Presented at LILAC 2008

1. How practical can you get?
A simple way to create an
information literacy tutorial
Jacqui Weetman DaCosta

2. Some practical information
From August 2006
(as DaCosta)
• Information Literacy
Librarian at The College
of New Jersey
– Small, highly selective
(4 year) state-funded
college
From 1999-2006
(as Weetman)
• Academic Team Manager
at De Montfort
University, Leicester

3. How practical will this be?
• Evaluation of existing IL
tutorial
• Review of tutorials
currently ‘on the market’
• Development stages of
new IL tutorial
– Working with students
• Hands-on

4. i-LION Tutorial
• Adapted from TILT (Texas Information
Literacy Tutorial)
http://tilt.lib.utsystem.edu/
• Serves as course material for IDS 102
– Mandatory online course for all new
students since Fall 2004
– Six modules, each with a quiz
– Need to pass course in order to graduate
– Replaced first year induction
• Available for anyone to access from
web pages http://www.tcnj.edu/~ilion/

5. Evaluation of i-LION
• Student surveys
– April 2007 (2 cohorts)
• Sent to 1859 students
• Response rate – 16%
– November 2007
• Sent to 1478 students
• Response rate – 35.5%
• Analysis of content
usage
– SOCS (TCNJ course
management software)

6. Student surveys
Strongly agree and
Agree responses
April 2007 November
2007
The tutorial was
easy to understand
71.8% 73.3%
I acquired valuable
skills & knowledge
47.7% 59.4%
I liked the fact
that the course was
all online
86.3% 91.7%

7. Some student comments
April
“It was a pain and I put it off, but
after I did it, I was glad I did
it.”
“I liked how I could take my time
and go at my desired pace to
complete the iLion courses.”
“I, as well as every other freshman
I know, paid the one nerdy kid
that actually did it for the
answers.”
November
“I was very glad that the course
was offered online. I wish there
were more online courses.”
“Possibly break down the tutorials
further in more manageable
sections. So, instead of taking
45 min to complete a section,
break it up into smaller 20 min
sections.”
“Eventually the course turns into a
game of Mastermind, where you
just try combination after
combination, too lazy to read
through the actual lessons.”

8. The sad reality
• There is no way to ensure
that students actually
complete the
assessments themselves
• Many students are going
straight to the
assessments and ignoring
the course content
– Limiting number of
attempts (Spring 2008)

9. The sad facts
Usage by
semester
%
Fall 2006 51
Spring 2007 39
Fall 2007 51
Usage by
student category
%
Freshmen 53
Transfers 62
Repeaters 24

10. On the prowl for a new beast
New tutorial – wish list:
• Shorter modules with
fewer words
• Be more engaging
• More formative
assessment
• Cater to different
learning styles
• Easy to customise, for a
techno-thicko!
– Open Publication License

11. Viewing the field
• Reviewed the PRIMO
database of instructional
materials (over 170 items)
http://www.ala.org/apps/primo/public/search.cfm
• Attended conference sessions
• Reviewed relevant discussion
lists, e.g. ili-l
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrlbucket/is/ilil.cfm

12. And the winner is!
LINKS
• TILT Searchpath LINKS→ →
• From Lansing Community
College (Michigan)
http://www.lcc.edu/library/library-instruction/links/index.ht

13. LINKS Tutorial
Choosing Sources
Creating a Search Strategy
Using the Library Catalog
Finding Articles in Research
Databases
Using the Web
Citing Sources

14. From i-lion to LINKS
• Software downloaded to
TCNJ test server
– Links made to OPAC and
EBSCOhost Academic Search
Premier
• Basic alterations made
using Adobe Contribute
(web editing software for
non-programmers)
• Link with SOCS for formal
assessment

15. Working with students
• Awarded an I.T. mini-
grant
– 60 hours of student
design assistance
• Customisation and
interactivity
– Payment for performance
testing
• Navigation – Presentation –
Interactivity – Content
• Use of a wiki

16. Content considerations
• Spelling, e.g.
catalog/catalogue
• Terminology, e.g. call numbers
• American examples, e.g.
journals
• Library system – Module 3
took longest
• Classification scheme –
Library of Congress

17. The launch and beyond
• Plan to launch in August
2008
– Pre-launch with academics
• Will do more student
surveys and compare
results
• Planning other specific
tutorials

18. Time’s up
• Questions?
• Hands-on