Join the Reading List Revolution? Jisc Reading lists presentation Eleanor Johnston

Join the Reading List Revolution? Eleanor Johnston November 2013

Jisc RSC Learning Resources Conference 13 – Join the Reading List Revolution?

What is Rebus and how did we get Involved?

Rebus is a reading list product from PTFS, who has previously supplied Staffordshire

University with Koha, open source library management system software. We looked for our

first Reading List solution because the students expect there to be a modern online solution

that matches their way of working online.

We had no reading list software and looked at the products on the market via demos, liaison

and trials.

We had a good relationship with PTFS and they were keen to get institutions on board and

we agreed to use Rebus in 2012. As early adopters of Rebus, the University were offered the

first version of the product at a reduced cost.

Starting from scratch

Staffordshire University started with a weblink (no instructions, guidance, videos etc etc)

and the library had no policy on lecturers giving us reading lists or on our purchases being

dependent on reading list usage. Lists were previously on word documents, Blackboard,

Module Handbooks etc etc – there was little consistency between courses or lecturers.

We expected the rollout to be like the Blackboard VLE implementation experience, i.e. it

wasn’t immediately adopted by everyone but students then started seeing the convenience

of it, and a lot of the uptake was from student pressure. There has been no mandatory

policy for usage. One reasons for this was that experience has shown us that if lecturers are

forced to do something, some of them react against it.

Also, it was a very new system and we did not want to offer a crude tool where lecturers

would become disillusioned and would not engage with the product.

We decided to: Learn how to use it

Demo and pilot it to convince lecturers of the ease and benefits

then:

Arrange training sessions for interested staff (needed a support strategy)

Followed by:

Checks on progress and continued support and review on uptake of Rebus:list / lessons

learnt and how to take it forward.

Enhancements to the product were needed to achieve the above


Learning

The first thing we did was to learn how to add structures, organisational groups, lecturers

and modules. We then found out about permissions and adding items.

We started by learning how to add items ourselves to test the product. We realised that the

product was in its early developmental stages and it was important to make the process as

easy as possible for lecturers, as there appeared to be quite a lot of manual inputting

required. We also had to set up every lecturer and module onto the system (there was no

auto import), so best to do the back end admin stuff before lecturers started grappling with

everything else.

Pilot

We decided to learn how to do things before we went to train other librarians and lecturers.

This seemed to make sense. So it started with a pilot of us doing everything, adding items

for reading lists from History and International Relations. We contacted the lecturers and

asked for their names, module codes and reading lists.

Then followed lists with a response rate of approx. 50% from lecturers, but it transpired that

these schools had lists with hundreds of items on – which would be a criticism of their lists

as it was tough enough to add these things, never mind read them all!

I do not recommend this. It meant that we were spending many hours putting these lists on,

not due to our lack of skills for adding items, but by their sheer number. They had obviously

been put together over a number of years and added to each year. They were mostly books

(some quite old), with very few websites and recent journal articles. If lecturers had added

these themselves, would they have seen the amount of reading they were asking their

students to get through? When I have spoken to lecturers about this, they want a product

that would show all the resources available to students and not limit them to a few items

(they could be on loan or out of print). So of course this adoption of a bit of software leads

to lots of questions regarding the choices of items – put everything on a list? Give topics and

essential reading only etc? These questions unfortunately I do not have the answers to in

this workshop!

So we can safely conclude that we could not do it for the lecturers – it leads to reliance

which we cannot resource.

First trial

PGCHPE trial – we demoed Rebus online reading lists to attendees on the PGCHPE course in

January 2013 (many are lecturers at the University).

This trial group was suggested by Dave Parkes, our service’s Director, for the following

reasons:


These use reading lists – get them converted to REBUS

Practitioner teaching staff will have experience of using them

More likely to adopt practice and promote use to students

50% of teaching staff will have to have had professional recognition from HEA or

PGCHPE by 2017

400 staff potentially using REBUS plus all the other professional development

courses

I ran the live demo and then asked the PGCHPErs if they would be interested in having the

reading lists on their teaching modules – there was a good take up. In the class there were

approx. 30 students, 20 were Staffs University lecturers and, of those, 10 wanted further

training.

