Usability Study of a Pilot Database Interface for Consulting Open Educational Resources in the Context of the ENCORE Project

Abstract

Open educational resources (OER) are materials such as textbooks, lessons, and other teaching and learning tools that are freely accessible for use. OER are gaining popularity as a means for educators to give their students access to high-quality, economical educational materials. OER can encourage sharing infor-mation and resources throughout the educational community while also helping lower the cost of education for both students and teachers. In this context, the ENCORE project seeks, among other goals, to assist students and workers in acquiring the skills necessary to deal with economic, ecological, and technolog-ical challenges as well as to address the skills gap between the supply of educa-tional institutions and the demand of employers and assist educators in staying abreast of the constantly changing landscape of skills. One of the first steps to reach the project’s goals is to build a robust database that contains quality OERs linked to green, digital, and entrepreneurial (GDE) skills. A graphical interface has been developed to retrieve and display information about the OERs, and, in turn, to make these resources available for any stakeholder. However, due to the significant quantity of information, it is important to develop an interface that enhances user experience. This work presents a usability study of the ENCORE project’s OER database interface carried out through a System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire, as well as future interface improvements based on the results.