Benefits of using Open Educational Resources (OERs) across the world have perpetuated great interest to baseline and report how OERs are used in developing countries. This is an initial study to baseline trends of OER use by university students in Pakistan and to present their perceived benefits of OER use to attain academic challenge, collaborative learning, and to enrich their educational experience. Data for this study has been collected from university students from five different academic disciplines and different degree programs. 91% of the respondents reported that they had used OERs. However, the perceived benefits of OER use are significantly different for students studying at different education levels and across disciplines. Social science students and female students have a better perception of the benefits of OER than other academic disciplines and their male counterparts. Post-hoc analysis revealed that MPhil/Ph.D. students had the highest rank for choosing mental activity and collaborative learning as a benefit of OERs. Fundamental barrier highlighted by respondents regarding the effective use of OER is lack of internet followed by lack of time and skill to use OERs.

Keywords

open educational resources · OER · usage · skill development · academic understanding · collaborative learning · perceived barriers