Online Information Competence Tutorials: Influencing Change in Traditional Library Classrooms

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Online Information Competence Tutorials
Influencing Change in Traditional Library
Classrooms

• Pamela JacksonSan José State University Library
• MERLOT International ConferenceAugust 3 - 6,
  2004Costa Mesa, CA

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Abstract

• Online library tutorials allow students to learn
  important information competence skills at their
  own pace outside of traditional class time.
  Online tutorials provide a common foundation
  among students, and allow librarians to make
  effective use of classroom time with students
  during what is usually a one-hour, one-shot
  library instruction session.

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Benefits of Online Library Tutorials

• Students learn information competence skills at
  their own pace, outside of physical classrooms
  and traditional class time.
• Students gain a common foundation of knowledge
  before the in-person library instruction session.
• Librarians can make more of the one-hour,
  one-shot in-person library instruction session.

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Concepts Taught via Information Competence
Tutorials

• General orientation to the librarys physical and
  online environments
• Defining a research topic selecting search terms
• Selecting, searching for and evaluating
  information
• Identifying popular and scholarly literature
• Understanding and recognizing primary research
• Plagiarism

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Measuring Student Learning

• Pre-tests measure student knowledge before taking
  the tutorial.
• Quizzes at the end of each module or tutorial
  test students knowledge after completing the
  tutorial.
• Quiz data can be used to make the most of the
  in-person library instruction session.

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Quizzes and Queries

• Students register to take a tutorial.
• Quiz scores are automatically emailed to the
  student upon completion.
• Results are stored in a local database.
• Queries allow us to see quiz scores by class,
  student, semester (includes class averages and
  scores by question).

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Query Generator
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SJSU Tutorial Examples

• Library Basics This general orientation to
  library collections and services reduces the
  amount of in-person teaching time spent on the
  basics.
• Plagiarism Teaches students about plagiarism,
  paraphrasing and citing sources.
• InfoPower Teaches students to select, search
  for, and evaluate information.
• Stairway to Success Marketed to admitted SJSU
  students, this tutorial teaches students to
  select, search for, and evaluate information.
• Health 100w Created for the Health Sciences
  majors, this tutorial teaches students how to
  identify primary research and to search for
  information in their field. More major-specific
  tutorials are underway in business, engineering,
  math, and computer science.
• Teen Tutorial In consultation with local area
  teens and teachers, academic and public
  librarians are collaborating to create a teen
  information competence tutorial.

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The Creation Process Plagiarism The Crime of
Intellectual Kidnapping
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Idea Sparked via Collaboration with Classroom
Faculty

• "Last spring, in order to address the issue of
  plagiarism, we submitted course assignments to
  turnitin.com and were astounded to discover that
  between sixty-three to seventy-five percent of
  our students plagiarized. This tutorial has
  contributed significantly to help meet the
  formidable challenge of plagiarism."
• --Debra Caires-Mullens and June Sheldon
• Computer Science Instructors

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Librarys Role in Plagiarism InstructionWhy
should the library teach students about
plagiarism?

• Demonstrates the librarys commitment to
  important campus issues.
• Campus communities frequently look to librarians
  to provide this instruction.
• ACRLs Information Literacy Competency Standards
  for Higher Education call for student
  demonstration in the legal and ethical use of
  information.

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Tutorial Highlights

• Pre-Test and Graded Quiz
• Plagiarism Definitions and Examples
• Academic Dishonesty Policies
• Plagiarism Detection Services
• Paraphrasing
• Importance of Citing Sources
• Citation Styles

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Five Person Team

• One Librarian responsible for overall direction
  of the tutorial, and creating the content and
  quiz.
• One Information Literacy Competence Specialist
  responsible for oversight of the programming and
  graphics team collaborates with librarian on
  overall direction.
• One Programmer responsible for HTML, PHP, and
  back-end quiz databases and queries.
• Two Graphic Artists/Designers responsible for the
  artwork, Flash animations, and overall look of
  the tutorial.

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TimelineTutorial not part of Librarians regular
workload (i.e. no release or assigned time)

• June 2002 Idea sparked through a conversation
  between classroom faculty and the Librarian.
• Fall 2002 Librarian began researching available
  online plagiarism resources. While there were
  many valuable websites, we did not find tutorials
  that measure student learning.
• Spring 2003 Librarian began writing the content
  and creating the quiz.
• Late Spring 2003/Summer 2003 Content and quiz
  completed. Programmer and Graphic Artists begin
  illustrating, and creating the back-end quiz
  database and registration page.

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• Late Summer 2003 Tutorial is tested in various
  web browsers for glitches and ADA compliance.
• Fall 2003 Tutorial is launched one week before
  the fall semester begins.
• Late Fall 2003 Graphic Artist begins work on an
  animated Flash version.
• Spring 2004 Librarian begins writing a new quiz
  that better adheres to test writing standards.
  Team decides to make the tutorial available as a
  free download via an Open Publication License as
  soon as the Flash version and new quizzes are
  completed and tested.
• Summer 2004 Animated Flash version is launched.
  New quiz is written (yet to be launched). The
  tutorial is almost ready for Open Publication
  release.

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Contribution to Student Learning

• Library is able to provide classroom faculty with
  data about their students knowledge.
• Librarians can use data to guide what they teach
  during their in-person instruction session.
• First year of quiz results show that students
  have difficulty with paraphrasing.
• Quiz rewritten to give students more practice
  paraphrasing.

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Open Publication

• Positive response and requests to use the
  tutorial from high schools thru research
  universities in Canada and the U.S.
• In an attempt to set a standard, Open Publication
  License is based on other libraries OPL for
  tutorials (TILT and NetTrail).
• Programmer and Web Team are deciding what files
  and formats to make available for download.
• Programmer is creating a brief registration page
  to collect data on who downloads our tutorial.

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Link to SJSU Tutorialshttp//tutorials.sjlibrary
.org/