Best Practices for Creating an Online Tutorial: A Literature Review
TL;DR: This article traces the creation of online library instructional tutorials, currently referred to as digital learning objects, in academic libraries and isolates the factors that improve the success of these learning tools, including knowledge of the tutorials’ purpose and potential.
Abstract: In the digital era, information literacy skills enable users to locate and use online materials effectively. One persistent library service for libraries is providing skills training to students. This article traces the creation of online library instructional tutorials, currently referred to as digital learning objects, in academic libraries. It isolates the factors that improve the success of these learning tools, including knowledge of the tutorials’ purpose and potential, collaboration with other individuals, the use of standards, student engagement, and evaluation. The literature review also illustrates the incorporation of multimedia learning theories and assessment strategies in these tutorials. By developing appropriate learning tools, librarians offer services aimed at meeting user needs while reducing time and resource demands on library staff.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe five basic elements needed to build expertise: effortful exertion to improve performance, intrinsic motivation to engage in the task, carefully tailored practice tasks that focus on areas of weakness, feedback that provides knowledge of results, and continued repetition over a number of years.
Abstract: Practice is a necessary but not sufficient condition to reach high levels of competence. Deliberate practice, which includes five basic elements, is needed to build expertise. Those elements include: 1. Effortful exertion to improve performance 2. Intrinsic motivation to engage in the task 3. Carefully tailored practice tasks that focus on areas of weakness 4. Feedback that provides knowledge of results, and 5. Continued repetition over a number of years (p. 256)
673 citations
TL;DR: How various learning management systems and tools as well as online learning objects can be used as mechanisms for creating a platform for student investment and ownership in the learning process is detailed.
Abstract: The increasingly ubiquitous nature of online learning has necessarily changed pedagogical approaches in the 21st century. This article will present an overview of the evolution of distance learning with a particular emphasis on current models and emerging methods of instruction for online learners. The authors detail how various learning management systems and tools as well as online learning objects can be used as mechanisms for creating a platform for student investment and ownership in the learning process. Additional discussion will focus on how these methods and approaches can enhance teaching, training, and peer collaboration within the library workplace.
57 citations
Cites background from "Best Practices for Creating an Onli..."
...Several authors and conference presenters have discussed best practices in creating online tutorials (Blummer & Kritskaya, 2009; Bowles-Terry, Hensley, & Hinchliffe, 2010; McLean, 2014)....
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32 citations
TL;DR: The Guide on the Side (GotS), an online learning tool developed by the University of Arizona Libraries, and a screencast tutorial for teaching information literacy and database searching skills, was evaluated.
Abstract: The intent of this study was to evaluate the Guide on the Side (GotS), an online learning tool developed by the University of Arizona Libraries, and a screencast tutorial for teaching information literacy and database searching skills. Ninety undergraduate students were randomly assigned into three groups: group 1 completed a GotS tutorial; group 2 viewed a screencast presenting identical content; and a control group. Each group completed an identical 16-item post-test. An analysis of variance revealed statistically significant differences between the control group and both treatment groups; however, there was no statistical difference between treatment groups. Limitations of the study and future research areas are also discussed.
27 citations
Cites background from "Best Practices for Creating an Onli..."
...…more closely support the best practices widely recommended for classroom instruction: ensuring that the learning taking place is active/interactive (Blummer & Kritskaya, 2009; Dewland, 1999; Mayer & Chandler, 2001; Oud, 2009); providing students with clearly stated objectives (Blummer & Kritskaya,…...
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...…active/interactive (Blummer & Kritskaya, 2009; Dewland, 1999; Mayer & Chandler, 2001; Oud, 2009); providing students with clearly stated objectives (Blummer & Kritskaya, 2009; Dewland, 1999; Oud, 2009); teaching concepts as well as procedural knowledge (Dewland, 1999; McGuigan, 2001;…...
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TL;DR: The study’s design and its results serve to contribute to discussion of best practices in information literacy pedagogy, online learning, instructional design, and the role of the librarian therein.
