1. LIS 764: LIBRARY USER INSTRUCTION
Teaching in an online
environment
&
Creating tools for
Asynchronous Instruction
Strahov Library, Prague, Czech
Republic
Guest Instructors
Marisa Walstrum & Larissa Garcia
National-Louis University Library
2. Tonight's outline
1. Introduction
2. NLU history & perspective
3. Teaching Adult Learners Mitchell Library, Glasgow, Scotland
4. Teaching in an Online Environment
5. Why Tutorials?
6. Tips & Best Practices
7. Evaluating Tutorials
8. Tutorial Creation Software
9. Additional Resources
10. Q&A - your chance to ask library, career, or school-
related questions of recent DU grads!
3. National-Louis University
A bit of background
Founded in 1886
Private, non-denominational
Strong tradition of service to
urban, immigrant, & minority
populations
Average age: 36
(undergraduate); 38 (graduate)
Online degree programs: 8
(BlackBoard)
U.S. Campus locations: 8
Elizabeth Harrison & Edna Dean Baker - the 1st and 2nd presidents of the college. Image from NLU
Archives.
4. Teaching Adult Learners
Non-traditional students bring a diverse background and
varying skill sets to the classroom
Critical thinking and library anxiety (Kwon)
Authenticity in library instruction
Motivation & Self directed learners
Learning Preferences
Time management & balance
Teach skills to accomplish
student goals (Gold)
Angkor Wat Library, Cambodia
5. Teaching in an Online Environment
Opportunities:
Student engagement
Assessing student learning
Addressing Learning Styles
Active Learning
Self directed learning
Mobility and scheduling
Roger Clark Memorial
Library, Pittsfield, VT
6. Teaching in an Online Environment
Challenges for students:
Student engagement
Bandwidth
Immediacy
Student technical skill levels
Seattle Public Library
Challenges for librarians:
Librarian technical skill levels
Bandwidth
IT/Support issues
7. Teaching in an Online Environment
What we do at NLU
Library instruction sessions for F2F, online, blended courses
Online instruction includes
Tutorials & short assignment
BlackBoard, email, or LibGuides
approximately 1 week long
Email or chat reference
8. Creating tools for
Asynchronous Instruction
Why use tutorials?
Supplement classroom instruction
Online library instructions
Outreach to courses without library
instruction
Frequently Asked Questions
After hours or distance learning support
Address different learning styles
Free University, Berlin, Germany
Adapted from Aimee Walker's presentation, "Best Practices for Tutorial Creation", Online Tutorial
Creation Workshop, I-Share Instruction Team, June 2009
9. A Few Tips for Creating Tutorials
KISS: Keep it short and simple
Length: no longer than 5 minutes
Outline important points and consider computer actions
(search examples, mouse clicks, etc.)
Write a script
Include objectives in the tutorial
Practice, practice, practice!
Record in a room with a door that shuts
Consider your speaking style (speed, tone, and vocabulary)
Currency
Adapted from Aimee Walker's presentation, "Best Practices for Tutorial Creation", Online Tutorial
Creation Workshop, I-Share Instruction Team, June 2009
10. Other things to think about...
Where will the tutorials be
available?
It's a good idea to evaluate
your tutorials. Maybe
include a link to a survey
for students to complete?
Accessibility issues - text
versions available
Vancouver Public Library, British Columbia
11. Tutorial Examples
How to Find Books - Western New England College (Wink)
http://mars.wnec.edu/~infolit/flash/findbook.html
Reserves - University of Washington (Jing)
http://tinyurl.com/dfx7qp
How to Identify Scholarly Articles - Cornell University
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDGJ2CYfY9A
Interlibrary Loan - Southwest Minnesota State University
(Camtasia Studio)
http://www.smsu.edu/Library/tutorials/booksill2.html
Boolean Searching - Colorado State University
http://lib.colostate.edu/tutorials/boolean_info.html
12. Screencasting / Tutorial
Creation Software
Just a small sample of software
you might want to try...
FREE!!!
Jing: http://www.jingproject.com/
CamStudio:http://camstudio.org/
ScreenJelly: http://www.screenjelly.com/
Wink: http://www.debugmode.com/wink/download.php
How to use wink: http://www.olupus.com/wink/
NOT FREE ;(
Adobe Captivate
Camtasia Studio from TechSmith
Vancouver Library Square,
British Columbia
13. Additional Resources
Sharing Resources
Animated Tutorial Sharing Project
LION: Library Information Literacy Online Network
Best Practices
7 Things You Should Know About Screencasting -
Educause
An Introducation to Screencasting - TechSoup
Screencasting Best Practices - Screencast.com
That's Infotainment! How to Create your own Screencasts -
School Library Journal
Top Ten Tips for Creating Effective Screencasts - Bill Myers
Online
14. Additional Resources cont. - Adult
Learners and Information Literacy
Bellard, Eloise M. “Information Literacy Needs of Nontraditional Graduate
Students in Social Work.” Research Strategies. 20 (2007):494-505.
