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This study examined how faculty in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) or STEM-related fields perceive and utilize open educational resources (OER) in their classrooms and how faculty characteristics (e.g., age, teaching experience, OER experience) influence their adoption. A quantitative survey was administered to 48 STEM faculty across 8 colleges at a large, southeastern university. Findings revealed that faculty generally acknowledged OER’s benefits, particularly its cost-saving potential, and all faculty without prior OER experience and 86.5% of faculty with OER experience expressed neutral to positive perceptions regarding OER’s ability to reduce financial burdens. Faculty with OER experience also recognized its potential to enhance teaching, responding positively to using OER to improve their skills (70.3%), foster student learning environments (79.4%), and align with learning objectives (86.5%). However, faculty without prior OER experience expressed their reservations about OER’s ability to promote student independence (45.5% negative responses) and replace traditional textbooks (45.4% negative responses). When examining how faculty characteristics influenced its utilization, older faculty (above 48 years old) and those with more teaching experience (above 7 years) were less likely to incorporate OER into their curricula (p<0.05) but more likely to use OER for professional development (p<0.05). For younger and less experienced faculty, they were more likely to incorporate OER into their curricula (p<0.05) but less likely to use OER to improve their pedagogy (p<0.01). These findings suggested that while all faculty acknowledged the value of OER as an educational tool, some faculty still withhold hesitancy toward its adoption.
This study emphasized OER’s potential to address both financial and pedagogical challenges present in higher education through the enhancement of STEM faculty teaching practices and creation of engaging learning environments, particularly in a field that experiences frequent advancements that require rapid updates to course materials to maintain relevancy. Future studies should continue to explore relationships between characteristics of the faculty and how they utilize OER as well as investigate strategies to improve OER adoption within higher education.