Diffusion of Innovations theory (Rogers, 2003) states that potential adopters moving through the innovation-decision process consider the innovation’s relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability. Rogers (2003) claimed that an individual's perception of these characteristics, or attributes, had a direct impact on whether and to what degree an innovation is adopted and diffused throughout an organization or system. The purpose of this presentation is to share, through the lens of Diffusion of Innovations theory, how members of the Online Consortium of Oklahoma supported the adoption and diffusion of the use of an online publishing platform intended to support consortial-wide adoption, modification, and creation of OER. The 25 member institutions of Online Consortium of Oklahoma (OCO) include two-year institutions, four-year institutions, technical institutes, and doctoral degree granting institutions. As a result, OCO’s strategic vision takes into consideration a broad range of needs, interests, and goals. As members of the OER subcommittee envisioned how to promote use of the publishing platform to each of their institutions, it became apparent that one simple on-boarding process for use across all institutions was ineffective. Faculty introduced to the platform would express interest but those who took additional steps to learn more about its use seemed to be those who had the opportunity to observe use of the platform by a respected peer or colleague with whom they were personally acquainted. Additionally, the group noticed faculty initially resistant to using the platform became enthusiastic about its use once given access to its full capacity. In this lightning talk, representatives from OCO member institutions will describe how they intentionally addressed observability and trialability to support the adoption and diffusion of the publishing platform and statewide use of OER.
After participating in this session, attendees will be able to:
- Participants will be able to identify the value of reflective collaboration
- Participants will understand how attributes of innovations impact their adoption and diffusion
- Participants will evaluate how they might address observability and trialability in supporting adoption and diffusion of open practices in their own community
