Primary Education Undergraduates’ Awareness and Perception on the Utilization of Open Educational Resources for Learning in University of Ilorin

The use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in this present dispensation is considered to be very essential. It is indicated that students use a limited range of technologies for learning, with established technologies such as VLEs, Google and Wikipedia being the most frequently used, based on the previous findings it is observed that utilization of OER is not common among primary education undergraduates. Therefore, this study investigated the awareness and perception on the utilization of OER for learning among primary education undergraduates in University of Ilorin. The study adopted the descriptive research of survey type. This study was limited to the primary education undergraduate students in Adult and Primary Education Department, University of Ilorin. 150 undergraduate were randomly selected from the department. Structured questionnaires was used to elicit response from the respondents. The finding of this study shows that undergraduate students are aware of OERs learning tools. Primary education undergraduate students’ perception towards OERs tool for learning is positive, there are factors inhibiting effective use of OER for learning among students, undergraduate students used OERs site for learning, and there was no significant difference between male and female undergraduates’ perception of OER tools for learning. Based on the findings of this research, the following recommendation were made. Lecturers should endeavor to put their scholarstic publications in the public domain of their institutions, as this will help student layhands on more quality materials and the government should provide fund to ensure the stability of OER movement.


INTRODUCTION
Primary education is universally accepted as the foundation laying level of education in all nations of the world. It provides the ministructural framework on which the quality of other levels of education is anchored. Primary education is the education given to children aged 6 to 12 years (FRN, 2013). This level of education is the foundation of all other forms of higher education and it is a deliberate and structured level of education for children to acquire certain skills to help become useful members of the society. Primary education is universally accepted as the foundation laying level of education in all nations of the world. It provides the mini-structural framework on which the quality of other levels of education is anchored. (Etor, Mbon, & Ekanem, 2013), hence undergraduate students in primary education department need to make use of resources that will hence their performances in other to become a good educator, OER is one of the medium to explore in other to bring this to reality.
Learning may take place through different platforms of social media, internet based tools and services that enable learners to collaborate, with one another, generate content, gather and disseminate information online (Onasanya, 2019). The changes and service brought about by ICT have been quite transformative to the extent that even the socialization of human species could be incomplete without being equipped with the necessary skills, knowledge and motivation required to understand, cope with and benefit from the impact of ICT on all aspects of life (Babagana, Idris, Chado, Ndagi, & Jibril, 2016). ICT stimulates government all over the world to delve into the great potentials of ICT and use it as a vehicle for wealth creation, economic recovery and educational development. ICT is a good medium for student to achieve their academic achievement; OER (open education resources) is one of the ICT medium needed.
Many institutions have become open by developing programmes of open sharing of educational materials and ideas. The ocean of information on the internet is in a variety of formats with relative ease of access are among the reasons that brought the technology academic patronage, especially on Open Educational Resources (OER) sites (Issa, Ibrahim & Onojah, 2020). Technology has transformed learning in students; especially for those with little funds who were not able buy text books, let alone attend prestigious learning institutions in the world, but due to advances in technology via the internet, access to OER have been achieved (Njeze, 2020). Cooney (2016) found that students were able to locate OERs easily and likewise, they found them to be better than traditional textbooks. This implies that students have positive perception towards OER for learning. OER are those resources that attract no fees, subscriptions, tuitions, registrations, obligations, and so on, to the consumer or user of the said resources.
