Open Educational Practices, Use and Adaptation of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education. A Systematic Review

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doi:10.32541/recie.v9.763

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Theoretical review article • Rev. Carib. Investig. Educ. 9 • Jan-Dec 2025 • https://doi.org/10.32541/recie.v9.763 linkcopy

Open Educational Practices, Use and Adaptation of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education. A Systematic Review

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Abstract: Studies on Open Educational Practices (OEP) and Open Educational Resources (OER), pillars of open education, are increasing but remain confined to limited geographical areas or timeframes, without offering a global perspective on their implementation in higher education. This article investigates the main OER implemented, their uses, adaptations, benefits and challenges in the higher education context. The SCOPUS and Web of Science databases were consulted following the PRISMA protocol. The findings describe the forms of OER implementation, the types of OER and the most used platforms, as well as the principal barriers and limitations to their use.

Keywords:
Higher Education; Open Practices; Open Educational Resources; university

Platform	Aim	Beneficiaries
Eplatform for Adult Learning in Europe (EPALE)	To support and strengthen professions in the adult learning sector by promoting contact among colleagues across Europe through forums, blogs, matchmaking tools and in-person meetings.	Educators and trainers, guidance counselors and support staff, researchers and members of academic institutions; policymakers.
Open Discovery Space (ODS)	To engage school communities in integrating innovative practices that enable them to share, adopt, use and reuse existing educational content throughout the teaching-learning process.	Teachers, students and parents in European school communities.
Global Science Labs (Go-Lab)	To provide remote access to real physical laboratories—equipped and hosted by universities or research centers—for data collection, as well as to virtual labs that simulate experiments.	Students aged 10-18 (particularly in STEM subjects) and their teachers.
MERLOT	To offer free access to online learning and support materials, along with content-creation tools contributed by an international educational community.	Teachers and students, especially in higher education.
OER Commons	To offer a collaborative digital public library of OER—including complete courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, videos, tests and software—that users can access, reuse and remix at no cost and without requesting permission.	Teachers, students and researchers.
Red Latinoamericana de Portales Educativos (RELPE)	To promote and consolidate autonomous, public-service, national educational portals across Latin America and the Caribbean in order to reduce the digital divide, enhance quality and equity in education, and strengthen collaborative networks.	Teachers and students throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
TEMOA	To provide a catalog of OER for use in virtual environments, accessible online to support the teaching-learning process.	Teachers and students, from preschool through graduate levels.
EDUTEKA	To offer educational content and tools—such as research-portal references, best practices, articles, curricula, links, images, projects and videos—that improve learning spaces and support educator training.	Teachers, school administrators and teacher trainers in Colombia and Ibero-America.

Barriers	Description
Personal barriers	Authors note insufficient time to create or evaluate OER; difficulty finding existing resources on relevant topics; lack of confidence in the quality of one’s own or others’ work; limited knowledge and awareness of OER; and a low sense of individual agency. They also highlight the absence of reward or incentive systems; fear of peer scrutiny, misinterpretation or misuse of their OER; a lack of motivation to create or adapt OER; and challenges locating resources that are both relevant and contextually appropriate.
Technical barriers	These encompass both individual and institutional factors. At the individual level, authors report inadequate ICT skills for OER creation and use; unfriendly interfaces; confusion over open licenses; and language barriers when OER are not available in the user’s native tongue. Institutionally, technical obstacles include outdated infrastructure and resources; insufficient bandwidth; limited availability of required courses; lack of dedicated technological support; broken or inaccessible resource links; and interoperability issues across platforms.
Legal barriers	Frequently mentioned obstacles include limited understanding of intellectual property rights, copyright law and Creative Commons (CC) licenses.
Institutional barriers	These barriers involve absence of an institutional OER policy or strategy; low organizational awareness of OER; lack of promotional or adaptation support from the institution; and minimal backing from leadership or management.

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Instituto Superior de Formación Docente Salomé Ureña Calle Caonabo esq. C/ Leonardo Da Vinci, Urbanización Renacimiento, Sector Mirador Sur, Santo Domingo, República Dominicana - E-mail: vladimir.figueroa@isfodosu.edu.do

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[TFN1] Note. Prepared by the author.