Repositório digital na educação a distância do IFPI : compartilhamento de objetos de aprendizagem

Abstract

Digital repositories are powerful tools for disseminating information by promoting free access to contents like research products. Among these, the digital repositories of learning objects (LOs) stands out. They are systems that allow the use and reuse of learning objects, which are comprehended as any digital resource that can be reused to support learning. LO repositories are digital resource environments different formats or media. The aim of this research is to develop a digital repository customization, whose purpose is to promote the sharing and reuse of LOs created by the distance education teachers of the Federal Institute of Piauí (IFPI, this acronym stands for Instituto Federal do Piauí in Portuguese and is going to be used throughout this text). The LOs digital repositories provide specific tools to support and control the dissemination and access of educational materials, favoring sharing and reusability in a standardized way, resulting in a dynamic collection in accordance to the diversity of pedagogical practices in an educational institution that adopts distance education. The research adopted a qualitative approach associated with data quantification. Initially, the work considers the Information Society and Knowledge Society, to insert the LOs digital repositories theme in the current context; then, LO digital repositories are presented. As part of the field research, two surveys were performed: the first one for librarians from Universities and Federal Institutes in Brazil, to discover if the institution they represent has some kind of repository and which system they use; and the second one for IFPI’s distance education teachers in order to outline their profile and their understanding about repositories. The functionality and use of LO digital repositories in the educational context through the data obtained was observed, and the most used system was found to be DSpace (free software, easy to customize, and widely used in educational institutions). DSpace was thus installed and customized as IFPI’s LO repository for distance education, based on the usability analysis of three national similar digital repositories and an international one. A second stage of data collection was carried out through a usability test composed of: a questionnaire about the profile / experience of IFPI’s distance education teachers, the execution of tasks in the repository; and the application of a second evaluation questionnaire. The application of the test aimed to validate the customization of the repository in order to map problems and indicate solutions, and to find out the extent to which it meets the needs and expectations of the distance education teachers. The results indicated that customizing a digital repository of LOs inside IFPI is relevant because it contributes to sharing and disseminating information in an efficient way, adding innovative actions to facilitate and improve the quality of distance education, thus generating a reduction of costs and time related to the production of new materials. As a final research product, a Guide for IFPI’s Digital LOs Repository, with guidelines on how to implement and use an LO digital repository in an educational environment, was created.