Travers Mitchell & Johnson - Online information literacy: creative in-house collaborations

LILAC 2012 Info skills @ UELElla MitchellCatherine JohnsonKelly Travers 12th April 2012

www.uel.ac.uk/infoskills

Workshop plan:

• Background to Info skills project • Demonstration of Info skills• Group discussion exercise• Feedback and Q&A

www.uel.ac.uk/infoskills

Info skills….Info skills is an award winning online resource which guides undergraduates through researching their first assignment, with emphasis on identifying, finding and evaluating information and referencing

The origins:

• At UEL a resource developed by Employability Unit: ‘Get that Job’

• Established a precedent• Brand• Open

Why the Library felt a need for the resource:

• What we had was good but difficult to find• Wanted highlight key information for students

tackling their first assignment in an easy to navigate structure

• A resource to suit different learning needs of our students and students that are not always on campus

• We wanted a refresher for students• Available 24/7 to match many of our services

and to meet students’ expectations• A resource that was not too dictatorial: to suit

our ‘strategic learners’

Why this approach?• Focus on level one learners due to cost and time

restrictions• Information skills and academic integrity the

priority• Making information skills relevant to the student /

assignment-focussed• Students sometimes respond better to their fellow

students• Professional-looking resource • Student choice about where, when and how they

access help and support: “dark recesses of their bedroom”

www.uel.ac.uk/infoskills

What we had already

• UEL Library webpages• Information on the VLE• A lot of great information….. But not a

very clear layout and needed navigation guidance

www.uel.ac.uk/infoskills

What we liked out there

• Staffordshire Assignment Survival Kit• Cardiff Information Literacy Resource Bank• Leeds Skills@Library• OU Safari

There are many other examples of good practice in this area.

www.uel.ac.uk/infoskills

What we produced

www.uel.ac.uk/infoskills

How we did it• Getting funding• Setting up project team• Consultations• High level design• Content map• Prototype• Detailed design • Content collection from SMEs• Intensive development

– web design – video production – guides – demonstrations – quizzes -writing pages

• Uploading content• Summative evaluations• Final version and launch• Copyright• Marketing

www.uel.ac.uk/infoskills

High level design approach• Dedicated learning resource• Open • Clear structure• Transparent navigation• Bite-size – text-lite, granular resources• Variety of types of resources• Content can be used in different ways• Assignment context – the ‘why’• Student videos – peer advice and experience• Professional web design

Creative commons• This is an Open Access Educational

Resource. • Videos on Youtube: can link to, embed

etc. • PDFs downloadable • It is openly available on the internet.

=Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ [accessed 30th March]

Benefits of collaboration:• The Library team worked very closely with the

UEL connect team: proved a productive partnership

• Technical abilities/project management skills • Library team content • Project team; small, met regularly and enabled

decision making• Outside perspective- helped the library team to

focus on key aspects of information skills• Collaborations with academic staff and students

allowed for different voices and perspectives

What do users think?• “Found Info skills very useful – great idea to put it all together” D. Patel

UEL student

• “It makes me feel like you care about my education” UEL Student

• “I have had another look at your Info skills pages and they are very impressive” K. Virdee, Academic Liaison Librarian

• “p.s. I only discovered the eBook thanks to the InfoSkills website -very useful!” An e-mail from a student support officer, at one of our collaborative partnership institutions.

• ‘UEL’s new information literacy site looks good. Does what it says onthe tin.’ Tweet

• “Some of the questions on plagiarism [quiz] for example really got the students talking and debating - particularly self-plagiarism” Module leader for VT1013 Study Skills

• Library staff have been using the site and there has been some good feedback from students in information skills sessions. Lecturers have also been using the site and noting the resource in course materials.

www.uel.ac.uk/infoskills

What do users think:

Source: Usage statistics from Google analytics collated by UEL LLS

Impact:

• The usage figures seem to be consistently high with peak around assignment time.

• Info skills has been integrated by many of the skills module leaders at UEL.

• Business, Health and Bioscience, Psychology, Arts and Digital Industries and Architecture, Computing and Engineering all use Info skills in the level one skills module.

Looking to the future: • The site has been running since Sept 2011 • The usage statistics are strong, however need

continued marketing to promote use. • Develop more multimedia content- currently the

subject team are working to produce quizzes • Continuing collaboration with UEL Connect • Conduct further evaluation- possibly looking into

the wider use of Info skills- more focused on academics use

• Study skills branding at UEL: next project Write it right….

www.uel.ac.uk/infoskills

Demo:

• Catherine Johnson is now going to demonstrate our Info skills site to you:www.uel.ac.uk/infoskills

QuestionsPlease post your feedback here: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/uelinfoskills

1. Audit the online information literacy provision you already have/use at your institution.

2. Looking at Info Skills (http://www.uel.ac.uk/infoskills ), what aspects, if any, would you consider using or adapting?

3. What other aspects of information literacy could benefit from online provision?

4. Can this type of online information literacy tool ever be replacement for the traditional face-to-face subject librarian support/teaching?

www.uel.ac.uk/infoskills

Info skills @ UELThank you!Ella Mitchell: e.mitchell@uel.ac.ukCatherine Johnson: c.johnson@uel.ac.ukKelly Travers: k.s.travers@uel.ac.uk

www.uel.ac.uk/infoskills