Linda Burchiellaro

The declining interest in STEM disciplines and the limitations of existing cloud-based collaborative tools, including restricted real-time collaboration, privacy concerns, and limited institutional integration, highlight the need for open-source, on-premises platforms that combine notebook-based computation with document management workflows, support synchronous editing, and preserve institutional control over data, access policies, and software environments without proprietary cloud services. This paper presents NextPyter, an open-source platform integrating Jupyter Notebooks with Nextcloud. Originally designed for research, it was adapted for educational use to enable real-time co-editing of computational notebooks within a familiar, file-centric environment. The platform underwent an exploratory evaluation through two university-level programming activities involving first- and second-year Computer Engineering students. The evaluation used the Perceived Usefulness (PU) construct of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), complemented by reflexive thematic analysis of open-ended responses. Quantitative results indicate high internal consistency of the PU scale in both cohorts (Cronbach’s $\alpha$ = 0.94 and 0.86) and mean PU scores of 4.09 and 3.53, respectively, on a five-point scale. All participants considered the platform useful for learning. Qualitative findings highlight positive perceptions of peer interaction, collaborative coding, and experiential learning. These exploratory findings suggest that NextPyter may support collaborative notebook-based learning while preserving institutional data governance.