Meeting Research Demand in a Limited Resource Environment: Streamlining with Technologies Pacific Northwest Higher Education Teaching and Learning Conference, 2007

The Challenge Continued growth of business program High demand for research assistance with intricate core business assignments individual & group consultations with business librarian reference desk, , and chat Information explosion and increase in online resources

What We Did Piloted a collaborative effort with business faculty, students & librarian to develop web- based tutorials for complex core business assignments – Step-by-step process – Helpful guidelines – Embedded annotated source links

What We Hoped to Accomplish Accommodate more students with effective learning tool Foster enrichment of student reports with library resources Provide helpful teaching tool for faculty & librarians working with students on core assignments Leave time to experiment with other instruction techniques Continue to improve tutorial based on feedback – Students who complete and submit a survey – Faculty who suggest how the tutorial complements class assignments – Reference librarians interacting with students

Timeline of Marketing Plan Tutorial 2003 – 2005 Held initial discussions with faculty to develop marketing plan tutorial 2006 Pursued discussions with faculty to develop tutorials supporting core assignments Summer 2006 Began creating marketing plan tutorial with business student library intern Fall 2006 Continued developing marketing plan tutorial with same business student as a library employee

Process of Marketing Plan Tutorial 7/20/2006 Began gathering marketing plan information & examples 8/01/2006 Began drafting a generic marketing plan template 8/15/2006 Began locating resources for each section; (e.g. print sources, free websites & proprietary databases) 10/25/2006 Designed a survey & decided to provide candy bars as incentive for survey completion 11/1/2006 Introduced the tutorial to students in introductory marketing classes 10/31/2006 Submitted tutorial draft to interested marketing faculty for feedback

Some Concerns Sustainability Time needed to develop tutorials Training time and learning curve Collaboration time Time needed to maintain the tutorials Support needed from library, faculty and students Other issues Cookie-cutter reports Usability - more generic, encompassing approach Proper design needed To create learning environment Students cannot always ask questions & get immediate results

Some Tutorial Advantages Self-paced – receive instruction at point & time of need Self-directed learning aids in assimilation of knowledge (Dewald,1999) Distance delivery platform – Convenient: available 24/7 on the Internet Reaches a wider audience – Accessible to simultaneous users

More Tutorial Advantages Source of centralized information Helps increase awareness & use of library resources Point of referral for librarians & faculty working with students Meaningful for students who do not always ask for help An effective learning tool that can be revisited Accommodates numerous users who prefer online instruction (Silver & Lisa, 2007)

Tutorial Benchmarks Ideal FeaturesMarketing Plan Tutorial Clearly state objectives x Course-related x Engaging or fun Collaborative learning Active learning ? Feedback Clear navigation & alternatives x White space & color for readability x Quick loading x Offer help x

Tutorial Demonstration

Survey Results Sample size is 16 people 2 Faculty 12 Students from UWB 2 Community members There's a ton of information here and it's kind of intimidating at first. Information seems to be in more than one place too. Maybe simplify the links? Maybe take away the chart/box look? My initial instinct was to just randomly click one of the many links rather than try to find the beginning. Does that make sense? Thank you for the resource. Yes, it was helpful to get the guidance and link to the specific part, for example the Situational Analysis-there are few examples that help clear things up. And, every step is easy to understand and straight to the point. There are alternate requirements for a marketing plan, depending whether it's for one of our classes vs. doing it for a real live business vs. starting a business. For example, I like forcing people to derive the "magic number". Anyways, kudos to both of you. This is far better than many things that come across my desk! BTW, where's my candy bar???!!! Solid site. Most of the difficulties I have observed in my initial use of this tutorial are not relevant to issues with the site. I am just learning and this has been a valuable tool.

Please indicate your status: Comments: Two community members

How easy was it to use this Marketing Plan Tutorial? Comments: Not easy, it was very complicated and fuzzy to write a marketing plan. I had no idea how to start and where to start. We tried to address this by laying out the steps and numbering them on the left margin.

Would you recommend the Marketing Plan Tutorial to others?

What Would Have Helped Obtaining more student feedback Doing more research on tutorial design Engaging someone with web design skills Gearing the tutorial for one assignment Having a complementary example Having more time…

Future projects Tutorials – Creating a Business Plan (work-in-progress) – Analyzing Financial Statements – Doing Business in Other Countries

Group Activity Break into smaller groups of 4-6 and discuss: 1. Tutorial Integration: How might you integrate (or how have you integrated) tutorials into curriculum at your institution? For which classes & assignments might tutorials work, or how might tutorials be used to enhance student learning? 2. Collaboration: How have faculty, librarians, students & staff collaborated on tutorials at your institution? What has been done or suggested?

Questions & Answers Presenters : Doreen Harwood Reference & Instruction/Business Librarian University of Washington Bothell & Cascadia Community College Charlene McCormack Business Program Undergraduate University of Washington Bothell