A HUMAN‐COMPUTER INTERACTION PRINCIPLES BASED FRAMEWORK TO ASSESS THE USER PERCEPTION OF WEB BASED VIRTUAL RESEARCH ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract

Due to various challenges and opportunities such as globalisation of research agenda and advancements in information and communication technologies, research collaborations (both international and national) have become popular during the last decade more than ever before. Within this context, the concept of Virtual Research Environments(VRE) is an emerging concept looking at addressing the complex challenges associated with conducting collaborative research. Even though concept of VRE is at its infancy, it is important to assess user perception about those, both to establish its success of uptake and future development strategies. However, to date, there is no formal method established to evaluate VREs .This paper reports a strategy adopted within an international collaborative research project (EURASIA) to evaluate its custom built VRE, VEBER, using the well known Computer Human Interaction principles. Santruka Ivairiausi iššūkiai ir galimybes, tokios kaip planuojamu moksliniu tyrimu globalizacija ir informacijos bei komunikacijos technologiju pažanga, pastaraji dešimtmeti leme didesni nei bet kada tiriamojo bendradarbiavimo (ir tarptautinio, ir nacionalinio) populiaruma. Šiame kontekste virtualiosios moksliniu tyrimu aplinkos (VMTA) savoka – tai gimstanti savoka, kuria siekiama imtis sudetingu iššūkiu, susijusiu su tiriamuoju bendradarbiavimu. Nors VMTA savoka kol kas žengia pirmuosius žingsnius, svarbu ivertinti, kaip vartotojai ja suvokia, siekdami nustatyti, kaip jai seksis prigyti, ir būsimasias pletros strategijas. Tačiau formalaus metodo VMTA vertinti kol kas nera. Šiame darbe pristatoma strategija, taikyta tarptautiniame moksliniu tyrimu bendradarbiavimo projekte (EURASIA), nes norima ivertinti specialiai tam sukurta VMTA, pavadinta VEBER, naudojant gerai žinomus kompiuterio ir žmogaus saveikos principus.