This was the first time we had interest from lecturers, as opposed to just pushing the

service. The demo went well and people liked it being ‘live’ (as opposed to a series of screen

shots or planned searches, which I have seen before and does not inspire confidence).

So we started setting up 1-2-1s with lecturers and they started learning how to add items.

We promised to help them with their first lists and with anything they may struggle with, via

email, phone or a further 1-2-1. It was true that these lecturer / students were keen to

embrace the software to enhance the student experience.

Another selling point was that once a list was created, the unique URL of a modular reading

list could go straight into Blackboard, our VLE that all lecturers and staff use.

This was much more successful than the pilot!

Champions

Then rollout of training to subject librarians, all of whom are now trained. This was fairly

straightforward, again there were more interested staff than others, but most were

confident enough at least to accompany me to sessions with their subject staff at first, and

then confident enough in the future to add lecturers and modules onto the system and run

training. Some did not have enough interaction with the system and therefore passed back

requests as they had forgotten how to do things, which I was happy to help out with.

A small number of lecturer ‘champions’ then took up the opportunity to use Rebus, who had

1-2-1 sessions and started creating their own lists. This was quite an arbitrary process and

was based on those lecturers the service knew were early adopters of new technologies and

developments. I am sure your institution has enthusiasts too!

Promotion

Online reading list training offered at Staff Fest 2013, which is a great group of activities for

staff held annually. The theme this July was “New Horizons”, with all activities, workshops


and conferences reaching out, striving for change and going towards a brighter future.

There was a group sign up, a workshop to get lecturers started with their first lists and

Information Services presented to Faculties and Schools at the In-Faculty Learning and

Teaching Conferences in July 2013. We also created the poster for this event and sent the

PDF out to drum up more interest during this period.

There were also quite a number of admin staff from faculties who were interested in Rebus.

We were involved in helping create basic reading lists before passing them to module teams

to update and manage. This was also is an opportunity to collect reading lists from awards

and advise on the availability of ebooks and latest editions of books, plus any copyright

issues relating to scanned items.

Word of mouth / recommendations also started to come in – by visiting lecturers and having

1-2-1s, we got out into their offices and buildings, and this stirred interest in other

academics in their faculties. We also made a little demo film via Camtasia to help students

access their lists, and that is on the main Rebus search page for Staffordshire University.

We hope that there will also be student pressure on lecturers who do not have lists online!

Offshoots of liaison

As part of all this promotion and getting out into Faculties and seeing lecturers 1-2-1, there

were loads of questions about all aspects of the library service, the lecturers were not

bothered what the staff were promoting or teaching on, they just wanted answers to their

questions!

Also, each department would have a different take on how they best wanted Rebus to work

for them. For example, law wanted texts and cases to be default global category headings,

but this was not appropriate for other faculties.

Lecturers were also likely to ask very specific questions regarding their budgets for

resources, and so the person training had to be very aware of the Collection Development

Policy.

Some lecturers were wary as they felt their lists had taken them a lot of time to ‘curate’ and

they did not want to make these available (which you could potentially do on Rebus). This is

an interesting point which has not been resolved.

Getting all the up to date lists from lecturers definitely encourages the library to get

material, as the acquisition of lists reveals new editions, items we do not have in stock and

encourages lecturer feedback about the library, its resources and our service.

Resources that have been asked about during Rebus training include Bob (this always leads

to a live demo of Box of Broadcasts for lecturers). The feedback includes lecturers saying

that they were amazed by this product and why had they not seen it before? Was it new?


We had the product for about 2 years and had run training and promotion when we bought

it and throughout this period across several platforms, so although it is easy to get

exasperated or think ‘how did they not see that?’ it does make us pose the question of how

better to market and spread the word.

Progress

350 modules have been set up, but not all have been published for students yet.

No detail at present (too early to say) about level of resource use – has it increased? For e

items? All items?

