1335 teachers that are members of OER network
KlasCement. Since 1998 teachers have shared concrete teaching materials (K-12) on KlasCement which is now part of the Department of Education and Training. This year some 95 000 teachers logged on at the site at least once and they shared almost 50 000 teaching resources (in total).
But what makes them share and what inhibits them to do so?
Both system and characteristics of the teacher are important Faems discovered that both the teacher's ideas about the online system and the characteristics of the teacher itself are important. For teachers, the system where they find other people's teaching materials should be usable for their educational situation. It also must be easy to use.
But especially the altruism of the teacher is decisive: those who enjoy helping others are more inclined to share online learning resources. However, it is also important that teachers also perceive themselves as being able to make valuable learning resources.
Obstacles for sharing The research shows that teachers also experience obstacles to sharing. First and foremost, they indicate that they do not have enough time to put homemade material online. Also, limited computer skills hinder some teachers to share. Finally, the complex and strict copyright legislation is proving to be a stumbling block.
