16th Distance Library Services Conference: Poster Sessions

Accessibility & online tutorials: A comparison of closed captioning tools
Lynda Schoop | Purdue University Calumet

Ensure that your online tutorials are accessible to all students by learning about best practices in adding closed captions to your library’s video content. Attendees of this poster session will learn about accessibility requirements and the most effective methods for adding closed captioning to online tutorials created with various tools.

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Best in show: Design effective LibGuides that showcase your library's resources and meet the needs of distance students
Allison Embry | Rogers State University

"Best in Show" focuses on how LibGuides can be used as an instructional tool for distance students. Distance students who never receive formal, face to face library instruction are likely to be overwhelmed by the online library. Well designed, course-specific LibGuides can be used to point students to appropriate resources without overwhelming them. This presentation will use images of guides created as part of a distance instruction pilot project at a small regional university to teach librarians how to design concise, effective guides that meet the unique needs of distance learners.

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Bridging the distance: Understanding the research needs of distance graduate students (Handout)
Hilary Bussell | Ohio University

What are the biggest challenges distance graduate students face in doing research, and how can libraries help? Hear from this unique and growing population of graduate students in their own voices. This poster will describe the results of a comparative study of the research needs of graduate students in distance and on-campus programs at a large public university. Recommendations for instructional programs and best practices for supporting distance graduate students’ research needs will be discussed, as well as tips for maintaining an active dialogue with this important subset of distance learners.

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Building tutorials with ARCS: Incorporating a motivational design model (Handout)
Danielle Skaggs | West Chester University

Have you been creating tutorials or other online instructional materials? Have you run across busy students who feel they already know the material, don’t have the time or the energy to watch library tutorials, or feel that the instruction will be too boring? This poster presents the ARCS model (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction) as a method of improving student motivation and engagement with library tutorials.

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Canvas-ing the LMS: Developing a library presence to engage online students
Nia Lam, Rebecca Bliquez, Heather Gillanders | University of Washington Bothell & Cascadia Community College

This poster will describe how the librarians at our institution developed a library presence in Canvas, the new learning management system (LMS) adopted by more than 400 colleges, universities, and school districts. The migration to a new LMS helped us visualize an overall library presence that will allow for more engagement with faculty and students and incorporate the best practices for online instruction that our librarians have been developing over the past year. The poster will also detail strategies librarians use in order to embed information literacy into Canvas in support of both on-campus and online learners.

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Chat reference: To schedule or not to schedule? (Handout)
Michael Mungin | James Madison University

Chat Reference is becoming a vital means of communication between librarians and distance students who may not be able to visit a physical reference desk. It's no secret that librarians' jobs are extremely busy, making the coverage of these chat services a bit of a challenge. This poster explores the troublesome issues that arise from structured scheduling and also from a less structured approach to coverage. Lessons learned at an institution that has tried multiple scheduling techniques will be presented.

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Customizable and scalable information literacy learning objects for distance learners (Handout)
Dana Longley | SUNY Empire State College

Online scavenger hunts, information skills self-assessments, ask-a-librarian chat boxes, and on-the-fly-created video tutorials all play a part in providing customizable learning objects that can be embedded in online courses to actively teach or reinforce or offer instant help for basic library and information literacy skills.

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Digital badges for learning: New sewing required
Claudia Timmann, Erika Bennett | Capella University

Digital badges for learning are emerging technologies that have exciting possibilities for libraries, particularly in the area of Information Literacy instruction. They are collectible icons that can only be achieved based on a set of predetermined learning competencies. Benefits of Digital Badges: ideal for tracking and providing incentives for Information Literacy learning; can be earned both as an extracurricular activity and through a Learning Management System as part of coursework tied to packets of learning outcomes; provides flexibility that suits both library instruction programs that are integrated, stand-alone, and independent to the curriculum.

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Efficient tools to simplify distance reference transactions (Handout)
Heather Dalal | Rider University

This poster will demonstrate the use and technical requirements of two different types of easy to use and freely available tools that facilitate the provision of reference assistance via telephone, chat, or email. Instead of going back and forth with email chains the librarian can use any of the following freely available screencasting tools: Jing, Screenr, Screencastomatic, CamStudio and Wink. The screen capture created is not a tutorial, no need to rehearse, edit, or store for future use. It can simply be a just in time video prepared for just one user to watch the librarians’ demonstration of library tools with voice commentary. For individual reference appointments scheduled in advance librarians can use free tools such as Join.me or Zoho for easy synchronous screensharing and collaboration. When a librarian is answering a reference question via telephone or chat, the last thing he/she might want to do is ask the user to create an account and then follow directions on how to log on a web conferencing tool. The solution is Screenleap. A user can see the librarians screen with just the click of a link. One person can set up an account and the rest of the library can share it to make that URL customizable. Librarians can make the distance reference transaction as effective as face to face and save both the patron and the librarian a great deal of time.

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Library research guide widgets in online classes: Are they effective? (Handout)
Robin Shapiro | Portland Community College

In February 2012, librarians from my institution attended a lightning talk by a neighboring academic librarian about automatically embedding links to LibGuides into Desire2Learn course pages. Our response: can we do that too? As of June 2013, widgets linking to subject research guides are included in every online class. We present data collected in Fall 2012, before the research guides were embedded, and Fall 2013; plus the results of two surveys, one asking librarians whether the number of faculty contacts about their research guides has changed, and the other asking instructors about their experience with the library widget.

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The ‘It takes a village’ approach to website design: How to build a beautiful website when you don’t know how to build a beautiful website
Pat Hamilton, Sarah Stohr | National American University

Have a library website that is stuck in the 20th century? Think you lack the technical expertise to bring it up to today’s standards? Check out the techniques one not-so-super-technically-savvy library system used in order to finally give their outdated site the makeover it desperately needed.

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The long road home: Applying distance learning to on-site instruction (Handout & tutorial)
Angelique Jenks-Brown, Jill Dixon | Binghamton University

Interested in creating and assessing modular online tutorials that instructors can incorporate into their classes? The University Libraries turned to distance education techniques to create alternative ways for campus instructors to include library instruction in their classes – by creating modular, online library tutorials with automated student certification for course instructors. This poster presentation will show the process of identifying tutorial topics, creating the online tutorials with student engagement in mind, gaining instructor and university administration support, integration into a course management system, publicity avenues, and tutorial assessment.

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Will they press play? Assessment of online video tutorials
Robin Chin Roemer, Christine Tawatao | University of Washington
Rebecca Bliquez, Nia Lam | University of Washington Bothell & Cascadia Community College

Research has shown that students are capable of learning from video tutorials -- if they take the time to watch them. So what motivates students to hit play in the first place? What compels them to watch until the end? This poster describes a year-long assessment project of online tutorials at a large research library, and highlights findings about what students want from online tutorials, how successful they are in providing point of need assistance, and how effective they are in enhancing classroom or online instruction.