ACCEPTANCE OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES DRIVEN BY THE CULTURE OF OPENNESS

The aim of the paper is to identify and explain the predictors of acceptance of open educational resources in higher education, motivated by the question why OER is not accepted on a wider scale. The research is based on the Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and supplemented by the variable "culture of openness", because culture is strongly related with human behavior. The individual's culture of openness in context of education in this research includes three components: personal, professional and organizational. The research was conducted using a specially designed online questionnaire with a 5-point Likert type scale. The sample consisted of 425 teachers, from assistants to full professors, employed full-time at public universities in Croatia. The results of multiple regression analysis have shown that the proposed research model is statistically significant and has a good prognostic value for accepting OER, thus the main hypothesis is confirmed. The variable culture of openness has the greatest influence and prognostic value on the intention to use OER, followed by the performance expectancy and effort expectancy, while the variable social influence has a weak effect. By increasing the culture of openness by one degree, the intention to use OER would be higher on average by 87.5%. Actual use of open educational resources is significantly influenced by both variables from the research model, where the intention to use OER has a greater effect compared to facilitating conditions. Therefore, the priority of educational institutions and education policy makers should be to develop the atmosphere that support culture of openness, shaping the mindset towards the culture of openness, and create technical, organizational, financial and other facilitating conditions for teachers to use OER.