Exposing educational resources in the NSDL and its Pathways

The current organization of NSDL resources appears to be mostly system-centered resulting in a digital library that is cumbersome to use for teachers as well as students. A careful review of NSDL and pathway user interfaces indicates that the majority of these interfaces do not take into account what is known about educational users and the context of their information seeking behavior. For example, teachers have limited time to search for resources to incorporate in their teaching and are reulctant to wade through long lists of results that are only partially relevant. Time constraints also demand clear overviews of what resource topics can be found in individual collections since teachers have no time to find this out through trial and error. Additionally, teachers are working within their institutional contexts that require the use of educational standards. As a result teachers are constrained in what they can teach and what they want to see in their results lists.