Abstract:

The implementation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has requested the modification of the teaching processes in the countries that joined the Bologna process. This transition from an educational model focused on teaching to another model focused on learning has promoted legal changes which are reflected in the development of new curricula and the use of new teaching methodologies (Ferro, Martinez and Otero, 2009). At the same time, information technologies have led to the development of different online tools that offer the potential to change the manner of pedagogy and learning traits as well as to open access to millions. Open educational resources (OER) are part of this trend in today’s digital era of globalization. This is especially prevalent in the higher education sector with OERs said to bring a change of perspective in making teaching and learning a more meaningful and productive process (Mulder, 2007). One of the most relevant OER is the Open Course Ware (OCW) project.

Open Course Ware is a free and open digital publication of high quality educational materials organized in courses that was developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT (MIT OCW) in 2001 (Carson, 2009). In 2002 OCW had 50 subjects available and in 2005 the project was extended through the creation of OCW Consortium. Currently, hundreds of universities, among which are some of the most prestigious ones, in countries from all over the word (America, Europe, Africa and Asia) are part of this consortium and offer free access to their materials.

In the national context, the University of Cantabria (UC), created its own OCW platform in 2007. A total of 200 subjects of this university have created their open course within this platform. In this paper we study an experience with the use of this tool in the context of the UC. Specifically, we focus on the subject "Operations Management", which was available as an OCW course in 2013. Operations Management is a compulsory subject of 6 ECTS that is taught in the second course of the Degree in Business Administration and Management. The aim of the paper is to analyze the perceived usefulness of the OCW course from the perspective of students. Within this context students can be a valuable asset in providing feedback and suggestions about the main utilities of this open educational resource providing information in order to improve the materials available within this platform.

An empirical study has been made in order to carry out the main objective of this paper. The questionnaire survey conducted took place in March of 2016. The survey was completed by a total of 190 students resulting in a 75.7% response rate. The sample error, taking an infinite population, is 3.51%, providing a confidence level of 95%. The data obtained allow us to explore the usefulness of the OCW perceived by the students analyzing their perceptions regarding various aspects as the level of knowledge and use, the aspects most positively valued by students and possible suggestions for improvement. Furthermore, we analyze how different student profiles could influence on the above mentioned aspects.

Keywords:

Open Education Resources (OERs), Open Course Ware (OCW), Spain, University of Cantabria, Operations Management.