The Big Blue: case study: Tamworth and Lichfield College

The Case Study Digested:

• Tamworth College is a Post-16 and HE college, with 1700 full-time students registered in 2000-2001 more+
• Purpose of the case study is to examine the piloting of an online induction using the 'Learnwise' VLE more+
• Prior to the online induction, induction sessions were the 'chalk and talk' kind, for all full-time students more+
• Online induction takes students through basic library facilities and services and a quiz at the end tests their learning more+
• Evaluation has shown that 71% of students found the induction session easy to use and 64% found the induction useful more+
• Key challenges have been making the online session interactive and incorporating all aspects of the 'chalk and talk' session more+
• Manager advises LRC staff to get involved with internal Learning and Teaching committees and groups more+
• In the future the package will be used more widely not as an alternative to the 'chalk and talk' but as an adjunct. Further piloting at nearby colleges is underway. Next project is an Athens tutorial online more+

Purpose of Case Study

To examine the piloting of induction via a VLE (and use of VLEs by library staff) by:

• Interviewing Jo Rowley- Librarian
• Interviewing students
• Seeing a demo of the induction package

Institutional Background

Tamworth and Lichfield College provides FE and HE courses to students of all ages, both full and part time. The college was originally two separate institutions, Tamworth College and Lichfield College, which merged in 1996. There are two main campuses in Tamworth and in Lichfield, which incorporates the Lichfield Centre of Staffordshire University. The college also runs courses from a wide variety of community centres. The college had over 1,700 full-time students registered in the 2000-2001 session, plus over 9,500 part time students. The colleges' main business is further education, with a small number of higher education courses. The college Learning Resource Centre is based at the Tamworth Campus and has three full time staff: the LRC manager, an LRC Supervisor and an LRC Assistant. There are also part-time assistants. The library is a UK Online centre, a Learndirect Centre and hosts classes for the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL). The college uses two Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs): COSE (a project of Staffordshire University) and the 'Learnwise' package from Granada Learning, which was installed in June 2001. 'Learnwise was purchased by a consortium of 9 local colleges with the aim of facilitating resource sharing and collaborative working. The library was involved in the consultation process prior to 'Learnwise' being purchased as the LRC manager collaborated with the college's ILT champion to write an ILT strategy for the college and has since been instrumental in its take up and use around the college. Jo Rowley, the Learning Resources Centre Manager, is currently completing an MA at University of Central England and her work on the online induction package is forming part of her dissertation.

Induction Provision prior to the VLE package

Induction is usually delivered to students via a 15-30 minute tour of the library, plus a hands-on session with the library catalogue. Approximately 97% of full-time students receive induction in this way. Tutors contact the library in September to arrange a time for their students to receive induction and tutors who forget to do this are contacted by the library with a reminder. The LRC manager is attempting to get academic staff to time their induction to coincide with the students' first assignment, but has had difficulty. Additionally students on Access courses receive a fuller induction including a library assignment, which is accredited. Other IS training, such as sessions on searching the internet, are given on an ad-hoc basis at the request of tutors. No IS training had been delivered electronically or online prior to the induction package.

The Online Induction

The Learnwise VLE provides tutors with the ability to deliver web-based content, to use online assessment methods, to work collaboratively, and to track and produce reports on the use of the resources that they have created. For students the interface is customisable and provides message boards, chat forums and a diary with reminder facility. The Learnwise VLE was chosen in preference to COSE as the LRC manager felt that COSE was not intuitive for 16-18 year olds, and as the induction would potentially be used by students independent of any assistance, this was a key factor. All the library staff have been trained on Learnwise and can provide assistance to students when using it if necessary. The LRC manager spent half a day creating the MS Word files for the package and then 4 hours assembling the package within Learnwise. Learnwise, and therefore the induction package, can be accessed off-campus.

