Identifying Evaluating Standards for Online Information Literacy Tutorials

(OILTs): A Review of Existing OILTs Evaluation Studies

Hang DongPresented in 3th September 2013

Summer School, University of Sheffield

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

What is Information Literacy?

Information literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to "recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information." (American Library Association, 1989)

“knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner.” (CILIP, 2012).

Information Literacy abilities (ALA) Determine the extent of information needed Access the needed information effectively and efficiently Evaluate information and its sources critically Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge

base Use information effectively to accomplish a specific

purpose Understand the economic, legal, and social issues

surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally

Information literacy is “more than just the ability to acquire a set of skills or an understanding of their application or execution”. Information Literacy is a “complex and dynamic practice that is driven by context”. (Lloyd, 2010 : 24-28)

Information literacy appears various in different context,

Educational-----------------------------------textual, computer literacy

Workplace------------------------------------textual, computer literacy

Visual, such as art or media studies------visual literacy

Oral practice in society---------------------oral information literacy

What are Online Information Literacy Tutorials(OILTs)?

OILTs, Online Information Literacy Tutorials:

Information literacy tutorials offered via Internet, also called web-based information literacy tutorials. It has been very popular since the last several years of

20C. OILTs have a clear positive impact on students’

academic skills. (McClure et al., 2011; Donaldson, 2001; Bury and Oud, 2005)

OILTs are at least as effective as face-to-face or in-person information literacy instructions.(Orme, 2004; Silver & Nickel, 2005; McClure et al., 2011)

Example:University of Sheffield Library Website

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research question and method

How do people evaluate these OILTs in academic libraries?

Is there a standard for all OILTs evaluation?

Method: Documentary analysis

Existing research about OILTs (1)Reference Research Topic OILT name Period of

Research

Evaluation

Method

McClure et

al., 2011

OILT and student

writing

The Search

for the Skunk

Ape

Fall 2009-Spring

2010

citation, textual

analysis of

students’ work

Yelinek et

al., 2010

LibGuides in an

OILT

General

Library

Research

Tutorial

August 2009 Not a rigorous

study

Bowles-Terry

et al., 2010

Best practices for

online video

tutorials

The University

of Illinois OILT

Before December

2010

Usability

testing

Bury and

Oud, 2005

Usability testing

of an OILT

Wilfrid Laurier

University

Library OILT

Before January

2005

Usability

testing

Existing research about OILTs (2)

Reference Research

Topic

OILT name Period of

Research

Evaluation

Method

Noe and

Bishop, 2005

OILT

assessment

Auburn

University

Library’s Tiger IL

Tutorial (TILT)

Summer

2002-Fall

2003

IL pre-test and

post-test and

students'

perception

survey

Orme, 2004 OILT and

Information-

Seeking Ability

Texas

Information

Literacy Tutorial

Fall 2001-

Before May

2004

IL survey and

comparison

between 4

instructions

Donaldson,

2000

OILT design Library Research

Success

Before

Winter

2000

Students'

perception

survey

Documentary Analysis

(1) From selected papers, all of the studies concern an individual OILT designed by an academic library.

(2) The usability testing and pre/post-test comparison are the most common methods for OILTs evaluation.

(3) Each research summarises a set of standards for an individual OILT or a type of OILTs.

(4) It is reasonable and important to categorise these OILTs in different ways, before forming a comprehensive standard.

Categorises of OILTs

1 Modular tutorials and non-modular tutorials

Initial

purpose

Content Length Others

Modula

r

tutorial

s

designed for

class

instructions

Both theoretical and

practical knowledge

supposed

to be about

20-30 min

Interactive

elements

and a script

Non-

modula

r

tutorial

s

not designed

for class

instructions

Clearly emphasised on

practical knowledge, and

de-emphasised on

theoretical knowledge

Sometimes

much

shorter

 

Texas Information Literacy Tutorial (TILT), integrated “into first-year college courses” (Kasowitz-Scheer and Pasqualoni, 2002 : 3)

