Members' Sharing Session presentation delivered by Karen Drury at the 2009 BBSLG Conference hosted by the Irish Management Institute, 1-3 July 2009.

1. L ib r a r y
Taking the plunge:
creating a question pool
in a Blackboard VLE
Karen Drury
University of Reading Library
17 July 2009 © University of Reading 2007 w w w . r e a d in g . a c . u k / lib r a r

2. Topics
• Objectives of project
• Background to project
• How it was created
• Outcomes of the pilot project
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3. Objectives
• Create a pool of 100 questions
• Make easily available to academic staff for
adoption into their own Blackboard courses
• Save academic staff time in skills assessment
• Maintain & disseminate consistent & up-to-date
information about library resources and services
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4. Background to project
• Acquired Blackboard Academic Suite – included
content system
• Library included in pilot group given access to
content system
• CyberLibrary
• Liaison librarians creating quizzes on Blackboard
for particular modules
• Opportunity to test out the content system in a
pilot project
• University Teaching & Learning Fund bid successful
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5. Project team
• 6 Liaison Librarians
• Help from ITS, Centre for Development of Teaching &
Learning (CDoTL), Study Advisors, Academic staff
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6. Project
• Existing questions
– Identified and put in project ‘course’ on Bb
– Questions grouped by topic into pools
– Questions tagged by topic, subject and level
• New questions
– Gaps identified and extra questions added
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7. Sections of the pool
• Using the Library - borrowing, opening hours, contacts, library news,
facilities and services eg photocopying and IT
• Finding Information - finding books and journals on Unicorn, finding
subject resources including books, and getting help
• E-resources - e-journals, databases, searching techniques,
Internet searching
• Special Collections - archives and rare books
• Libraries beyond UoR - inter-library loans and using other libraries
• Study Skills - evaluating resources, referencing, plagiarism, and
copyright
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8. Sample question from E-
resources
Multiple Answer (1 point)
See the ‘Guide to searching databases’ on the Library Finding and using information webpages
for an explanation of truncation, wildcards and other tips and tricks.
Typing morphologi* into a database will find which of the following words?
 morphological
morphology
 morphologism
 morphologist
Correct Feedback Correct - but have you noted that potentially
you are cutting out an important word, ‘morphology’?
Incorrect Feedback Check exactly where you have placed the
truncation symbol
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9. Pools – finding questions
• Search
– Topic eg opening hours, Boolean
– Subject eg Geography, English
– Level eg Introductory, Advanced
• Browse
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10. Additional tasks:
• Instructions
• Glossary
• Discussion list
• Tracking
• Feedback form
• Website
www.reading.ac.uk/library/contact/info-for/staff/blackboard/lib-question-
• Link on Blackboard ‘My notices’ tab
• Staff Development Hour for Library staff
• Promotion at Teaching & Learning Conference
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11. Outcomes
• Negative • Positive
– Take up low – Stock of questions
– Technical barrier? available for use
– Awkward to update – Staff developed skills
– Demonstrated use of
content system
– Communication
between Library &
CDoTL, ITS etc
– Raised profile of Library
re. Blackboard matters
– Feedback good
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12. Further information
• Karen Drury k.e.drury@reading.ac.uk
• Helen Hathaway, Information Skills Coordinator
h.m.hathaway@reading.ac.uk
• www.reading.ac.uk/library/contact/info-for/staff/blackboard/l
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