Online Information Competence Tutorials: Influencing Change in Traditional Library Classrooms

1. Online Information Competence Tutorials: Influencing Change in Traditional Library Classrooms Pamela JacksonSan José State University Library MERLOT International ConferenceAugust 3 - 6, 2004Costa Mesa, CA

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Concepts Taught via Information Competence Tutorials • General orientation to the library’s 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

5. 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.

6. 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).

7. Query Generator

8. 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.

14. The Creation Process: Plagiarism: The Crime of Intellectual Kidnapping

15. 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

16. Library’s Role in Plagiarism InstructionWhy should the library teach students about plagiarism? • Demonstrates the library’s commitment to important campus issues. • Campus communities frequently look to librarians to provide this instruction. • ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education call for student demonstration in the legal and ethical use of information.

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

18. 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.

19. TimelineTutorial not part of Librarian’s 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.

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. Link to SJSU Tutorials:http://tutorials.sjlibrary.org/