Non-modular tutorial

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

2 Different expressions of tutorials Text tutorials-------indispensable.

Video tutorials,

often for specific and discrete tasks,

e.g. cite use Endnote

e.g. find a paper from Library website

Clear explanations of concepts

Concise explanations of concepts

Well-defined concepts

Comprehensive examples

Have captions

Have a simple look

Have a reasonable length

Have a reasonable pace (slow)

Have a friendly layout

Easy to be found when needed

3 Technologies used in tutorialsLibGuide or subject guide tutorials

“a Web 2.0-based content management and information dissemination system” (Mooney, 2012 : 1)

“3,000,000 guides by 60,000 librarians” (Springshare, 2013)

Easy-to-use, standardised tool, including widgets and RSS feeds,

Mobile-friendly,

but it needs frequent maintaining for “accuracy and currency”.

(Emanuel, 2012 : 11; Leibiger and Aldrich, 2013 : 431)

E.g. The “General library Research Tutorial”

Other technologies

Blog tutorials, Web games, virtual 3D tutorials

OILT name Period of

Research

Modular Text Video Subject Guide

The Search for the Skunk Ape Fall 2009-Spring

2010

1 1 1 0

General Library Research

Tutorial

August 2009* 1 1 0 1

The University of Illinois OILT Before December

2010

0 1 1 0

Wilfrid Laurier University

Library OILT

Before January

2005

1 1 0 0

Auburn University Library’s

Tiger Information Literacy

Tutorial

Summer 2002-Fall

2003

1 1 0 0

Texas Information Literacy

Tutorial

Fall 2001-Before

May 2004

1 1 0 0

Library Research Success Before Winter 2000 1 1 0 0

Conclusion

It is essential for librarians to evaluate different OILTs according to their categories.

For modular

tutorials

Separated to different

modules

Appropriate length for each

modules

Have interactive elements

(quizzes)

Be companied with a script

Have theoretical and practical

contents

For

non-modular

tutorials

Highlight practical contents

Entitled with words like "How to"

Relatively short learning time for

each unit

Have text

webpages

Clear explanations of

concepts

Concise explanations of concepts

Well-defined concepts

Comprehensive examples

Have videos Have captions

Have a simple look

Have a reasonable length

Have a reasonable pace (slow)

Have a friendly layout

Easy to be found when needed

Have subject

guides

Ensure resources' currency

Ensure resources' accuracy

Limitations of the study

The samples of papers need to be more recent in general.

The numbers of samples need to be expanded.

Main References American Library Association. Information Literacy Competency

Standards for Higher Education[Online] http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency

CILIP. Information literacy – Definition[Online] http://www.cilip.org.uk/cilip/advocacy-campaigns-awards/advocacy-campaigns/information-literacy/information-literacy

LLOYD, A. (2010). Information literacy landscapes: information literacy in education, workplace and everyday contexts. Oxford, UK, Chandos Pub.

McClure, R., Cooke, R. and Carlin, A. (2011). The search for the Skunk Ape: studying the impact of an online information literacy tutorial on student writing. Journal of Information Literacy, 5(2), 26-45.

Yelinek, K., Neyer, L., Bressler, D., Coffta, M., Magolis, D. (2010). Using LibGuides for an information literacy tutorial Tutorial 2.0. College & Research Libraries News, 71(7), 352-355.

Bowles-Terry, M., Hensley, M., & Hinchliffe, L. (2010). Best practices for online video tutorials in academic libraries. Communications in Information Literacy, 4(1), 17-28.

Bury, S. and Oud, J. (2005). Usability testing of an online information literacy tutorial. Reference services review, 33(1), 54-65.

Noe, N. W. and Bishop, B. A. (2005). Assessing Auburn University Library's Tiger Information Literacy Tutorial (TILT). Reference services review, 33(2), 173-187.

Orme, W. A. (2004). A study of the residual impact of the Texas Information Literacy Tutorial on the information-seeking ability of first year college students. College & Research Libraries, 65(3), 205-215.

Donaldson, K. A. (2001). Library research success: designing an online tutorial to teach information literacy skills to first-year students. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(4), 237-251.

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