Abstract: This article builds on the 2007 College and Research Libraries article, “The Librarian, the Machine, or a Little of Bsoth.” Since that time, Oakland University Libraries implemented changes to its instruction program that reflect larger trends in teaching and assessment throughout the profession; following these revisions, librarians undertook a new study to assess the effectiveness of online library instruction in face-to-face courses in comparison to the hybrid model that had been in place. The study’s design and its results serve to contribute to discussion of best practices in information literacy pedagogy, online learning, instructional design, and the role of the librarian therein.
25 citations
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TL;DR: Abstract In 1999 the ACRL Board established the Task Force on Information Literacy Competency Standards and charged it to develop competency standards for higher education and seeks endorsement and promulgation of these standards from professional and accreditation associations in higher education.
Abstract: In 1999 the ACRL Board established the Task Force on Information Literacy Competency Standards and charged it to develop competency standards for higher education. ACRL seeks endorsement and promulgation of these standards from professional and accreditation associations in higher education. An Information Literacy Standards Implementation Task Force will be charged to promote the use of the standards in higher education. “Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education” was approved by the Board of Directors of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ARCL) on January 18, 2000, at the Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association in San Antonio, Texas.
2,182 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe five basic elements needed to build expertise: effortful exertion to improve performance, intrinsic motivation to engage in the task, carefully tailored practice tasks that focus on areas of weakness, feedback that provides knowledge of results, and continued repetition over a number of years.
Abstract: Practice is a necessary but not sufficient condition to reach high levels of competence. Deliberate practice, which includes five basic elements, is needed to build expertise. Those elements include: 1. Effortful exertion to improve performance 2. Intrinsic motivation to engage in the task 3. Carefully tailored practice tasks that focus on areas of weakness 4. Feedback that provides knowledge of results, and 5. Continued repetition over a number of years (p. 256)
673 citations
15 Mar 2017
TL;DR: After highlighting the accomplishments of the division, the authors discuss its current structure and key concerns.
Abstract: As the largest division of the American Library Association (ALA), the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) is a national organization of academic and research libraries and librarians. The ACRL represents librarians working with all types of academic libraries—community and junior college, college, and university—as well as comprehensive and specialized research libraries and their professional staffs. Founded in 1890 as the College Library Section, this ALA division has a long history of working toward the improvement of services in academic libraries. After highlighting the accomplishments of the division, the authors discuss its current structure and key concerns
278 citations
TL;DR: Criteria for good library instruction practices were applied to Web-based tutorials selected by the ALA Library Instruction Round Table, and can guide librarians in developing good online instruction.
201 citations
"Best Practices for Creating an Onli..." refers background in this paper
...In her study of online tutorials, Nancy Dewald (1999 , 31) concluded that the best are used in conjunction with academic classes....
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TL;DR: An online, interactive tutorial for first-year business students enrolled in Seneca College's School of Business Management to increase student knowledge of library resources in general, and business resources in particular, and to increase levels of information literacy and basic research skills is developed.
Abstract: This article reports on a collaborative effort recently undertaken between librarians and faculty at Toronto's Seneca College to develop and implement an online, interactive tutorial for first-year business students enrolled in the College's School of Business Management. The concept for this tutorial arose when library management was approached by the Acting Chair from the College's School of Business Management to partner with them in developing a library tutorial that would be incorporated into the curriculum of this newly created course, and that would accommodate its over 600 first-year students. Library management agreed, and proposed developing a self-paced online, interactive tutorial that would utilize current Web-based technology. The primary pedagogical goals were to increase student knowledge of library resources in general, and business resources in particular, and to increase levels of information literacy and basic research skills. With the help of the College's Centre for New Technology and the Centre for Professional Development, the result was a five-module tutorial entitled Library Research Success that, in addition to its main content, also incorporated hands-on exercises at the end of each module, live connections to the Library's Web site and electronic databases, as well as two assignments, which were submitted electronically to professors at the end of the tutorial by each student, and which composed 25 percent of their final mark. Feedback from both faculty and students has been overwhelmingly positive, and efforts are currently underway to adapt this tutorial to meet the needs of other student groups within Seneca College.
74 citations
"Best Practices for Creating an Onli..." refers background in this paper
...Kelly Donaldson (2000) noted that the developers of “Library Research Success” first established specific objectives that kept the project “focused” (239)....
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