Using Elluminate to deliver Library training at the Open University

Introduce myself Learning and Teaching Librarian (Arts and IET), Elluminate co-ordinator for Library
This is what I’m going to cover
Why is the OU using web conferencing/Elluminate? cf previous presentations Why is the Library using web conferencing/Elluminate? At a traditional campus-based university, you’re given a library induction within the first few days of your course. You’re told how to find the print and online collections and where to go for help. Our students don’t get this – even though the majority of our collections are now online and accessible 24 hours a day from anywhere with an internet connection. Elluminate has enabled us to give library inductions to students all over the world (w africa, Florida…) Centra pilot 2006-7 We have a history of using web conferencing software to deliver library training. Juanita Foster-Jones piloted a web conferencing system called Centra (v similar to Elluminate) back in 2006.
What sessions we offer If possible, go to VLE workspace and show list. If not, we offer these sessions: Student Introduction to Library Services, AL Introduction to Library Services, How to Find an eJournal, How to Set Up eJournal Alerts, How to Social Bookmark, How to Use RefWorks, Introduction to Bibliographic Management, Finding Information in Business and Management, Finding Information in Languages, Finding Information in Psychology, Library Session for H800 Students, Library Session for Masters in Education, Library Session for PTC (Postgraduate Technology & Computing) ALs These are fairly typical library training sessions. Anyone with an OU computer username can access the VLE workspace and sign up for sessions
What we’ve learned Practical considerations We book a meeting room in the library and take a laptop so that there are no interruptions or background noise We prepare all content in advance – we write a script and prepare the agenda (I’ll talk about Plan later) Adapting face-to-face sessions Juanita Foster-Jones wrote a ‘Good Practice’ guide on moderating an Elluminate session (this is linked to from the OU Computing Guide) and we use this as our bible We restrict the sessions to 1 hour and we try to make them as interactive as possible – encouraging questions and feedback (polling buttons) and encouraging use of Emoticons to show agreement, applause etc. (you can’t see their faces so need something other than visual clues to understand if participants are engaged) We try not to present too much information in one go - we have to be very disciplined in the content we include. We’ve had to remove lots of content from our face-to-face sessions VLE workspace Show VLE groups on the workspace. With the Centra licence we had 10 user limit, but with Elluminate it’s unlimited. However, we didn’t want to be delivering to hundreds of participants because it would inhibit interactivity (more like a lecture) and you would need someone to field questions. Therefore, we are using the ‘Groups’ facility within our VLE workspace to limit the number of attendees to 20. This is very clunky and time consuming. Training colleagues on using Elluminate to deliver sessions At the moment 8 librarians are trained-up and have delivered sessions. We want all ‘Learning and Teaching Librarians’ to be delivering sessions – so another 9 people We send them to the elluminte.com website to do their training We have a staff development hour on Weds mornings and I’ve run a couple of introductory sessions. We get them to listen to recordings of sessions that have already been run All the scripts and plan files have been created – so don’t need to worry about content They can shadow sessions We practice with 2 computers set-up side by side so that we can see the participant view and the moderator view at the same time Lots of opportunities for practice and to ask me questions Training students We don’t do this, apart from a 5 min overview at beginning of session Registration email has phone number of Computing Helpdesk, link to System Check and participants training on Elluminate website
How we use Plan What is Plan? Enables you to create an agenda in advance – once you load it into the session all you do is click on the next arrows and it does everything for you (launches application shares, starts recording, loads whiteboard slides etc.) Why are we using it? We’re running the same sessions over and over again, so it allows us to prepare everything in advance. Along with the script that we write it enables a new moderator to deliver a session with little preparation.
Feedback Out of date I prepared these slides 3 weeks ago, so they’re already out of date…however… Since November there have been… What we asked them? We asked them to rate the Elluminate interface and the trainer and to say whether they would recommend the session to anyone. In the following slides I’ve only included feedback on the interface…
For those who don’t attend, we ask them why not These are actual figures rather than percentages As can be expected from our time poor students, the biggest reason was “life got in the way”. E.g. &quot;Unfortunately the fire alarm at work went off and as a result I spent the first half of the session freezing outside.&quot; &quot;Emergency dental appointment&quot; &quot;fell asleep after after dinner nap&quot; too busy on the day &quot;unfortunately the M25 prevented me from attending the session&quot; Tech probs When they register we send them an email pointing them to participants training on Elluminate website and system check. We also give phone number for Comp Helpdesk…
Even though these figures do add up to 100 – they are actual figures! Only 1 person said poor! But these are the 57% who did attend!
Again, v positive
We’re very pleased with this “This should be mandatory training for all new students.” “ I wished it had come sooner as it would have avoided so many frustrating hours spent.” “Five years with the OU. Can't believe I've missed all this” “It was very nice to see a face from the invisible army who beaver away in Walton Hall, making the OU the remarkable institution it is” “ What you have just shown me now has absolutely thrilled me, but I do suggest that you need to push it to the other students quite strongly” “All OU students need to get using the Library resources, which are fabulous but I didn't really know how to access them before” “This has been very useful - quicker and more interesting than just reading through the guides”
3 months after the sessions, we send out a follow-up survey Poor response rate unfortunately – only 17 so far, so not v meaningful
In the comments field, some gave examples of what they’ve used: “ Searching for e-books, journals etc.” “ Zetoc Alert several times” The common theme for those who haven’t used the resources is that it isn’t required by their course: “ Very little as course (DU301) does not require extensive research until the end” “ No – but I am just starting a new course (A173) where I will be using these resources shortly” “ Since the training I have mainly accessed the library only through the current course I am studying DU311 via an SIL Exercise and as a requirement for one TMA” “ No because I do not start my next 60 point course until October 2009”
This might be a little small to see – can show individual responses in next slide. Your knowledge of web conferencing Significant change is highest – which is great Your confidence in your own ability to use library resources Noticeable change is highest Has the training session you attended changed your practice in any way? No change and small change are highest.
Next Steps Library Helpdesk surgeries Similar to face-to-face drop-in sessions You sign up for a 10 minute slot and you can ask anything to do with Library services and resources. Will pilot this soon More librarians trained up More session topics Targeting specific courses or programmes? Nicola is running sessions for H800. As more people are trained-up on delivering sessions, we’ll have more specialisms. More frequent sessions When we advertised a ‘Student Intro to the Library’ session on StudentHome, within 48 hours we had 170 people on the waiting list so we took the message off StudentHome and organised 6 more sessions Delivering from home We’ve done this already and it worked OK. Does this mean we can offer weekend and evening sessions? Implications for TOIL… Reducing drop-out rates / increasing max. participants Increased limit on no. of participants to 20 (from 15). We send a reminder email 1 week before, but we may have to do more… Explore functionality, e.g. giving control to participants, polling Publish! Putting recordings on Podcasts.open.ac.uk website or YouTube or Library website…

Using Elluminate to deliver Library training at the Open University

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