Open Educational Resources are teaching and learning resources such as textbooks, multimedia, tests, software, and assessments that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license, such as a Creative Commons license that permit the free use and repurposing of the resources by others (Hilton, 2016 (Georgiadou & Kolaxizis, 2019). OERs can also be divided up by their content format, though most OERs will be composed of a variety of media: Textled, video-led, animation-led, and multiple media (Open Education Policy Network, 2019). OERs are beneficial to students as several studies suggested. Qualitative and quantitative data published that examine students' awareness of OERs in place of standard resources shown that OERs are improving students' attitudes and behaviors toward learning (Fischer, Hilton, Robinson, Wiley, 2015). However, an important problem in the proliferation of OERs in education is awareness. Survey results from over 3000 higher education faculty in the US show that most faculty remain unaware of open educational resources (OERs), and it is not a driving force in educational material adoption decisions. Important barriers are the effort required to find and evaluate the educational materials (Allen & Seaman, 2016). Further, students are not aware of OERs as studies suggest. Hurt, exploring students' perceptions of OERs in a life science faculty at the De Monforte University, UK, found that most of the students had not heard the term OER (Hurt, 2013).
In related studies Olufunke and Adegun (2014) studied utilization of OERs among undergraduates in Universities in Nigeria. The researchers used a descriptive research design.
The finding of the study shows that the undergraduates were moderately aware of the existence of OERs. The researchers used qualitative analysis and a scale that ranged from Zero to three. This study used Multi stage and simple random sampling and the sample size was from all the faculties in the universities sampled. This study could have yielded different findings had the researchers used undergraduate students from same faculties and from the same cohorts. Onaifo (2019) in his investigation on students' awareness and attitudes toward OERs at the University of Lagos in Nigeria. The study concluded that participants were limited in their understanding of the concept of OERs as well as in their awareness of OER repositories. Technology has transformed learning in students; especially for those with little funds who were not able buy text books, let alone attend prestigious learning institutions in the world, but due to advances in technology via the internet, access to OER have been achieved (Njeze, 2020). In a study by Hilton, Fisher, Wiley and Williams (2016), it was established that the OERs provided satisfaction to the students, costs that were lower and educational outcomes that were the same or even better than traditional textbooks. Cooney (2016) found that students were able to locate OERs easily and likewise, they found them to be better than traditional textbooks. This implies that students have positive perception towards OER for learning.
Lin, (2019) carried out a study Teaching and Learning without a Textbook: Undergraduate Student Perceptions of Open Educational Resources. The Study investigated 46 undergraduate students' perceptions of using only OER in an introductory course in a large American public university. Result indicated that students perceived that there is advantages of using OER include textbook cost savings, access to dynamic and plentiful OER materials, that OER enabling mobile learning and that OER foster the development of selfdirected skills and copyright guidelines. Afolabi, (2017) investigated the first year University undergraduates' experiences in the use of open educational resources (OER) in online learning and their in-course achievement. The design selected for the study was survey and quasi-experimental. A total number of 106 University undergraduates participated in the study after a preliminary study was conducted to ascertain undergraduates' perception and acceptability of OER. The study noted that students have positive perception of OER. The author explained that OER can successfully improve learners understanding of difficult concepts in Physics. Kurelovic (2016) noted that implementation of OER has certain limitations, in particular for small countries which use a non-English language, have limited resources and support to customize and create OER, their educational practice is founded on traditional teaching methods with occasional use of digital contents and ICT.
There are specific challenges associated with OERs besides language, which is a key issue. However, the International Federation of Libraries Association (2019) (Issa, Ibrahim, Onojah & Onojah, 2020). Ahmad (2015) revealed that there is no significant difference between male and female based on their utilization of electronic information resources for learning. It was revealed in the study that male and female users have a 50/50 percentage of use of e-resources. As gender may or may not play a role in the adoption of OER for learning. Issa, Ibrahim, Onojah and Onojah (2020) investigated Undergraduates' attitude towards the utilization of open educational resources for learning, the differences between male and female undergraduates on their attitude towards the utilization of OER for learning were determined. From the result, it was revealed that there was difference in gender of undergraduates in respects to their attitude towards utilization of OER for learning.

