Welsh Assessment Project 2007
HEA Welsh Institutional Group
First Year Experience Initiatives
Title of initiative:Library training sessions via Elluminate
Contact Name: Helen Clough
Email:
Phone: 01908 858469
Institution: The Open University
Address: The Open University Library, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
Theme: Student Engagement
Key Words:
Elluminate, Library, online training
Was the initiative introduced: across the institution
Aim:
To provide an alternative to the face-to-face library induction and training that you would get if you were a student or member of staff at a ‘traditional’ campus-based university.
Description/approach:
Library Services offers a programme of synchronous online training sessions to all OU staff and students using the web-conferencing tool Elluminate Live!
This programme started in November 2008 and currently consists of the following sessions:
- Student Introduction to Library Services,
- Associate Lecturer Introduction to Library Services,
- How to find an eJournal,
- How to set up eJournal alerts
- How to social bookmark,
- How to find information in Languages
- How to find information in Business and Management.
More sessions are being developed and integrated in to the programme
Since November, 2008 18 sessions have been offered and 109 students and 8 staff have attended. Of the student attendees, 40% are on 1st level courses and over a quarter are new to studying with the Open University.
Anticipated outcomes:
Students and staff willlearn about the resources that we offer via the online library and they will feel more confident using the resources in their studies/course writing/research/teaching.
They will discover the broad range of services that we offer, particularly the SCONUL Access scheme which enables OU students to access other university libraries and borrow books for free. Students and staff also find out about the help and support available to them throughthe Library Helpdesk.
Evidence of actual outcomes:
91% of student attendees answered ‘Definitely’ to the question ‘Would you recommend this event to a colleague?’
Here are some examples of qualitative feedbackfrom students:
These tutorials are such an excellent idea - really helpful.
I just wanted to thank you for conducting this online session. I really enjoyed it and I look forward to participating in future sessions. I now have a better appreciation of the differences between ejournals and databases and how the information is relayed.
Thank you for the OU library tutorial – I wished it had come sooner as it would have avoided so many frustrating hours spent.
A clear, concise and friendly delivery ensured that all objectives were achieved and the participants were well motivated to further investigate OU online library services.
Really important this. All OU students need to get using the Library resources, which are fabulous but I didn't really know how to access them before.
This has been very useful - quicker and more interesting than just reading through the guides.
This should be mandatory training for all new students
I found the session very useful and well worth the hour. Also useful was Steve's showing us how to apply for library access at local university libraries.
Comment in course forum: "I took a library course yesterday and it was really helpful. You can sign up at the library it is free and it is online I really recommend this it only takes 1 1/2 hours of your time"
We will also be sending out follow-up evaluation forms soon. These forms ask participants to rate the possible impact of the training session and indicate whether they have used any of the resources or services that were mentioned.
Reflection/impact:include reference to environmental factors such as empowerment, autonomy, approach to innovation which proved influential
Our time-poor students may not be aware that they have access to an excellent online library because many are not required to engage with it in their courses. These training sessions, as well as raising awareness, also give students the confidence and skills to use online library resources for themselves.