Presented at LILAC 2018

1. Tackling challenges with a
challenge: a 30 day online
staff training module to
enhance library support
for research-related
information literacy skills
Angela Young
Head of Library Skills
angela.young@ucl.ac.uk
5 APRIL, 2018
UCL LIBRARY SERVICES

2. UCL Library Services
Biomedical and Health
Information Summer School
Examples of previous training offered:
• Literature searching skills
• New library resources
• Training the trainer: reference
management software
• Communications using social media
• Mobile apps

3. New and expanding areas in
research support
• Open Access requirements for REF2021
• Use of Research Publications Service
• ORCID
• Research Data Management
• Bibliometrics
• Support for systematic reviews
• Critical appraisal skills training

4. Challenge 1: breadth of content
• Open Access requirements for REF2021
• Use of Research Publications Service
• ORCID
• Research Data Management
• Bibliometrics
• Support for systematic reviews
• Critical appraisal skills training

5. Challenge 2:
Reaching the relevant staff
• 18 UCL libraries
• 11 medical or health
• 8 joint UCL / NHS
• 300+ staff
• Extensive opening hours
• Varying staff working patterns

6. Challenge 3: Engagement
• 2011 - 11½ Things: Web 2.0 for research
and clinical practice
• 2012 – 11½ More Things: Web 2.0 for
collaboration
• 2013 – 11½ Biomedical Mobile Things
• 2014 - 11½ Literature Searching Things
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
2011 (14.2%) 2012 (0%) 2013 (0%) 2014 (0%)
Numberoflibrarystaff
Year
Number of library staff registering and
completing online training
Registered Completed

7. Lessons learned from 11½ Things
• Activities were too time consuming
• Unrealistic to expect people to
complete 2 of these activities every
week for 6 weeks
• Do not rely on results of activities to be
shared in real time
• People who took holiday couldn’t
catch up
• Lack of incentives

8. 30 day exercise challenges
• Only a short time each day
• Clear and straightforward
• Same type of activity every day
• If I missed a day I would catch up on a
designated rest day

9. 30 day online maths challenge
• Video, practice and test
(approx. 10 minutes)
• Gamification of learning
• Intermediary awards – digital badge
• Final prize - medal
Vorderman, C. (2015). TheMathsFactor: Carol Vorderman's 30 Day Maths Challenge. Pearson Education.
https://www.themathsfactor.com/the-30-day-challenge/.

10. 30 Day Research Support
Challenge
• Each day: video and quiz in Moodle
• 30 working days (6 weeks)
• Needed to complete all 30 days within the
6 week period
• Intermediary awards – digital badge
• Final prize – name engraved on virtual cup
• Promotion – are you up for a challenge?

11. Engagement
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
2011 (14.2%) 2012 (0%) 2013 (0%) 2014 (0%) 2016 (31%)
Numberofibrarystaff
Year
Number of library staff registering and
completing online training
Registered Completed
• 29 people registered
• 9 completed within 30 days = 31%
• 13 completed within 42 days = 45%
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415161718192021222324252627282930
%completing
Day
% of respondents completing each day of the
challenge

12. Engagement
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Number of people viewing videos
Within original 30 days Total no. of people viewing video

13. Evaluation – quiz performance • Consistently high quiz scores
• Averages range from 82% to 97%
70
75
80
85
90
95
100
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Averagequizscore(%)
Day
Average quiz scores

14. Evaluation – Participant feedback
Useful and interesting Enjoyable and engaging For some, time was an issue
The 30 Day Research Support
Challenge is very useful and I have
learnt a lot from the course.
I do intend to get through it all as
there is some useful info on the
course, so hopefully it will be there
for awhile
I will return to the videos and
exercises when time allows. It is an
excellent resource, thank you. I
will encourage my term-time
colleagues to view them.
It was interesting and informative.
Many thanks for spending time to
set up the 30 days challenge. It
was a great way to engage us on
the subjects that we support
researchers in UCL.
I’ve really been enjoying the 30
day challenge on Moodle
It is a good way to refresh my
knowledge and learn some
important lessons.
I am enjoying the challenge
I am very much interested in the
30 Day Research Support
Challenge and I am learning a lot
from it
I am thrilled to say I have
completed today's task and
achieved the highest possible
score in the quiz.

15. Innovation award
• 3rd prize goes to Angela Young of Royal Free London NHS
Foundation Trust for the “30 Day Research Support
Challenge”.
Maria Grant commented: “Angela’s project draws on the current
trends of fitness challenges and gamification to support library
staff development in enhancing knowledge and understanding
of research needs of clinical and academic library users. She
highlights the continued availability of resources beyond the
initial 30 days of training module and presents learning points
for future developments.”
See http://www.libraryservices.nhs.uk/forlibrarystaff/lqaf/innovations.html

16. Future development
• Mini 30 day challenge for UCL Library
Services Summer School 2018
• Sharing with other institutions?
• Use as a model for online learning for
users?

17. Questions?
Angela Young angela.young@ucl.ac.uk