Abstract: Though use of OER course materials in college classes is associated positively with student success, a principal barrier to OER adoption by faculty is difficulty in finding needed resources. This paper explores how user-experience (UX) research can be used to better understand discovery challenges for both faculty and librarians, and how user personas based on this research can support the design of OER discovery solutions. Aiming to improve the OER discovery experience, the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, in collaboration with six higher-education library consortia based in the US, conducted a study to better understand OER search goals, needs, and pain points. Based on in-depth interviews with 35 faculty and library staff, the following five OER curation personas were created to support discovery design: Faculty Textbook Replacer, Faculty A La Carte Curator, OER Reference Librarian, Collections Maintenance Librarian, and Course Redesign Support Librarian. These personas describe archetypical users representing the curation needs of postsecondary faculty and library staff. Interview data were also used to develop a model of the decision-making processes faculty and library staff use when selecting and evaluating OER, and the metadata most useful at each step in that process. As an example of how user research can enhance OER discovery design initiatives, we discuss how using these personas enabled improvements in OER Commons, a public digital library of OER.
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