Upgrades were made to Rebus in June 2013. The selection process to ensure the most ‘in

demand’ was via a vote by institutions that had the product. Some of the early stumbling

blocks and glitches were tidied up, e.g. obvious stuff like being able to press enter to select,

block tagging items, pop ups blocking when opening ebooks, making it easier to add

modules etc etc. The requests for December 2013 enhancements were announced on 30th

October and again, the enhancements will be voted for by participating institutions.

Live demo –

This is where you can see the product in action, firstly what the students see, then what

lecturers can see.

Every from anywhere can view these lists, so feel free to take a look at what we have done

so far.

http://staffs.rebuslist.com

Any e-resources / ebooks require Athens authentication to access, you cannot log into

lecturer view as it is for administrators.

Student view:

Search by tutor name, keyword, faculty, module etc.

show URL at the top – URLs can then go anywhere (principally BB)

Staff view:

Adding, editing, moving items, adding tags, moving items between lists

We can order anything – many lecturers prefer e-books, because many courses are distance

learning are these seem to be the most popular modules going on the system as present.

Once trained by us, the lecturers take responsibility for editing and updating their lists.

http://staffs.rebuslist.com/


What needs improving

Manual input of e-journals and articles is cumbersome and slow, ideally we would like a link

to Summon or some sort of auto import.

Lecturers currently have to let us know about new modules or additional lecturers and we

would like them to take more ownership on the admin side, but this requires changes to

permissions and technical issues.

We would obviously like more use across the university – there will still be lots of lecturers

who have never heard of the product and who have not used it.

Word needs to spread further – so more promotion, getting ‘champions’ who are positive

about the product. Bear in mind resistance remains as there are still lots of laborious bits

(yes, the manual input)

We have no web developer here, but some staff at Swansea and Sheffield have been adding

code and making additional functions / things easier. We will be able to find out more about

these on the Rebus training days / institutional met ups. The first was held when everyone

was holiday earlier this year, but there will be more.

When it is very smooth, perhaps lobby for use throughout the University? I feel we need a

bit more time to make things as easy as possible for lecturers, but some institutions really

jumped in and made the system mandatory very quickly, e.g. Tavistock and Portman NHS

Trust.

Availability issues- we would really like a link up of the Koha acquisitions system, budget

codes, ordering etc. If resources are not in stock, lecturers are immediately aware, which

can prompt a request to the library, but there no automatic flag.

Things we have learned

Do not accept responsibility to do the adding – teach and pass on the skills!

Expected the unexpected in terms of lecturer questions (they are just happy for someone to

come to them)

Things always take longer than expected and the first version requires a lot of work to get it

as easy to use as possible. Yes, we all know this, but it is always seems a surprise every time

it happens!

Do not offer any product that requires (much) additional work – lecturers will not want that

Sell the benefits! Easy to update, great for student access etc etc.


What happens next

Look at the ‘what needs improving’ and implement things to make things better

Further linking to the University strategic objective via the implementation of ‘The

Staffordshire Graduate’. This is a coherent set of skills, attributes and capabilities necessary

for success in the 21st Century, including the attribute to be technologically, digitally and

information literate. Students expect all their resources in one place (which they are with

Rebus and the link into Blackboard) and we have evidence of Rebus actually promoting

additional reading and resource use:

“Whilst it could be argued that the provision of all reading on one webpage could impact on student

skills to source material themselves, once this has been developed, it frees up students so that they

are able to devote more time to reading the resources and to follow the links.

Students found wider documents – it actually increased student research skills, rather than

detracting from this. It is counter-intuitive, but once the core search skills are obtained, the free time

enables students to develop and expand on the core literature highlighted on reading lists.

The overwhelming feedback from staff and students is for more online reading lists”

Kris Lines, Senior Lecturer, Director - Centre for International Sports Law (CISL), Staffordshire

University

Other users’ experiences of online reading lists –

Which do you use? What issues have you had?

What was surprising? Feedback from the Socrative results will be interesting and there will

be a final question at the end of the session for questions, comments etc.

Education

Join the Reading List Revolution? Jisc Reading lists presentation Eleanor Johnston