Faust, Judith. “Teaching Information Literacy in 50 Minutes a Week: The CSUH
Experience” Journal of Southern Academic and Special Librarianship. 2 (2001):
1-15.
http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v02n03/faust_j01.htm
Gold, Helene E. “Engaging the Adult Learner: Creating Effective Library
Instruction.” Portal: Libraries & the Academy. 5 (2005): 467-481.
Kwon, Nahyun, Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, and Linda Alexander. "Critical
Thinking Disposition and Library Anxiety: Affective Domains on the Space of
Information Seeking and use in Academic Libraries." 68.3 (2007): 268-78.
15. Photo Credits
Library images from Flickr:
Mitchell Library, Glasgow http://www.flickr.
com/photos/alephnaught/7295078/
Vancouver Library Square http://www.flickr.
com/photos/darrenstone/395110954/
Vancouver Public Library
http://www.flickr.com/photos/selva/90046278/
Roger Clark Memorial Library
http://www.flickr.com/photos/iamthebestartist/889772535/
Angkor Wat Library at Sunset
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/533005659/
Strahov Library, Prague
http://www.flickr.com/photos/perreira/207156947/
Royal Library, Copenhagen, Denmark
http://www.flickr.com/photos/admean/4591778/
Seattle Public Library
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffwilcox/416840579/
Marisa Founded as the first Kindergarten college. Access to education extends to working adults, catering specifically to bachelor completion programs in management, and teacher certifications. Student population: mostly graduate. Accelerated programs with mostly evening and online offerings make support from the library a challenge.
Marisa 1. Different work and life experience should be valued as students often go back to school to improve upon these skill sets. Varying degrees of skills can be a challenge. 2. In Kwon's article studying links between critical thinking skills and library/research anxiety the authors found that students often feel overwhlemed and think their skills are inadequate. When students who mistrust their ability to identify good information the researchers found that they are lacking in their analytical, problem solving, and decision making skills. 3. These students want to learn pertinent information - how does this help me with my project? 4. Adult learners are motivated, they take on school in addition to family, job and community responsibilities. 5. Learning preferences must be addressed as many students have been out of school for a period of time - the lecture only model may not help students to learn. 6. Students have other obligations besides school and may need additional time, or last minute help due to time management issues 7. Adult learners are goal oriented - they want to learn what is applicable to their project/class/program/job skills. They will also tell you when you are teaching something irrelevant.
Marisa 1. Online requires you to build a learning space in which students enter and interact - more control than the classroom set up. 2. Periodic assessment is needed to track student progress and helps to identify early any concepts that students dont "get". 3. Online environment allows more flexibility with learning styles and allows you to embed different student experiences to meet learning preferences. 4. Active learning is inherent since students must create a product and interact/collaborate in order to participate. 5. Self directed learners thrive online because they go at their own pace/schedule. 6. Online courses can be taken anywhere at any time.
Marisa 1. Students can get disengaged with the learning materials if their learning preferences aren't being met, or if they are missing key concepts. This can usually be seen while doing assessment. 2. Bandwidth and internet speeds and accessibility is an ongoing issue. 3. The lack of an instructor present in online asynchronous classes means less off the cuff questions and "aha" moments. 4. Students have varying levels of technical skills and can get hung up in learning how to post and meeting student participation expectations. 1. Many librarians haven't taught online and don't have access to instrucitonal design specialists to help with curriculum development. 2. Bandwidth goes both ways - problem for us too. 3. IT issues and technical difficulties may arise derailing your original instructional plan.
Larissa Before moving onto the next slide, ask the class: So why are tutorials useful for library instruction?
Larissa
Larissa
Larissa Ask the class: where would you want to make the tutorials available? Web site, but where specifically? -database pages -Help page -on the home page? YouTube? Available in various formats? Downloadable?
Marisa Evaluating Tutorials Show each tutorial and ask the class to tell us things about each tutorial that they liked and didn't like. Write down student comments on the board to facilitate discussion.
Marisa Perhaps demo ScreenJelly since it does not require a download. AND/OR Depending on time and student interest, show tutorial on using Wink
Larissa Click on Sharing Resources to show students you don't have to reinvent the wheel.