Introduction

This document has been developed by Abbey Elder, Open Access Librarian at Iowa State University, as part of the SPARC Open Education Leadership Program. It has been developed to support Open Education advocates at post-secondary institutions who are interested in exploring the disciplinary OER needs of instructors.

The user guide and survey instrument are licensed CC-BY. Interested parties are encouraged to adapt this survey instrument to maximize usefulness for their local context.

If you are interested in collaborating on a research project utilizing these survey questions or their associated data, please contact the survey’s author, Abbey Elder, at aelder@iastate.edu.

Goals of the Survey

This survey instrument was created to meet the following goals:

• To explore instructors’ current knowledge and awareness of OER.

• To explore instructors’ awareness of and interest in open educational practices.

• To discern what formats and types of educational resources instructors are most likely to utilize.

• To explore incentives and deterrents to instructors’ use of OER.

These goals are reflected in the content of the survey instrument. For example, goal number two is addressed in part five of the survey, Open Educational Practices. This section of the survey asks participants questions about their interest in OEP and its applications in their discipline.