Assessing Teachers' Perceptions of an Open Educational Resource Learning Platform - A Case Study of a Secondary School in Rural Zimbabwe

Abstract

Learning platforms with integrated open educational resources (OER) offer a great opportunity for schools in sub-Saharan Africa which are facing challenges of lacking infrastructure and teaching aids as well as poor teacher education and restricted possibilities for teacher development. Embedding these platforms into classrooms allows teachers to move away from traditional teaching methods and to increase the student learning by offering a blended-learning experience. Teachers are crucial for the successful implementation of an e-learning platform, especially in the context of rural areas, where students usually do not have direct access to technology. This case study focuses on teachers from Mpumelelo Secondary School in rural Zimbabwe and assesses their perceptions of such an OER platform and their intention to use the tool after a user training. The thesis followed a combined case study and grounded theory methodology, collecting data from eight teachers teaching at Mpumelelo Secondary School and an expert, who provided the user training to the teachers....