Promoting Open Educational Resources: Strategies for Enhancing Usage among Ghanaian Postgraduate Students

The growing demand for affordable educational resources has advanced Open Educational Resources (OER) as a means of expanding access, inclusion and collaboration. However, institutional support is essential for translating OER investment into use. This study examines strategies for promoting OER among postgraduate students in three public universities in Ghana. Using a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, quantitative data were collected from 344 postgraduate students through a structured questionnaire, while qualitative data came from semi-structured interviews with six OER administrators. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson chi-square tests and Cramer's V; interview data were analysed thematically, and both strands were integrated through a joint display. Although 80.2% of students had heard of OER and 63.4% reported institutional provision, 45.9% had never received OER training or orientation. Training exposure varied significantly across universities (χ 2 (2, N = 344) = 104.63, p < .001, V = 0.552), as did perceived promotional effectiveness and preferences for five strategies, particularly faculty collaboration (V = 0.498) and financial incentives (V = 0.480). Administrators reported orientation, information-literacy training, faculty collaboration, repositories and help-desk support, but these mechanisms reached students unevenly. The study proposes a provision–reach account of OER promotion: availability is necessary but insufficient for engagement; support must also be visible, recurrent and accessible. Through the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, the findings show that facilitating conditions function as perceived, rather than merely provided, resources and inform how universities position OER alongside emerging artificial intelligence tools.