Learning in the New Normal Era: Students' Perception on the Use of Open Educational Resources

The worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 has inevitably changed the teaching and learning practices in higher education, where online and blended learning are adopted to different extents. This paper reports the latest status of university students' perception on the use of open educational resources (OER), based on a survey conducted in a university in Hong Kong. It is revealed that OER are often used for different learning purposes, and generally perceived to be useful, especially for supplementing course materials and doing assignments and projects. In comparing the results with earlier years', there is a significant increasing trend in the frequency of use and the level of perceived usefulness, whilst the concerns about some known quality issues of OER, such as accuracy and comprehensiveness, are more or less similar. The findings confirm that, while teaching and learning practices are being transformed in this new normal era, OER have evolved as an indispensable source of learning materials, and that their usefulness has been more recognized than ever before.