Using resources across educational digital libraries

ABSTRACT

This article reports on analyses of usage and design activities by users of the Instructional Architect (IA), an end-user authoring tool designed to support easy access to and use of NSDL and online resources in creating instructional materials. This analysis provides a unique window for understanding how users use resources from multiple digital libraries, and the related issues of resource granularity and context dependence. Analyses suggest that active use and design with online resources is relegated to 'early adopters'. These users designed significantly more instructional projects with more content and more online resources than less-active users. Users in general appeared to value digital library resources, and at a smaller granularity than cataloged.

REFERENCES

• 1: Lagoze, C., Krafft, D., Payette, S. and Jesuroga, S. What Is a Digital Library Anymore, Anyway? D-Lib Magazine, 11 (2005).
• 2: Moore, G. Crossing the Chasm. Harper Business, New York, 1991.
• 3: Mimi Recker , Jim Dorward , Deonne Dawson , Sam Halioris , Ye Liu , Xin Mao , Bart Palmer , Jaeyang Park, You can lead a horse to water: teacher development and use of digital library resources, Proceedings of the 5th ACM/IEEE-CS joint conference on Digital libraries, June 07-11, 2005, Denver, CO, USA [doi>10.1145/1065385.1065387]
• 4: Wiley, D., Recker, M. and Gibbons, A. In defense of the by-hand assembly of learning objects, 2000. Retrieved 23 May, 2005, from http://opencontent.org/blog/writings/

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: User-centered design

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Evaluation/methodology

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.1 Computer Uses in Education
          Subjects: Computer-assisted instruction (CAI)

General Terms:
Experimentation, Human Factors

Keywords:
educational digital libraries, empirical studies, reuse