Describes the process of creating a five-module online tutorial to teach undergraduates the skills of information literacy. By librarians at Bowman Library, Menlo College in Atherton, California.

1. The Story
of the
Research
Skills Tutorial
Bowman Library
Menlo College

2. Beginnings

3. A bit of history
 Library skills tutorial became General Education
requirement for 2005-2006 academic year
 Old TILT-based tutorial called

4. Big Picture Goals for Tutorial:
 Apply to life and job skills as well as academic – making students
know they will use these skills after college
 Describe the kinds of information, how each is used and packaged,
and authority of producer ; the academic publishing and research
process
 Explain the student’s role in research process

5. Goals of our tutorial:
 Incorporate tools and services of library web site; provide visual
recognition
 Explain subscription resources & their availability at public libraries
after graduation
 Act as a foundation for information literacy skills with mini-modules
on specific topics that could be revisited
 Assess student skills with varying levels of difficulty for quizzes
 Be relatively easy to update later on

6. User-oriented Goals:
 Be engaging to Menlo students/not cutesy
 photos include Menlo students, faculty, assignments, & places
 focus on business & psychology
 Use timely examples that differ from module to module
 Be easy to use
 Provide definitions of library lingo
 Provide estimated time to complete modules
 Provide a place for feedback

7. Reviewing existing tutorials
Google Docs Survey

8. Reviewing existing tutorials

9. Surveying Bowman Librarians
Sample Questions
Sample Answers

10. Creating content
 From outline to
PowerPoint

11. High level tutorial content

12. High level theme concepts

13. Module creation
 Text,
images,
division of
labor

14. Recurring content
 Interactive opportunities for
practicing of skills
 Try it! (Concept check - not
graded)
 Where you, the student, fit in

15. Borrowed content
 Scholarly/popular sources
interactive segment (mod.1)
 CRAAP criteria for evaluating
websites (mod. 4)

16. Quizzes
 Read literature and
education sites for
suggestions on quiz
writing
 Quiz taking becomes
learning experience for
student because the quiz
responds back to student
and offers ability to retry
questions

17. Videos
 Writing scripts
 Finding/creating images
 Technology trial & error & training
 Tools
 Powerpoint
 Camtasia (video & audio production)
 Jing (screenshots & web-friendly, fast-
loading images)
 Smartphone camera (instant uploads)
 Techsmith.com (primary video hosting) &
YouTube

18. Production
 Worked remotely with Sarah via shared files on a server to which
she had access
 Design and coding
 Collaborative feedback via e-mail

19. Usability testing
 Tested with 3 freshmen
 Script, observation
 What we changed
 Less text per slide
 Added slide numbering, you-are-here navigation
 Quiz revisions

20. Timeline
Summer 2011 -- brainstormed; looked at other tutorials
Fall 2011-Spring 2012 -- refined content; online course in
producing tutorials; design concepts
Summer 2012 -- recorded videos; more content
refinement; design; production of site
Fall 2012 -- usability testing; minor refinement
January 2013 -- rolled out finished tutorial

21. Post-Production
 Assessment
 Test results file
 Freshman completion rate at 89.4%
 What we might do differently
 Length
 Less elaborate, shorter videos
 Repurposing an existing tutorial
 Current technology changes?

22. Contact info
 Sarah Clatterbuck (sarah at secadvertising.com)
 Linda K. Smith (lsmith at menlo.edu)
 Lisa Velarde (lvelarde at ccsf.edu)