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User experience of an institutional repository: A study of OpenUCT with a focus on postgraduate students
An institutional repository (IR) plays a significant role in meeting users' information needs by providing access to the institution's intellectual outputs. The literature revealed that although studies on IRs have been conducted there is limited research on their user experience (UX). UX is gaining...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | Eng |
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Department of Knowledge and Information Stewardship
2024
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| _version_ | 1867613168134520832 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Kalimashe, Hanoria |
| author2 | Kahn, Michelle |
| author_browse | Kahn, Michelle Kalimashe, Hanoria |
| author_facet | Kahn, Michelle Kalimashe, Hanoria |
| author_sort | Kalimashe, Hanoria |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | An institutional repository (IR) plays a significant role in meeting users' information needs by providing access to the institution's intellectual outputs. The literature revealed that although studies on IRs have been conducted there is limited research on their user experience (UX). UX is gaining significant traction in academic libraries as it is becoming more useful to assess the services of the library from a user-centred perspective. The study investigated the user experience of OpenUCT from the postgraduate (PG) students' perspective. The study determined the extent to which the students are aware of the IR, their expectations of, and attitudes towards the IR, the utilisation of the IR and usability challenges in relation to its use. The study used a qualitative research method to achieve the research objective. Semi-structured interviews and structured observations were used to gather data from twelve Masters students at the Graduate School of Business (GSB) department in the Faculty of Commerce at the University of Cape Town. A group of students whose course has a dissertation element were selected for interviews and observation. The participants included students who were in the beginning, middle and final stages of their dissertation. Data was also collected through an interview with a key informant at the UCT Library department. The findings revealed that half of the participants knew about OpenUCT and were utilising the IR, whereas the other half was not aware of its existence. The study also revealed that the IR does meet most of their expectations and needs, although there were some areas where they felt their expectations were not met. The participants generally had positive attitudes towards the IR. However, the findings also revealed that students had negative attitudes regarding functionality. There were issues related to navigability, the usability of the OpenUCT user interface, findability, and accessibility of its content. Issues included difficulty in retrieving and locating content, the irrelevance of search results, poor presentation, inconsistency of content records and lack of specific search filters and fields that the participants thought would be useful when searching content. Other issues were duplication of search fields and content records, lack of clear visibility and transparency of outputs offered in the IR Communities. The study closes with recommendations on how those involved with IR and OpenUCT can proactively deal with these student concerns. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/39570 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | Eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:31:50.330Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publishDateRange | 2024 |
| publishDateSort | 2024 |
| publisher | Department of Knowledge and Information Stewardship |
| publisherStr | Department of Knowledge and Information Stewardship |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/39570 User experience of an institutional repository: A study of OpenUCT with a focus on postgraduate students Kalimashe, Hanoria Kahn, Michelle Library and Information Studies An institutional repository (IR) plays a significant role in meeting users' information needs by providing access to the institution's intellectual outputs. The literature revealed that although studies on IRs have been conducted there is limited research on their user experience (UX). UX is gaining significant traction in academic libraries as it is becoming more useful to assess the services of the library from a user-centred perspective. The study investigated the user experience of OpenUCT from the postgraduate (PG) students' perspective. The study determined the extent to which the students are aware of the IR, their expectations of, and attitudes towards the IR, the utilisation of the IR and usability challenges in relation to its use. The study used a qualitative research method to achieve the research objective. Semi-structured interviews and structured observations were used to gather data from twelve Masters students at the Graduate School of Business (GSB) department in the Faculty of Commerce at the University of Cape Town. A group of students whose course has a dissertation element were selected for interviews and observation. The participants included students who were in the beginning, middle and final stages of their dissertation. Data was also collected through an interview with a key informant at the UCT Library department. The findings revealed that half of the participants knew about OpenUCT and were utilising the IR, whereas the other half was not aware of its existence. The study also revealed that the IR does meet most of their expectations and needs, although there were some areas where they felt their expectations were not met. The participants generally had positive attitudes towards the IR. However, the findings also revealed that students had negative attitudes regarding functionality. There were issues related to navigability, the usability of the OpenUCT user interface, findability, and accessibility of its content. Issues included difficulty in retrieving and locating content, the irrelevance of search results, poor presentation, inconsistency of content records and lack of specific search filters and fields that the participants thought would be useful when searching content. Other issues were duplication of search fields and content records, lack of clear visibility and transparency of outputs offered in the IR Communities. The study closes with recommendations on how those involved with IR and OpenUCT can proactively deal with these student concerns. 2024-05-02T09:15:35Z 2024-05-02T09:15:35Z 2023 2024-04-30T13:25:21Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters MLIS http://hdl.handle.net/11427/39570 Eng application/pdf Department of Knowledge and Information Stewardship Faculty of Humanities |
| spellingShingle | Library and Information Studies Kalimashe, Hanoria User experience of an institutional repository: A study of OpenUCT with a focus on postgraduate students |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | User experience of an institutional repository: A study of OpenUCT with a focus on postgraduate students |
| title_full | User experience of an institutional repository: A study of OpenUCT with a focus on postgraduate students |
| title_fullStr | User experience of an institutional repository: A study of OpenUCT with a focus on postgraduate students |
| title_full_unstemmed | User experience of an institutional repository: A study of OpenUCT with a focus on postgraduate students |
| title_short | User experience of an institutional repository: A study of OpenUCT with a focus on postgraduate students |
| title_sort | user experience of an institutional repository a study of openuct with a focus on postgraduate students |
| topic | Library and Information Studies |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/39570 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kalimashehanoria userexperienceofaninstitutionalrepositoryastudyofopenuctwithafocusonpostgraduatestudents |