Library and IT essentials (for student Induction)

I've been working with my colleague Julie Moody who is an Information Specialist (Health, Education and Languages) to help create induction materials for students requiring guidance on Library and IT services at their disposal. This is a follow on project similar to the work for the 'Paper: Enhancing student induction to Library and IT services in Higher Education' which I'm happy to report is being used this year to good effect.
I've just finished a banner which will be used on-line to promote this resource during welcome week, shown to the left.

Paper: Enhancing student induction to Library and IT services in Higher Education

Collaborative development,
dissemination and student interaction

I have had the pleasure of working on an exciting project with colleagues within ASTI (Academic Support Technology and Innovation), which resulted in a journal publication.

Part of this project was devising a means of making induction more exciting for the participants. One approach used to increase student involvement was to create a game within the induction presentation inside PowerPoint, so initial contact would be much more exciting for attendees. This was based on the BBC show 'Pointless', although in this case, very much angled to University services and support specific questions (Special thank you to the BBC for giving the University permission to adapt their game show idea in this project). Thanks also extends to the ASTI team collaborators involved in the development work for this project.  The digram to the left gives a visual description of how this works.

The co-written paper with my colleague Julie Moody (Information Specialist -Health, Education and Languages) is available from the journal of Innovative Practice in Higher Education, which also details this process and looks at feedback from the students:

MOODY, J. & TRUSCOTT, J. 2014. Enhancing student induction to library and IT services in higher education. Innovative Practice in Higher Education, 2.

UPDATE: similar processes are now being implemented in 5 external institutions.

E-Book showcase: Meet the publishers

I was pleased to be invited by Fiona Grieg (Content and Development Manager, Plymouth University Library) to speak at the E-Book showcase, an another opportunity to present again for the Hydrographic Academy. I wanted to concentrate on the materials that are used in the interface, rather than the interface itself. Discuss the concerns of copyright and also give a bit of insight into how Learning Technologists can aid in this development. I only had 15mins to talk with the remaining left for discussion, so it was difficult to pack in all the essential background before continuing. Feedback included being impressed with the user interface, a lot of questions on why USB stick (should we have encrypted them? Although these concerns we actually related to their own in-house problems rather than a problem with our content!) I was also asked how well did the tutoring work for an interface that contained predominantly off-line e-learning content?  The Academy chose the offline approach so as not to disadvantage students working on-board ships or locations with poor internet, this of course has to be balanced with a little on-line for tutoring to be effective (for the times when students have a connection).

Thank you for the strong support from the Learning Technologist! All in all a very good debate and feedback.

I will add that I also enjoyed the line up of speakers (below), there are certainly crossovers of development in all these areas, something that Learning Technologists are willing to help develop. I often work with digital mapping and mobile devices utilising GPS, and found John Abraham's talk very interesting. I'm currently applying a little learning technologies to John's GeoTrail that will enable students and visitors to explore the wonders of geology in and around the University and Plymouth.

The Charles Seale-Hayne Library had invited a number of major academic publishers to talk to staff about e-books on Thursday 26 April between 10am and 2pm.

• 10.30am - Phil Gee 'Psychology's e-book bundle: first year texts for students'
• 11.15am - Jason Truscott 'Developing technology enhanced, distance learning materials for the Hydrographic Academy'
• 12.00pm - Publisher Reps 'Future strategies in e-book publishing'
• 12.45pm - Rachel Christofides 'Using devices in the classroom: Aspire and e-offprints pros and cons'
• 1.30pm - John Abraham 'Maps and spatial data from Digimap and other sources'  

Mobile Devices - A Library in Your Pocket

I was kindly invited to the Content and Development Team's offices (part of LRS who are located in Plymouth University's Library) yesterday to watch the live webinar from EDUCAUSE entitled 'Library in Your Pocket: Strategies and Techniques for Developing Successful Mobile Services '. Developed by David Woodbury & Jason Casden from North Carolina State University, it was essentially a very clever Big Brother meets the Library set of resources designed for web enabled mobile devices such as Palm, Android and of course iPhone. Included was the means for students to search for available computers, view live webcam feeds and search for library stocks ('available only' to reduce seaching time) all from the comfort of their phones. The webcam feed is one of the better ones I've seen for a while on a mobile device, almost lifelike for a small output, and one of the more popular elements used.
All in all a rather well thought out and excellently devised set of tools. The computer availability option is a great idea. If there was a wish list I think it would be rather good to include details about what software is available on each PC, so students could search specifically for the applications they would most want to use. Otherwise I would envisage some students getting a free PC logging in and not finding the software they wanted.

If you would like to watch this again, its already available on the EUCAUSE site.

Further details on tha NCSU Libraries Mobile site.