The Importance of Repositories in Supporting the Learning Lifecycle

Abstract

Traditionally repositories have been seen as either supporting a researcher's activities throughout what is traditionally referred to as the "research lifecycle" or storing learning objects to support learning and teaching. In research and e-science workflows, data is analysed with one or more of the outputs typically resulting in a peer-reviewed publication, e.g. journal article. Depending upon the licensing conditions of the publisher, a version of that same publication may be uploaded to an institutional repository for open (public) access. In addition a lecturer in a course may choose to utilise this same publication as a required or recommended reading normally by either linking to the journal website, uploading a copy of the published version or leaving the students to source a copy. Frequently it does not occur to the lecturer to investigate whether a version is already held in their institutional repository. This paper examines the current literature on the topic. It discusses a number of initiatives in Australia which incorporate repositories within the student lifecycle. The paper concludes with an analysis of how repositories could be better utilised to support the needs of students in higher education.