Continuously responding to students information literacy needs

1. Continuously responding to Students’
Information Literacy Needs:
Approaches by the Open University’s Live
Engagement Team
Presented by Ute Manecke

2. The Context

3. The OU’s Live Engagement Team
• Teaches information literacy skills based on the DIL
Framework
http://www.open.ac.uk/libraryservices/pages/dilframework/
• Teaching done in a variety of ways
• Always tries to think of innovative approaches to engage
with its student population

4. Subject Showcases
Rationale:
• Directing students’ attention to the library resources early
• Students can access the showcases even before they start
studying at the OU
• Part of the subject orientation
• Posted on the subject qualification sites, YouTube, and the
library website
• Making it easier for students to find material and guidance
on their subject level

5. Subject Showcases
What they are:
• Short films that the LE Team created in collaboration with
other teams
• Scenario: imaginary student asks questions how to find
resources for an assignment they have to do
• One or two librarians who introduce a few of our resources
for a particular subject
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZkNgXvhWWU

6. Subject Showcases
Being cost-efficient:
• The LE Team produced, edited and published the
showcases without hiring external help.
• Utilised already existing technology and equipment
 Camera equipment
 On-campus venue
 Camtasia for editing

7. Subject Showcases
Difficulties:
• The number of people and teams involved made managing
the process at times challenging
• LE Team underestimated the time it would take to produce
the showcases
• Training needs were identified that blocked the process
Delays to the timing of our project plan
Eventually the showcase project was put on hold

8. Subject Showcases
Scope creep versus failure to scope (2017)
Available at: https://www.amyshamilton.com/scope-creep-versus-failure-to-scope/ (Accessed 12 April 2019)

9. Subject Showcases
Where we are now:
• The entire LE Team and teams that collaborated have
been trained up in the Camtasia editing process.
• Taking stock on how many views there have been on the
different sites including the qualification sites
this will inform our decision whether to continue with them
and cover the remaining subject areas
Question we need to answer:
Are the number of views worth the time investment of all the
people involved?

10. Early Bird and Night Owl
Training Sessions
Background:
• Student persona capture the students’
 Living and working situation
 Study habits and behavior
 Tuition preferences
 Barriers to learning

11. Early Bird and Night Owl
Training Sessions
Background:
• Findings the LE Team picked up on were
 Some students study not only in the evenings but also
very late at night.
 Other students study early each morning due to work and
family commitments.
 We did not cater sufficiently to these students with the
timings of our current live sessions.

12. Early Bird and Night Owl
Training Sessions
Decision:
• Run a pilot of scheduling two generic training sessions
early in the morning and two late in the evening in
November 2018
• Session times were 6.30am and 9.00pm / 9.30pm
• Attendance figures and student feedback were closely
monitored.

13. Early Bird and Night Owl
Training Sessions
Outcome:
• Good attendance figures for the late sessions --> some
late sessions have since then been incorporated into our
training schedule and regularly run.
• Relatively low attendance figures for early sessions -->
currently suspended but will be run again at our busiest
time in autumn.
• Student feedback on running the sessions was
overwhelmingly positive.

14. Early Bird and Night Owl
Training Sessions
Student Feedback:
• ”The later time worked very well for me, I work in an
environment that is relatively secure and as such am
unable to attend the lunchtime training sessions.”
• “I liked the later time for the session as it allowed me to
do some study in the evening and dinner.”
• “Fantastic, early and fresh.”

15. Summary & Conclusions
• Both information literacy interventions were done at low
cost.
• They were based on student feedback and identified
student information literacy needs .
• We seem have increased student satisfaction / the total
number of attendees of our training, especially by
introducing the Early Bird / Night Owl sessions.
• Staff time and knowledge needs to be figured into such
initiatives carefully.
• Importance of continuing to measure the effectiveness of
the interventions.

16. Any questions?

17. 50.open.ac.uk
Thank you for listening.