iKnow OSFC’s 1-stop Search tool Corinne Walker Learning Resources Manager

Background In 2013 we started to investigate the possibility of using a Discovery tool in order to increase the visibility and therefore usage of our Online Resources. Throughout the academic year we had noticed throughout College that: We had concerns over the declining use of our online resources Tutors had concerns over declining standard of research/reading around Students were increasingly over-reliant on Google Students showed little or no regard for validity or authenticity of “Google” results As we were opening our newly refurbished Learning Resource Centre in September 2014 we decided to go the whole way and launch our Discovery tool at the same time.

Timeline Summer 2013 First contact with EBSCO (Richard Debenham) for pricing and overview of system September 2013 – March 2014 Delay with planning of new LRC March 2014 OSFC custom catalogue dialogue started – takes from 21st March to 9th May for catalogue conversion to be fully integrated with EDS after many webinars & conference calls with EBSCO support in Boston, MA May 2014 iKnow goes “live” Trialling begins and glitches ironed out. Ebrary ebook for FE titles link from iKnow June 2014 2 iKnow INSET sessions to tutors 2 iKnow inductions with EPQ students

Timeline Summer 2014 personalisation of iKnow started – logos, branding, linking New VLE “MyDay” implemented based on SharePoint October 2014 INSET Day Full staff presentation of iKnow, followed by drop in workshops attended by representatives of every curriculum area October – December 2014 iKnow induction lessons delivered to BTEC Science, English Language, Dance, Performing Arts, Law, Health & Social Care and Travel & Tourism January 2015 Students who attended iKnow lesson surveyed – v. positive response – 91% would continue to use iKnow for their research

Timeline February – November 2015 extensive work on personalisation and VLE integration. Online Resources page has direct iKnow search box. Every VLE Curriculum page has its own iKnow search link.

Timeline February – November 2015 extensive work on personalisation and VLE integration. Permalinks activated so links to specific resources/searches can now be added to VLE pages

Timeline February – November 2015 Permalinks to e-books via the iKnow platform added to curriculum pages. E-books on the ebrary & DawsonEra platform can now be accessed directly from within iKnow.

So where are we now… 2015-2016 We continued to liaise with departments and began making links with science and humanities curriculum areas. Biology and Geography classes were visited for the first time. Dance, Health & Social Care and English Language requested lessons for the 2nd year running After feedback from a Health & Social Care tutor who also teaches Psychology, all Psychology classes were visited during the Autumn Term. In Spring Term tutors were asked to submit feedback about iKnow for the Teaching & Learning newsletter. The following responses were published:

So where are we now… “The iKnow system has been extremely beneficial in helping students to gain a higher score on the AO3 component (research & analysis).“ iKnow allows students to access a much wider range of sources such as magazines, e-books and online articles which in turn further boosts their marks as they have taken information from a variety sources.” "Students are extremely lucky to have iKnow resources in College and also available off-site” “I can't recommend iKnow enough and I have seen students engage with the resources not just for psychology but other subjects they are studying.”

Statistics iKnow Sessions Searches Sept 2014 – August 2015 4358 199958 Sept 2015 – April 2016 8893 229194 % Increase 104% 14% ebrary Sessions Page Views Sept 2014 – August 2015 2764 43653 Sept 2015 – April 2016 4441 70458 % Increase 60% 61% DawsonEra Sessions Page Views Sept 2014 – August 2015 785 15832 Sept 2015 – April 2016 1097 30180 % Increase 39% 90%

So where next… We won’t be standing still… There are still some curriculum areas to crack who still aren’t convinced of the value of the resources discovered through iKnow. More INSET sessions planned for June INSET week targeting these subject areas. All Schemes of Work will have to include some form of iKnow/independent research based element from September 2016. 1st induction lessons for Dance students already pencilled in for September 2016!!!