Barriers to open e-learning in public administrations

Abstract

The use of Open Educational Resources (OERs) is promising as a complementary resource to traditional e-learning courses. Digital learning resources can be accessed on demand and can be developed by a wide range of employees. Thus, OERs may be suitable as a response to the changing demands of workplace learning. Despite its potential, the uptake of OER is slow. Previous research has found numerous barriers to the use and sharing of OERs, ranging from cultural to technical and organizational challenges. Research has reported barrier concepts, which elaborate on the kinds and meanings of challenges in the educational and private sector domain. Yet, it remains unclear as to why and how barriers evolve and differ across contexts. One dedicated example is the public sector, where the need to innovate processes of knowledge management and learning is high. Besides limited budgets that restrict investment in employees’ training, the ageing workforce has increased the need to find a suitable solution to document and transfer knowledge. So far, OERs are not well known in this sector. Similarly, the kinds of barriers to OERs in this specific bureaucratic context have not been elaborated from research or theoretical perspectives. This dissertation aims at closing this research gap by elaborating on the range of barriers across European public administrations as well as answering the questions of why and how barriers evolve in a particular space and time. As a result, the thesis presents a unique theoretical perspective on barriers to OERs and their trajectories in the public sector. The dissertation provides a punctuated and adapted structural socio-technical change model which can be used to analyse how and why barriers unfold beyond public sector research. Besides the theoretical contributions, the thesis provides a contextualized barrier frame that can guide OER platform developers in assessing socio-cultural barriers and requirements that are typical to open e-learning practices in public administrations. During the field research, the thesis further provided design principles, in addition to OER guidelines, for employees in the public sector.