Using resources across educational digital libraries

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. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.5.2 [Information Interfaces and Presentation]: User Interfaces – User-centered design, Evaluation/methodology; K.3.1 [Computers and Education]: Computer Uses in Education – Computer-ass...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: JCDL
• Authors: Mimi Recker, Bart Palmer
• Keywords: Digital Libraries, JCDL 2006, Multiple Digital Libraries, Online Resources