The Effect of Social Networking-Based Multimedia Repository on Promoting Open Educational Resources

In recent years, the Open Education movement has emerged as an innovative approach in the field of education. Closely connected to it are the Open Educational Resources (ΟΕRs), which are hosted in Digital Repositories. Despite their unique advantages, global recognition, and increasing numbers, OERs have not yet become fully established. Teachers encounter various challenges in using OERs, including a lack of pedagogical knowledge about their value, usage, production, and integration into teaching. At the same time, many digital repositories are considered inadequate, facing issues such as difficulty in content search, incomplete content, and insufficient assistance for users. As such, this research aims to maximize OERs potential and utilization, introducing a social networking-based multimedia repository. This repository fosters interaction, communication, and collaboration, educating teachers about OERs. The main goal of the research is to determine whether incorporating social networking features into a repository could positively influence users’ experience, access frequency, and the utilization of OERs in teaching. A quantitative research method was employed, showing the positive impact of social networking features on teacher attitude and intention to use OERs in their instruction.