Abstract:

Digital Competence (DC) nowadays is essential for teachers’ construction of efficient knowledge for practice. DC is defined as the set of contents, skills, and attitudes that are necessary to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and digital media in a critical, creative, and ethical ways. There is an increasing demand to learn digital skills in Teacher Education because they are drivers of innovation. As a result of this innovation Open Educational Resources (OER), as freely openly licensed media, play a central role in new educational reforms.

This study is part of a research project entitled: “Comparative study on the development of digital competence under MiCompu.mx program” that was financed by the Mexican fund SEP-SEB CONACYT 2013. The main purpose is to confirm whether in-service teachers’ self-perception on Digital Competence (DC) may influence the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in their classroom. A group of n=863 in-service teachers from elementary, high education and tertiary education from various disciplines participated in a MOOC training course on Digital Competences. A 26-item validated questionnaire on DC and use of OER was delivered to the participants of the MOOC course (Cronbach Alpha=0.93). Additionally, participant interviews and course facilitators weekly reports were also collected. Mixed methods research was used in this study but only a correlational analysis is shown.

Scores in DC and OER were ordered into three levels of performance: High, intermediate and low. An ordinal logistic regression was conducted ( PLUM test) in SPSS v21 to verify whether teachers who hold positive self-perception on Digital Competences are better prone to use OER in their teaching. This estimation along with an ANOVA test led to the calculation of logarithmic regression equation. Our model predicts that only in-service teachers that perceive themselves as digital experts can reach an intermediate level in the use of OER. The main implication out of it is that teacher training programs in DC are required to prepare teachers for the use of OER in class on a daily basis. This model will be double tested in a national wide Project funded by the Secretary of Energy in Mexico: “Binational Laboratory for the smart management of energy sustainability and technological training” (2016-2019).

Keywords:

MOOC, Teacher Education and ICT, MOOCs, Digital skills, OER.