Northern Collaboration Conference 2015 Parallel session 16: Gillian Johnston, Sara Bird &Stephen Harding, Newcastle University

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Online Information Literacy
with Percy the Penguin
Education Officers
Sara Bird
Gillian Johnston
Web Development Officer
Stephen Harding

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Overview
 The website
 Background
 Why develop digital IL resources?
 What we wanted
 The process
 Evaluation
 What next?
 Lessons learnt

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The website
http://sixthformstudyskills.ncl.ac.uk
 Libraries
 Finding resources
 Evaluating resources
 Plagiarism
 Referencing
 Having a go!
 Activities

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Example: Libraries

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Background
 We began offering Sixth Form IL sessions in 2007
 Numbers attending these sessions have increased dramatically -
from 230 students in 2007-2008 to over 1400 in 2014/2015
 The vast majority of students who attend these sessions are EPQ,
History and English students

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Background
 Our physical space is limited
 The times of year we can offer these IL sessions to sixth formers
is limited
 We manage visits using a traffic light system to ensure the needs
of all students and visitors are met
 We are at capacity

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Why develop IL resources?
 At capacity – go off-site or online
 Reach wider audience
 Requests from schools: EPQ, History, English, etc.
 Growth of EPQ
 Use some of the resources in our taught sessions
 Some overlap with first year undergraduate teaching
 Lack of online student led activities aimed specifically at sixth form
students

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What we wanted
 Focus upon transferable skills and importance of being information literate
 Light touch resources – retro comic feel
 Web pages aimed at teachers but activities for students to do
 Information Literacy journey and stand alone activities
 Variety of activities: kinaesthetic, visual, etc.
 Produce resources in collaboration with academic librarians, school librarians,
teachers, students and web designers.
 Video –Why schools were happy to be involved

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• Established there was demand for online IL resources for sixth formers
• Spoke to teachers and school librarians (main initial audience)
• Used evaluations from our teaching and outreach work
•Spoke to two local schools about their wants/needs (1 private and 1 state school; 1 teacher,
1 school librarian, 1 head of sixth form)
•Set up University Library working group (incl. academic librarians, education officers, web
designers) to develop resources
• Conducted market research with potential users (teachers and A- level students from
local schools) to ensure we got the ‘look’ of the website right
•Google Analytics
•Feedback from users- students, teachers, school librarians, users in academic libraries
• Went live April 2015
•Used some in our teaching sessions in summer term
Research
Resources
Mock up
Website
Evaluation
The process

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 Collaborative process
 Education Outreach
 Web Development
 Schools involved
 Cartoonist/illustrator
 Advice and discussions around
 Best practices for online delivery
 Accessibility considerations
 Compatibility and user experience
 Gathering analytics
Website design and development

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Design of the website
Mock up 1 Mock up 2

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Design of the website
Video: What A-level students thought about the design of the
website https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCHfWSfZ03s

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Interactive Elements
High Score Wins
Plagiarism Quiz
Videos
Drag and Drop
Teaching tools
Diamond Rank
Games
Jigsaws

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Plagiarism Quiz – Time to play…
http://sixthformstudyskills.ncl.ac.uk/plagiarism/quiz-plagarism/

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High Score Wins – Time to play…
http://sixthformstudyskills.ncl.ac.uk/evaluating-sources/high-score-wins/

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Evaluation
 Visitor Statistics – still too early to draw conclusions
 Feedback from schools:
 ‘Your website on study skills is fantastic and I would love to use your
material on plagiarism and referencing in our school planner’– School
Librarian
 Feedback from HE librarians:
 ‘I loved that game! Its great …It looks like something I could use …’-
Academic Support Librarian

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What next?
 Plans to work in collaboration with Head of Writing
Development at Newcastle University Centre in collaboration
and local schools
 Develop website further to include resources on effective note
taking and academic writing
 Video - What the students want and teachers need

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Lessons learnt
 Your project must be relevant in order to get buy-in from teachers – skills necessary for
EPQ meant schools were keen to collaborate with us.
 The look of your website is important - make sure you do your market research; it’s worth
paying for professional cartoons
 Collaboration is key - ask for help from those who have different expertise- teachers, school
librarians, academic librarians, web designers, students
 People are happy to help and offer constructive criticism
 Do not be precious – embrace the fact that online resources are going to be used and
adapted by others – but think about what sort of licence to give your material!
 Have a go!

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Questions? Contact details
 http://sixthformstudyskills.ncl.ac.uk
 sara.bird@ncl.ac.uk
 stephen.harding@ncl.ac.uk
 gillian.johnston@ncl.ac.uk