Instruction in a Virtual Environment

Abstract

In 2002, librarians at the Utah State University (USU) Libraries were awarded a grant to develop online tutorials. The major design challenge was to create tutorials specific to USU resources and students, including distance learners, while also making them flexible so that other Utah colleges and universities can adapt them for their own needs. The tutorials also needed to address the information behavior of a new generation of students accustomed to using computers and the Internet. While recent studies have begun to address some gaps in our knowledge of the information behavior of the Web Generation, we conducted a needs assessment to help us create a tutorial that more accurately addresses the existing knowledge and behavior of undergraduates at USU. We used multiple methods to determine the learning needs of our audience and to provide guidance for the design process.     

Using Online Tutorials to Reduce Uncertainty in Information Seeking Behavior

ABSTRACT

Uncertainty is defined as affective symptoms of stress, anxiety, and frustration when faced with an information need. Traditional face-to-face instruction allows sender and receiver to fulfill information needs using multiple sources, which can be visual, auditory, tactile, or verbal. Distance learners may experience high levels of uncertainty when most or all of the communication and interaction takes place in an electronic environment that does not allow for these multiple information sources. Research on face-to-face communication and uncertainty suggests that people attempt to reduce uncertainty by acquiring more information and also by using structured or familiar information resources. This paper suggests that many of our behavioral motivations in face-to-face activities would also apply in the online environment. By creating online tutorials that combine structured hierarchical instructions with familiar modes of communication, we may be able to reduce symptoms of uncertainty in the library search process.     

Development of Targeted Online Modules for Recurring Reference Questions

When students are given assignments with specific information needs, they may turn to the library for help. The UNC Health Sciences Library developed three short online modules to teach first-year pharmacy students how to find early/animal studies, mechanism of action information, and specific study types in an effort to lessen demand on the reference desk. The modules filled two goals: to free up time that had been spent on three common low-level questions and to provide a pedagogically sound online tool to teach students how to find answers to these three questions. The modules were created using Adobe Captivate. Developing and promoting the modules took three hours of the pharmacy librarian's time compared with nearly 23 hours spent answering individual questions via e-mail, in consultations, and at the reference desk before the modules were introduced. After introducing the modules, only one student asked for help from the library compared to more than 60 who viewed the online modules at least once.     

Literature Searching in Medical Education: Online Tutorial Development from Idea to Creation

The medical education literature is growing, and the result is not only greater knowledge, but an increasing complexity in locating quality evidence-based information. In 2008, eight librarians partnered with the Association of American Medical Colleges to research, conceptualize, and build an online module to develop medical educators’ search skills. Developing an online instructional module is a time-consuming, multi-stage process requiring the expertise of content, technical, and design specialists working in concert. Many lessons were learned, including the power of collaborative tools; the benefits of including specialists, such as graphic designers; the benefit of thoroughly surveying existing resources; and the importance of choosing technology wisely.     

Best Practices for Creating an Online Tutorial: A Literature Review

In the digital era, information literacy skills enable users to locate and use online materials effectively. One persistent library service for libraries is providing skills training to students. This article traces the creation of online library instructional tutorials, currently referred to as digital learning objects, in academic libraries. It isolates the factors that improve the success of these learning tools, including knowledge of the tutorials’ purpose and potential, collaboration with other individuals, the use of standards, student engagement, and evaluation. The literature review also illustrates the incorporation of multimedia learning theories and assessment strategies in these tutorials. By developing appropriate learning tools, librarians offer services aimed at meeting user needs while reducing time and resource demands on library staff.     

LibGuides and Web-Based Library Guides in Comparison: Is There a Pedagogical Advantage?

This study investigates whether the platform used to deliver a tutorial matters in online information literacy instruction and assesses the overall quality of an information literacy tutorial assignment given to an undergraduate survey class. The study asks whether there is any pedagogical advantage between information literacy tutorials created in the LibGuides library guide creation software and tutorials created as Web pages. This research question is relevant to current studies of online information literacy tutorials, particularly given the increasingly dominant but under-researched position of LibGuides in the academic library world for delivering guides and tutorials. Two separate groups of students completed LibGuides and Web page versions of the same information literacy tutorial assignment in a university undergraduate communication course. Survey results of these 89 students indicated that both the LibGuides and Web page platforms deliver online instruction content effectively and achieve learning objectives almost equally well. Results also indicated content areas within the assignment that could be strengthened.     

开放教育面授课到课率影响因素实证分析

面授辅导是开放教育的教学组织形式之一,是教师传授知识和辅导答疑的主渠道之一,也是全面提高教育教学质量的关键。面授辅导课中的学生到课率在某种意义上反映了学生学习积极性、自觉性,也是学风的重要标志之一。本研究试图通过对广州电大2007-2008年度三个学期开设课程到课率数据的整理分析,查找开放教育面授辅导课到课率的影响因素,从而为提高开放教育教学管理效率、增加面授辅导课的有效性、促进学生的学习提供理论支持。     

Global News VILLAGE: A case study explication of targeted tutorial development

The Global News VILLAGE (Virtual Information Literacy Learning and Growing Environment) is an online tutorial developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to help undergraduates learn how to use the library to find current information about global events and issues. Supporting the interdisciplinary Global Studies curriculum, the tutorial invites the learner to think critically about the products and practices of journalism. Through an introduction to concepts central to media literacy and information literacy, learners are provided with frameworks for understanding some of the political and economic factors that shape the news and are guided through the process of dissecting news stories to understand the perspective from which the stories frame events and issues.     

证券投资分析课程教学设计探讨

证券投资分析课程作为远程开放教育金融学本科专业的选修课,经过几年的试点探索,在学校构建“123”教学模式的推动下,在以学生为中心的教学设计、与教学目标紧密结合的考核设计上进行一些初步探索,提高了学生的分析问题和解决问题的能力,取得了一定的效果。