Investigating efl university instructors' awareness and level of use of "open educational resources" in teaching English

During the Covid-19 lockdown period, Iraq introduced e-learning and electronic education platforms to teachers and students, marking a significant shift in global educational institutions. Iraq was one of the first countries to experience distance education using these platforms, social media and educational websites. The objectives of the study were to determine the level of use of OER tools by university lecturers; to determine the level of awareness according to variables such as gender, level of education, field of specialization and teaching experience; and to determine the statistically significant relationship between the level of awareness and the use of OER. The participants were 150 lecturers (male and female) from the Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Humanities Education and Faculty of Women's Education. The instruments of the current study were a semi-structured interview and two questionnaires. The questionnaires were adapted from Caliskan (2023) questionnaires. The first questionnaire aims to collect data about lecturers' awareness about OERs and the second questionnaire is used to collect data about lecturers' intentions to continue using OERs. The results revealed that lecturers' awareness of OERs is low. Also, instructors with a PhD degree, specialized in teaching methods, and graduated from universities outside Iraq are more aware of OERs than others. Also, there is no difference in the level of awareness due to years of teaching experience and type of university. Regarding the variables that influence the instructors' intention to continue using OERs, it was found that the intention to continue using OERs was higher than the others, characterized by the male variable, having a doctoral degree, graduated from outside Iraq, specialized in teaching methods, and the Faculty of Arts instructors. Years of teaching experience did not reveal any difference in the level of intention to use OERs. Moreover, the relationship was statistically significant and positive, meaning that the higher the level of awareness of OERs, the higher the level of use of these resources. There is a positive relationship between the level of trainers' awareness of OERs and their intention to continue using them. The interview results revealed that lecturers who were male, specialized in teaching methods, had a PhD degree, and graduated from universities outside Iraq were more aware of Open Educational Resources (OERs) and had a higher intention to continue using them.