Overcoming Barriers for OER Adoption in Higher Education Application to Computer Science Curricula

The use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in all contexts of education is increasingly promising. Nevertheless, some barriers are discouraging or delaying the adoption of OER in Higher Education (HE). In this work, we propose a strategy to overcome obstacles that hinder the adoption of OER as teaching materials in Computer Science Curricula. This strategy is based on the collaborative work of professors and students within a Community of Practice (CoP) backed up by MERLOT, a renowned repository of OER. To validate the proposed strategy, we applied it in some courses of the Computer Science Engineering Curricula from a Latin American university by two consecutive academic terms. The evaluation obtained from professors and students who participated in this teaching-learning experience was encouraging for the use of OER. It also enabled us to settle issues concerning the discoverability and quality of OER. Furthermore, the results of this proof fostered the institutional willingness to sponsor and spread the OER adoption initiative.