Implications of Open Access Repositories Quality Criteria and Features for Teachers’ TPACK Development

This brief will explore how open access repositories are being developed and maintained, in order to provide, disseminate and promote the development of digital educational resources. The main objective is to analyse open access repositories quality criteria and features, and how these can improve teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) development. It is organized in six major sections. 
Section one addresses an historical overview of open access repositories. In section two the authors present the objectives and the methodology used in the present study. Sections three, four and five analyse namely (i) the prevalence of European Science Education open access repositories and teachers’ perceptions of those same repositories, (ii) the most common European Science Education open access repositories features and their implications, and (iii) the impact of open access repositories usage on teachers’ TPACK development. The last section focuses on the analyses of a selected open access repository [House of Sciences (originally Casa Das Ciências)], addressing its characteristics and features, the impact of social media features in digital educational resources (re)use, and the relationship between repository quality criteria and teachers’ TPACK development. 

Rita Tavares was born in Aveiro in 1982. She holds a Degree in Basic Education from the University of Aveiro and is an accredited Trainer in Educational Technologies. Currently attending the Doctoral Program in Multimedia in Education at the University of Aveiro, she works in this institution as a Researcher for the Foundation for Science and Technology, the national funding agency that supports science, technology and innovation, under the responsibility of the Ministry for Science and Technology. Member of the Open Laboratory for Science Education, an integrated infrastructure of the Research Centre Didactics and Technology in Teacher Education, located in the Department of Education and Psychology of the University of Aveiro, she develops several activities such as Web Copywriter and Monitor of the laboratory and of the Science Garden, an outdoor educational space designed for children aged 4 to 12 years, that promotes non-formal Science Education activities. Rita Tavareshas professional experience as a Primary School Teacher, having taught from 2006 to 2010 in several public Portuguese schools. In 2011 she started to work at a software development company as Educational Coordinator, managing projects related to digital educational resources and educational games. Simultaneously, she was also an Editorial Reviewer, Author and Instructional Designer. From 2012 to 2014 Rita Tavares managed the Education Unit of the company as Director, designing and managing several research projects (R&ID and R&TD) related to edutainment, affective computing, educational virtual worlds, immersive learning environments, and contents for next generation networks. With articles published in Portuguese journals and (inter)national conferences proceedings, her main research interests are Digital Educational Resources, Science Education, Universal Design (for Learning), M-Learning, and Educational Data Mining.


António Moreira was born inAveiro in 1957. He holds a PhD from the University of Aveiro, where he develops teaching activities and research. With several books and articles published in Portugal and abroad, he coordinated the ICT Competence Centre of the University of Aveiro, the Digital Contents Lab, which he founded, the Department of Education and Psychology at the same university as well as the Specialization Training Courses and Master in Multimedia in Education. He also coordinated the Internet@eb1 programs and CBTIC@EB1 for the Aveiro district. With his main activity in post-graduation courses, he has already concluded the supervision of 64 Pre-Bologna Master Dissertations, 44 PhD theses and 4 post-doctoral projects. He is presently the Director of the Doctoral Program in Multimedia in Education and an elected member of the Scientific Council of the Doctoral School of the University of Aveiro. He was the Director of the Department under nomination and appointment by the Rector from 2010 to 2015. He founded the online journal Indagatio Didactica, under the Research Centre for Didactics and Technology in Teacher Training, of which he has been the Chief Editor from its inception until 2010, and presently a member of the editorial board of this and other 12 international journals. His main research interests are Hypertext Cognitive Flexibility in Learning Communities and Practice, Random Access Instruction, Cognitive Architectures, Web 2.0 tools, PLE and social networks, and Digital Identities and Storytelling.