Open Educational Resources (OER) are fast becoming a global phenomenon which could potentially provide free access to knowledge for the masses. Since the inception of this concept, governmental and non-governmental grants alongside generous philanthropy have given rise to a vast array of OER repositories all over the world. With this movement gaining momentum, more and more of the learned community have started contributing resources to these OER repositories making them grow exponentially rich in knowledge. However, despite the availability of a large number of OER repositories, the use and re-use of OER are yet to become mainstream in many regions and institutions. One reason for this slow uptake is the inability to effectively search and locate desirable OER using the available search methodologies as it would be next to impossible to trawl through all the disconnected and disparate repositories manually. The findings discussed in this paper are part of a broader study into the OER landscape in the Asian region concentrating mainly on China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam where close to five hundred and eighty academics from public, private not- for-profit and private for-profit institutions participated. This research paper discusses how Asia fares with respect to searching and locating desirable OER and whether it is truly a barrier to the wider adoption of OER for teaching in the region.

Keywords

barriers to OER · desirability of OER · locating OER · OER · OER challenges · OER in Asia · Open Educational Resources · searching OER