Gauging Faculty Confidence

Why Evaluate OER Self-Efficacy?

When designing an instructional program to guide faculty authors through the OER creation process, it is important to regularly gauge participants’ OER self-efficacy. OER program managers can tailor training workshops and materials to the learning needs of their faculty if they have an understanding of faculty knowledge of OER adoption and creation.

OERFSJ needed an efficient assessment method that would permit us to regularly assess individual faculty throughout the busy three-year grant period. Methods such as focus groups or individual interviews were deemed to be too time-consuming. We determined a survey would be the most appropriate tool and settled on adopting an OER self-efficacy assessment developed by Terri Oaks Galloway.^[1]

What to Ask?

OERFSJ adapted Galloway’s instrument to mirror the training goals expected of our faculty. Through the lifecycle of the project, OERFSJ faculty were tasked with first locating existing OER and evaluating the resources on characteristics of OER (such as open licensing that would permit remixing), diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism (DEIA) content, and relevancy to their teaching needs. Next, faculty worked to remix existing OER or create new OER using backwards design. Finally, the new OER would be assessed with the same criteria initially used by faculty.

Select the below plus signs to view the final categories of analysis and questions for the faculty confidence survey.

How to Measure Confidence?

To capture context-sensitive evaluation of faculty confidence in OER activities, Galloway recommended using a hundred-point measurement rather than a five-interval scale.^[2] The scale was as follows:

• 0 being not Confident at all
• 50 being moderately confident
• 100 being very confident

The OERFSJ team utilized the slider question type in Qualtrics to enable faculty to quickly answer the questions. It should be noted that the graphic slider is not accessible for screen-reader users, and a text entry field would be an effective alternative.

When to Administer the Survey?

Using Qualtrics, OERFSJ administered the survey four times throughout the three-year grant program to capture pre-grant self-perceptions and growth in faculty confidence after substantial trainings and significant milestones in the OER creation process.

1. Prior to OER basics workshops at the beginning of the program.
2. After OER basics workshops and faculty analysis of existing OER at the end of the first year.
3. After faculty mapped identified existing material to remix and needed original content of their OER to learning objectives using backwards design at the end of the second year.
4. After faculty completed the OER creation and review process at the end of the third year.

Administering the survey at least once a year helped us determine if general training sessions needed to be repeated or if individual faculty members or teams required consultations.

How to Access the Survey

Download the openly licensed survey template [Website] from LMU’s institutional repository.