Institutional Culture and OER Policy: How Structure, Culture, and Agency Mediate OER Policy Potential in South African Universities

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorCox, Glenda
dc.contributor.authorTrotter, Henry
dc.date.accessioned2017-01-26T10:34:45Z
dc.date.available2017-01-26T10:34:45Z
dc.date.issued2016
dc.description.abstractSeveral scholars and organizations suggest that institutional policy is a key enabling factor for academics to contribute their teaching materials as open educational resources (OER). But given the diversity of institutions comprising the higher education sector—and the administrative and financial challenges facing many institutions in the Global South—it is not always clear which type of policy would work best in a given context. Some policies might act simply as a “hygienic” factor (a necessary but not sufficient variable in promoting OER activity) while others might act as a “motivating” factor (incentivizing OER activity either among individual academics or the institution as a whole). In this paper, we argue that the key determination in whether a policy acts as a hygienic or motivating factor depends on the type of institutional culture into which it is embedded. This means that the success of a proposed OER-related policy intervention is mediated by an institution’s existing policy structure, its prevailing social culture and academics’ own agency (the three components of what we’re calling “institutional culture”). Thus, understanding how structure, culture, and agency interact at an institution offers insights into how OER policy development could proceed there, if at all. Based on our research at three South African universities, each with their distinct institutional cultures, we explore which type of interventions might actually work best for motivating OER activity in these differing institutional contexts.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationCox, G., & Trotter, H. (2016). Institutional Culture and OER Policy: How Structure, Culture, and Agency Mediate OER Policy Potential in South African Universities. <i>International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning</i>, http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23327en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationCox, Glenda, and Henry Trotter "Institutional Culture and OER Policy: How Structure, Culture, and Agency Mediate OER Policy Potential in South African Universities." <i>International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning</i> (2016) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23327en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationCox, G., & Trotter, H. (2016). Institutional Culture and OER Policy: How Structure, Culture, and Agency Mediate OER Policy Potential in South African Universities. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 17(5).en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn1492-3831en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Journal Article AU - Cox, Glenda AU - Trotter, Henry AB - Several scholars and organizations suggest that institutional policy is a key enabling factor for academics to contribute their teaching materials as open educational resources (OER). But given the diversity of institutions comprising the higher education sector—and the administrative and financial challenges facing many institutions in the Global South—it is not always clear which type of policy would work best in a given context. Some policies might act simply as a “hygienic” factor (a necessary but not sufficient variable in promoting OER activity) while others might act as a “motivating” factor (incentivizing OER activity either among individual academics or the institution as a whole). In this paper, we argue that the key determination in whether a policy acts as a hygienic or motivating factor depends on the type of institutional culture into which it is embedded. This means that the success of a proposed OER-related policy intervention is mediated by an institution’s existing policy structure, its prevailing social culture and academics’ own agency (the three components of what we’re calling “institutional culture”). Thus, understanding how structure, culture, and agency interact at an institution offers insights into how OER policy development could proceed there, if at all. Based on our research at three South African universities, each with their distinct institutional cultures, we explore which type of interventions might actually work best for motivating OER activity in these differing institutional contexts. DA - 2016 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town J1 - International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2016 SM - 1492-3831 T1 - Institutional Culture and OER Policy: How Structure, Culture, and Agency Mediate OER Policy Potential in South African Universities TI - Institutional Culture and OER Policy: How Structure, Culture, and Agency Mediate OER Policy Potential in South African Universities UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23327 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/23327
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationCox G, Trotter H. Institutional Culture and OER Policy: How Structure, Culture, and Agency Mediate OER Policy Potential in South African Universities. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning. 2016; http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23327.en_ZA
dc.languageengen_ZA
dc.publisherAthabasca University Pressen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en_ZA
dc.sourceInternational Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learningen_ZA
dc.source.urihttp://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl
dc.titleInstitutional Culture and OER Policy: How Structure, Culture, and Agency Mediate OER Policy Potential in South African Universitiesen_ZA
dc.typeJournal Articleen_ZA
uct.subject.keywordsopen educational resourcesen_ZA
uct.subject.keywordsglobal southen_ZA
uct.subject.keywordsincentivisationen_ZA
uct.subject.keywordspolicyen_ZA
uct.subject.keywordsinstitutional cultureen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceArticleen_ZA
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Cox_Article_2016.pdf
Size:
442 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.72 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download
Collections
Journal Articles