Statement of the Problem
Based on the available literature to the researcher, perception on utilization of OER among primary education undergraduates' has not yet attracted much research in Nigeria. Most of the past studies Nigeria focused on the importance and prospects of OER, for OER to fulfill its major goals of providing opportunities to student's access and repurpose educational materials, there is a great need for them for to be aware and the flexible license it provides so as to take advantage of the initiative maximally. Therefore, to make best use of OER in Nigeria, awareness, perception and use of OER for learning among primary education undergraduates should be looked into. This is the gap that the researcher wants to fill to add to knowledge.

METHODOLOGY
This study is a descriptive research of the survey type.
Researcher-designed questionnaire was used to gather necessary information from the respondents. Particularly, this research examined the perception and utilization of Open Educational Resources for learning among primary education undergraduate students in university of Ilorin. Population for this study was undergraduate students of university of Ilorin. The target population was student in the department of adult and primary education, simple random sampling technique was used to select one hundred and fifty (150) students from department of primary education, university of Ilorin who participated in this study.

Research Questions
The following Research Questions was answered in this study: 1. Are primary education undergraduate students' aware of OERs for learning? 2. What is primary education undergraduate students' perception on the use of OERs tools for learning? 3. What are the factors militating against effective use of OER for learning among students?

Research Hypothesis
The following hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance in this study: H O1 : There is no significant difference between male and female student undergraduates' perception of OER tools for learning. To investigate primary education undergraduate students' awareness of OERs tool for learning as stated in research question 1, and as shown in table 1 above. The mean score for each of the question item are listed in the last column of the table. The average mean score for each of the item is 2.5 The average mean score 2.5 was calculated by OMOLAFE, Eyiyemi Veronica 1 , AGARRY, Rachael Ojima 2 , BABALOLA, Ebenezer Omolafe 3 Primary Education Undergraduates' Awareness and Perception on the Utilization of Open Educational Resources for Learning in University of Ilorin adding up each value of the 4-point Likert scale and divided by 4 (Strongly Agree= 4, Agree = 3, Disagree = 2, and Strongly Disagree = 1. 4+3+2+1=10 divided by 4 = 2.5. item has 9 & 10 has the highest mean score of 3.0 which is greater than the average mean score (2.5) and item 1 & 2, has the lowest mean score of 2.8 which is also greater than the average mean score (2.5). The grand mean of the entire item is 2.9 which is greater than 2.5 average mean score. This implies that primary education undergraduate students are aware OERs learning tools. Research Questions 2: What is primary education undergraduate students' perception on the use of OERs tools for learning? To investigate undergraduate students' perception on the use of OERs tools for learning as stated in research question 2, and as shown in table 2 above. The mean score for each of the question item are listed in the last column of the table. The average mean score for each of the item is 2.5 The average mean score 2.5 was calculated by adding up each value of the 4-point Likert scale and divided by 4 (Strongly Agree= 4, Agree = 3, Disagree = 2, and Strongly Disagree = 1. 4+3+2+1=10 divided by 4 = 2.5. item has 1 & 8 has the highest mean score of 3.1 which is greater than the average mean score (2.5) and item 2, has the lowest mean score of 2.7 which is also greater than the average mean score (2.5). The grand mean of the entire item is 2.9 which is greater than 2.5 average mean score. This implies that primary education undergraduate students have positive perception towards OERs tool for learning.

Research Questions 3:
What are the factors militating against effective use of OER for learning among students? To investigate factors militating against effective use of OER for learning among students stated in research question 3, and as shown in table 3 above. The mean score for each of the question item are listed in the last column of the table. The average mean score for each of the item is 2.5 The average mean score 2.5 was calculated by adding up each value of the 4-point Likert scale and divided by 4 (Strongly Agree= 4, Agree = 3, Disagree = 2, and Strongly Disagree = 1. 4+3+2+1=10 divided by 4 = 2.5. item has 3 has the highest mean score of 3.1 while item 2 has lowest mean score 2.7 which is greater than the average mean score (2.5). The grand mean of the entire item is 2.9 which is greater than 2.5 average mean score. It can be induced that there are factors inhibiting effective use of OER for learning among students.

Hypothesis One
Ho 1 : There is no significant difference between male and female student undergraduates' perception of OER tools for learning. The analysis of the results is shown in the table below From Table 4, it can be deduced that there is no significant difference between male and female student undergraduates' perception of OER tools for learning. This is reflected in the result: t (148) = .292, p >.005. That is, the result of t-value of .292 resulting in .192 significance value was greater than 0.05 alpha value. Thus, the null hypothesis is retained. This implies that there was no significant difference between male and female student undergraduates' perception of OER tools for learning.

Discussions
The objectives of this study are to examine primary education undergraduate students' awareness and perception on the use of OER tools for learning, ascertain the factors militating against effective use of OER for learning.
The findings show that undergraduate students are aware of OERs learning tools. This result is in line with Koybasi and Islim (2016) who conducted a study in Turkey titled 'Use of open educational resources and found out that students are aware of OERs for learning. Similarly, Olufunke and Adegun (2014) studied utilization of OERs among undergraduates in Universities in Nigeria. The findings of the study show that the undergraduates were moderately aware of the existence of OERs.
The findings on perception indicated that primary education undergraduate students' perception towards OERs tool for learning is positive, this is in line with Afolabi (2017) which found out that student have positive to OER tools. Furthermore, the result shows that there are factors inhibiting effective use of OER for learning among students. The findings on the factors agreed with Lin (2019) the study on Teaching and Learning without a Textbook: shows that OER challenges include lacking a tactile sense with OER, slow Internet connections, unclear instruction and guidance, and insufficient self-regulation skills.
The result of the hypothesis shows that there was no significant difference between male and female primary education undergraduate students perception of OER tools for learning. The finding is not conformity with Issa, Ibrahim, Onojah, & Onojah (2020) investigated a study on the level of utilization of OER for learning among undergraduates.

Conclusion
This study concluded that primary education undergraduate students' awareness and perception towards OERs tool for learning is positive, undergraduate students are aware OERs learning tools, there are factors inhibiting effective use of OER for learning among students, undergraduate students used OERs site for learning, and lastly there was no significant difference between male and female student undergraduates' perception of OER tools for learning. The study therefore recommended that University management should make sure OERs tools are available for teaching and learning in schools, so that students' academic performances can be improved.