1. Flexibility = Accessibility:
Oregon State University Libraries’ Interactive Course Assignment Pages
Ruth Vondracek & Maureen Kelly
ALA New Orleans
RUSA MARS Hot Topics
June 24, 2006
ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek

2. ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek
Who We Are
Land Grant University
Campuses in Corvallis, Bend & Newport
16,000 Undergraduates
16 librarians engaged in instruction
ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek

3. OSU Libraries Strategic Plan
Our Challenge
OSU Libraries Strategic Plan
“OSU Libraries will be a critical partner with OSU colleges & programs by contributing to the life-long learning of OSU Students”
2004
OSU Libraries Strategic Plan developed in support of the to the Oregon State University campuswide Strategic Plan
Goal 2.
Strategy A: Develop tailored services to the teaching & learning needs of OSU faculty & students.
ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek

4. What We Did: Assessment
VCL Task Force Formed 2005
Literature & Web site review
Exploration of Blackboard as a delivery mechanism
Assessment of student library use using focus groups, an online survey and usability studies
Hired MLIS Grad Student to perform Lit/web review & other activities
Virtual College Libraries formed and merged with Interactive Subject Guides group. VCL was loosely defined as making making discipline relevant information easily available to students and the plan was to co-develop VCL with faculty. It quickly became apparent that we needed to talk to the students themselves to understand how to best deliver what they needed from the library. The VCL task force decided that to determine whether VCLs were necessary and what they should offer, it was critical to first determine what students need and how they use the OSU Libraries web pages to find information on specific subjects and for class assignments. For example, should the OSU Libraries provide a simpler means of access to “best sources” for subject research? Should the libraries present information that is filtered by discipline, subject area or course, and/or by the level of need, undergraduate through expert researcher?
Focus groups: How do they approach their information needs? Would they use personalization features?
Online Survey: What technologies & methods do they use?
Usability tests
April 2005: IRB proposal was approved for these assessment activities.
ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek

5. ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek
What We Learned
Lit/web Review: Identified several intriguing sites, e.g. Ohio State, Cornell, U WA
Blackboard: OSU has a “Libraries” tab -- 90% of students are enrolled in a BB course;
only 52% of OSU faculty are using BB to deliver instruction
*Conclusion: VCL needs to work both within and outside Blackboard
ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek

6. What the Students Told Us
Library research is confusing & time consuming
Technologies students most frequently use are Internet, chat, , text messaging
Some students use MyYahoo or MyMSN, but few customize Blackboard
From undergraduates in particular: Too many research tools to choose from; difficult to know which search words to use
While most students don’t take the time to customize pages, they are open to being able to customize the library pages. Preference would be for this to happen automatically, ala Amazon.
ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek

7. ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek
What the Students Want
Make the library page simpler, make the databases easier to select & search, provide more full text
Automatic customization (ala Amazon)
Library resources tailored to their specific assignments
Lots of suggestions
ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek

8. ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek
What We Decided
We decided not to pursue VCL or implement a “MyLibrary” feature.
Instead we chose to focus on creating easily generated assignment driven course pages:
ICA :
Interactive Course Assignment Pages
Course and subject research guides should accommodate keyword searching of selected and standard multiple resources and offer assistance in finding broader, narrower and related terms (a fusion of MetaFind and AquaBrowser). The challenge here is that databases currently cannot be accessed by off-campus users via Blackboard.
Course pages and subject guides should link to the appropriate librarian (chat when available, when not
Focus efforts on working with faculty to link the faculty member’s Blackboard course and the Libraries’ course pages.
 The VCL task force further recommends that these efforts continue as a strategic planning goal and be given a more relevant name and that the task force draft a plan, timeline and budget for pursuing these efforts for FY
ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek

9. How the Project Evolved
Phase II
S.P VCL
ICA Phase I
Sept. 04 Aug. 05
Sept 05 June 06
July 06 …

10. Interactive Course Pages
Virtual College Library
Interactive Course Pages
Generalized Subject Areas
Highly Specific Topics
Standardized Resources
Focused Searching
ICA Phase II
ICA Phase I
VCL
Static Site
Dynamic & Interactive

11. DHE 370 Textile and Market Apparel Analysis

13. What the Students Told Us
Comments Didn't Use
34 didn’t know about the page
3 Did not need info; found off Google/ internet/Academic Search Premier
Functional problems
1 -I forgot it was there, but I did look at it and it looked like it would have been a very useful tool.

14. What the Students Told Us

15. ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek
What Faculty Told Us
Felt they needed to integrate ICA better – in syllabus, BB, in class
Fewer questions where to look for information
Difficult to assess impact on quality
Felt that resources were relevant – worked closely with librarians
Frustrated lack of use primary, non-online materials
Focus on fewer resources
ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek

16. ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek
Next Steps: Phase II
Hire a Programmer
Increase Functionality
Follow same process as Phase I
Development
Usability testing and user satisfaction
Training,
Implement in classes
ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek

17. ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek
Our Key Learnings
Integrated
Collaboration with faculty
Placement
Interactive
Librarians/Faculty – Ease in generating / selection
Students – ability to generate specific topics within larger assignment
Sustainable
Easily generated
Substitute for face-to-face instruction
ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek

18. Maureen Kelly & Ruth Vondracek Oregon State University
ALA New Orleans
RUSA MARS Hot Topics
June 24, 2006
Maureen Kelly & Ruth Vondracek
Oregon State University
ALA June 2006 Kelly & Vondracek