Creating a Interactive Learning Tutorial on a Budget Megan A. Davis & Kee-Young Moon

Overview

To address different learning styles and to meet the needs of our distance education learners, Information and Library Services at UMUC created Secrets of My Research Success, a self-paced interactive tutorial with game-like qualities to teach students information literacy concepts. This tutorial, a cross-team initiative created entirely in-house, models the research process via a story.

University of Maryland University College, Information and Library Services www.umuc.edu/library

Watch the tutorial at http://www.umuc.edu/library/tutorials/RPT/rpt.shtml

• Develop a topic• Discuss what to write• Create Learning Objectives• Begin writing script

Phase 1: Writing a Script

• Be Flexible, especially with the timeline, the script, staff change and the technology. There are always alternatives.

• Be Selective – It is impossible to create a product that everyone likes.

• Be Patient – Some steps may take longer than other, particularly when you need to involve other departments.

• Plan for maintenance – it will be ongoing and time consuming, chiefly when using database screenshots and searches

• Make sure you work with the “right” departments. At our university, web materials policies and standards are more important than instructional design.

Lessons Learned

What you need

•Hardware : Librarians (technical knowledge helpful)•Software : Adobe Captivate (main), Macromedia Flash (optional)

• Insert games between modules to make the learning process engaging.• Include an assessment device (A quiz with 15 questions, randomly generated from a pool of 40 questions, is presented at the end of the tutorial)

• Present tutorial and solicit feedback (our groups included library staff and the School of Undergraduate Studies) • Resolve any issues, such as production mistakes, timing and explanation of the concepts. • Test functionality of the games and the quiz.•Work out technology bugs (Technology details had to be worked out to ensure all the students took the tutorial before leaving UMUC and their scores were sent to their instructors to get credit.)

Phase 3: Testing and Receiving Feedback

Phase 2: Developing a Product

• Create slides while the script is being revised

• Pre-made images save time and money.Images for the tutorial included:

•Microsoft Office Clipart•Clipart acquired via University licensing agreements

• Text was added to highlight the concept being taught.• Create games (we used Macromedia Flash as it is licensed by the University)

•Utilize library liaisons to get your tutorial “out” .(We were able to get the quiz embedded in several online classrooms, including the entry level graduate management classes.)•Make it visible on the website.

•Utilize other scripting languages such as Perl and Java, if you can do it. Otherwise, games and quizzes can also be created using Adobe Captivate. •Recruit actors and record script•Continue revising script

Using Adobe Captivate and Flash, clipart graphics, and library staff members to “voice” the characters, the story unfolds as Quentin works with “Mike,” the librarian, moving through the research process. Learning is reinforced through interactive learning activities and a final assessment quiz based on the learning outcomes is also included. Course instructors who insert this tutorial into their WebTycho online classrooms can have the final assessment quiz scores automatically emailed to them.

•Starting Your Research (02:52)•Background Reading (03:42)•Forming a Search Statement (04:27)•Database Selection (01:26)•Database Searching (04:00)•Article Selection (01:36)•Article Access and Evaluation (04:10)•Internet Resources and Evaluation (01:32)•Citation and Plagiarism (02:00)•Conclusion (02:39)

Tutorial

Quiz

Module1

Module2

Conclusion

Game1

Game2

Writing a Script

Module Element

Game Element

Quiz Engine

Review

Integration / Approval

Completion and Roll-out

…