VOILA!Virtual ORSEM Information Literacy

Assessment

Presented by

Ingrid Bonadie-Joseph & Valeda F. Dent

Hunter College Libraries

Copyright ©2003 Hunter College Libraries. All Rights Reserved.VOILA! is a trademark of Hunter College Libraries

VOILA!An Overview

First pilot began Fall 2002

Partnership with Student Services and the First Year Experience program

Developed to address growing numbers of students in the Hunter College Orientation Seminars (ORSEMs) in need of

an introduction to “baseline” library skills

To date, approximately 800 students in the Hunter College ORSEMs have participated

Why Go Virtual?Justifying VOILA!

Increased numbers of incoming students in ORSEMs

Ineffectiveness of “live” orientation efforts(Lynch 1974, 259)

Importance of the hypertext landscape for instruction efforts and its impact on active learning

(Tiefel 1995, 326)

Efficiency (making the most of available human and material resources while still meeting student need)

Logistics

Length of Development – Approximately two months during Summer 2002

Staffing – Reference staff participated to help brainstorm questions for quiz. Five library staff assigned specific tasks to

create the modules. Staff time invested was in addition to normal work schedule. Staff worked about 130 hours on project

Cost – No additional “start-up” funds were provided. Project utilized resources already available

The Reference Tutorial

Adapted from the CUNY Information Competency Tutorial (with permission)

Modified January 2003 to accommodate new CUNY+ Catalog

The Call Number Tutorial

Adapted from a tutorial developed by Hunter College librarians

Call Number Tutorial consisted of:

Call Number Systems

Biography and Fiction

Finding a Book by Call Number

What Call Numbers Mean

How Books Are Shelved

The Virtual Tour

Developed from scratch

Work intensive

Includes details about library services, floor plans and definitions

The Quiz

Developed from scratch

Required the expertise of librarian with background in instructional design

Required consideration of reliability and validity

The Quiz con’t

Required the use of “freeware” QuizTest software to provide e-grading capability

QuizTest functionality included routing of graded & corrected quizzes to library staff and instructors, and

compilation of statistics such as average score, mean & mode. Also provided frequency for questions answered

correctly and incorrectly

Lessons Learned

Addition of new technology – cutting edge on a shoestring?

Monitoring student test-taking – preventing sharing of answers, etc.

Dealing with increasing numbers of students taking VOILA!

Funding Staff time for development

Ease of access for students Ability to assess students’

baseline skills and apply to subsequent instructional sessions

Hands-on, interactive Students proceed at own

pace Program easily shared with

other campuses

Challenges Benefits

Lessons Learned con’t

Run project as a pilot first. This will allow for flexibility, growth and outcomes assessment

Academic collaboration is important. Allows library instruction to be seen in a wider context, as part of scholarship

(Varner, Schwartz and George 1996, 358)

Electronic nature of VOILA! a plus

So, What’s Next?

Integration of VOILA! into credit course for Fall 2003. Will provide a library skill baseline for subsequent first-year composition instruction

Ongoing technical developments including addition of multimedia features

Ongoing assessment of quiz including reliability analysis, Fall 2003

Ongoing quest for funds (so far, grants totaling $12K have been awarded)

Collaboration with other CUNY schools to pilot VOILA!-like project

Dissemination of lessons learned through presentations and publication

VOILA!Virtual ORSEM Information Literacy

Assessment

A list of references will be distributed for your convenience!

Look for the upcoming article, “Innovation on a Shoestring: An All Virtual Model for Self-Paced Library Orientation on an Urban

Campus” in College & Undergraduate Libraries, Summer 2003

Copyright ©2003 Hunter College Libraries. All Rights Reserved.VOILA! is a trademark of Hunter College Libraries