This document summarizes a study conducted on teacher usage of an institutional repository (IR) at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), an online university. A survey of 550 teachers found that only 32.7% were aware of the IR and only 19.4% considered it usable. Usage was higher among STEM teachers and lower among women. While some desired additional web 2.0 services, integration with the virtual learning environment was still lacking. The conclusions call for improving awareness and usability of the IR, enriching its resources and functions, and further surveying teachers and students.

1. J. Minguillón, E.P. Gil-Rodríguez,
P. Rebaque-Rivas, M. Leg
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Barcelona,Spain
ICERI 2014 – 17-19 November, Seville, Spain

2. ž Institutional repositories
ž Methodology
ž Survey design
ž Results
ž Conclusions
ICERI 2014 – 17-19 November, Seville, Spain

3. ž Three main goals:
• Preservation
• Dissemination
• Positioning
ž Created and maintained by librarians
with the support of the IT department
ž Not fully integrated into VLEs
ICERI 2014 – 17-19 November, Seville, Spain

4. ž UOC: online university created in 1994
• Virtual learning environment
• Virtual library
• Institutional repository: O2 (2009)
– DSpace based
– Some additional services (unused)
ž > 50000 students, 2500 teachers
ž ≈ 6000 documents, ≈ 4000000 downloads
ICERI 2014 – 17-19 November, Seville, Spain

5. ž Design-based research:
• Observation: low usage of the IR repository
• Goal: who is (not) using the IR and why?
ž Mixed methods:
• Qualitative: 15 in-depth interviews (8 teachers)
• Quantitative: survey
ž Technology Acceptance Model
ICERI 2014 – 17-19 November, Seville, Spain

6. ž Two basic questions:
• IR awareness and usage
• Main reasons
ž Need/interest in additional services
ž Population: UOC full-time and part-time
teachers (2497)
ž Sample: 550 answers (22.0%) è 3.69%
ICERI 2014 – 17-19 November, Seville, Spain

7. ž Gender, Age, Scientific discipline
ž 52 items (1-5 Likert scale):
• Institutional recognition
• Incentives
• Social image
• Quality
• Knowledge
• Collaborative attitude
ž IR knowledge, usage, web 2.0 services
ICERI 2014 – 17-19 November, Seville, Spain

8. ž Gender: 43.5% women, 56.5% men,
similar IR knowledge (p = 0.186) but
different usage (p = 0.028), more women
have never used the IR
ž No difference across ages
ž STEM teachers use it more (p < 0.001)
ICERI 2014 – 17-19 November, Seville, Spain

9. ž Only 32.7% of the respondants were
aware of the IR (CS department è 58.4%)
ž Basic functionalities (agree/totally agree):
• Choosing a license: 33.4%
• Describing through metadata: 21.1%
• Publishing resources: 17.2%
• Advanced search: 12.8%
ž Only 19.4% think the IR is usable
ICERI 2014 – 17-19 November, Seville, Spain

10. ž Only 2.8% access the IR through the VLE
ž Web 2.0 services:
• Adding comments to a resource (20.8%)
• Ranking a resource (19.7%)
• Sharing a resource (16.8%)
• Favoriting a resource (15.7%)
• Tagging a resource (8.8%)
• Finding similar resources (4.9%)
ICERI 2014 – 17-19 November, Seville, Spain

11. ž Only 1 out of 3 teachers know about the IR
ž Only 1 out of 9 teachers use it regularly
ž Some “desired” web 2.0 services are
barely used (ranking)
ž Nevertheless, more integration within the
VLE is desired
ICERI 2014 – 17-19 November, Seville, Spain

12. ž Study IR potential users
ž Adapt IR to different user profiles
ž Design a usable IR
ž Publicize the IR
ž Improve access to contents
ž Enrich and support user tasks
ž Provide help
ž Promote open access
ž Encourage self-archiving
ICERI 2014 – 17-19 November, Seville, Spain

13. ž Further survey analysis:
• Structural Equation Modeling: intention è use
• Clustering: teacher profiling
ž Implementation and evaluation of some
web 2.0 services
ž Large scale survey (including students)
ICERI 2014 – 17-19 November, Seville, Spain

14. ž Project MAVSEL: mining, data analysis
and visualization based in social aspects
of e-learning
Contact:
jminguillona@uoc.edu
Twitter/@jminguillona
ICERI 2014 – 17-19 November, Seville, Spain