Typical 'homepage' when student logs in to Learnwise

Learnwise uses the concept of a 'topic' that is broken down into sections (i.e: notes, activities, case studies). Each section contains 'courses' that the students can read/ work though, and their progress is tracked. If a student logs out of a topic having read/ worked though half of it, the next time they log in to Learnwise a list of topics that they are currently working on will be displayed, along with the percentage of the topic that they have completed (i.e: 50%). In the context of the induction session, the topic is called 'Learning Resources Centre Induction' and is divided into sections on 'Borrowing Rights', 'Opening Times', 'Resources and Facilities'. These are then broken down into courses on 'Computer Facilities', 'Using the Catalogue', etc..

Piloting and Evaluation

Once the package was complete the LRC manager emailed academic staff with whom she had a good working relationship and asked them if they would approach their students with a request to trial the induction package and participate in evaluation. Only one group agreed and consisted of 14 mature part-time students who attend college in the evening. This meant that the package was tested when the LRC manager was not present to solve any problems, but the session went smoothly and feedback was largely positive. At the end of the induction session there is a multiple choice quiz to check that students have taken in all of the information in the session, and 'jumping back' to re-visit sections is easy. The LRC manager feels that such assessments are crucial to encouraging students to use online IS training, and to gain accreditation. The session is not currently accredited, although the library does feedback to the tutor about their students. The answers to the quiz have formed part of the evaluation, as areas where students consistently answered incorrectly could be revisited and modified. Additionally, a simple paper-based questionnaire was completed by all the students to gain feedback on practical aspects of the package and their preference for online or "in person" IS training (the students had already completed the traditional induction session), and to find out if they had learnt anything more via the online version. This evaluation showed that 71% found the package easy to use, 64% found the induction helpful and 36% preferred the online induction to the taught session. Reaction from academic staff has also been positive, and the LRC manager commented that usage reports show that academics are logging in and doing the induction themselves. Further pilots of the package are currently underway at Leek College and Stoke College.

Key Challenges

The LRC manager accepts that online IS training does not work for all students. For instance, the college has a group of students with learning difficulties and some students who are not sufficiently computer literate, and these students would gain more benefit from the traditional session. A key challenge was to make the VLE induction echo the 'chalk and talk' version. The LRC manager has found it difficult to include the demonstration and hands-on session on the OPAC into the VLE due to intra-operability problems, though this is something she hopes to rectify in the future. Additionally, a major challenge in providing IS training online is to make pages interactive and engaging rather than flat and text based. The LRC manager warns against mis-using a VLE to provide services that could have be provided via intranet/internet years earlier.

The Future

The induction package is planned to be used widely not only for first-time induction but also as a back-up for students who may have forgotten some of the things they learned at their induction session earlier in the year, and to pick up those students who for various reasons, never attend an induction tour. The LRC manager saw the potential in the VLE as a vehicle to teach IS, and wanted to 'take the lead' in showing academic staff how the VLE could be successfully used to deliver teaching. The completed induction package has been used as an example for academic staff who are attempting to set up their own resources.The LRC manager plans to expand the number of IS sessions delivered via the VLE and anticipates that the next topic to be covered will be Athens. There is also a plan to get such sessions accredited by the NCFE (Northern Council for Further Education). Such accreditation would enable IS sessions to count toward Wider Key Skills such as 'Improving own Learning and Performance'. Accreditation is also seen as a key motivator for both students and academics. The LRC manager was keen to stress the importance of library staff involving themselves with VLEs from the beginning of the consultative process and to be pro-active in terms of participating in meetings and committees relevant to teaching and learning. Maintaining close contact with the JISC RSC West Midlands has also helped keep staff at Tamworth to keep up to date on developments and opportunities. Overall the LRC manager feels that this kind of training offers a workable solution for smaller libraries which do not have the time to deliver a wide range of staffed IS sessions, as well as providing an additional method of delivery for larger institutions that want to offer students multiple ways of accessing IS training.

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