Learning from the students: The Progression and library tour pod cast case Irene Barranco, Sarah Crofts & Maggie Leharne Information & Library Services University of Greenwich

Background : Pilot of Progression developed : Progression launched to HSS Staff & Students to date: Progression available to all University of Greenwich students.

Some numbers …

… more numbers

Navigation through Modules How to start, where to go…

Design

Can you find it?

As an online course, it is easy to navigate. Students can learn independently at their own pace and assess their knowledge. As an online course it needs to have a more prominent link. It is not easy enough to find. Students, academics and new library staff need to know about it. We need to work harder on publicising it. What we have learnt:

Background July 2007: Successful Dragon’s Den bid for funding and start of work on library tour pod casts. September 2007: Pod cast library tours Version 1 trialled to ILS staff and students. January 2008: Revised pod cast library tours launched. Freely available via ILS web pages.

How did we listen to our users?

What we have learnt: Comments:. “Having listened...I…have a clear idea where the locations of the books and journals are in the Dreadnought Library...”” (Yr 1 GMI student) “...we should have known about the pod cast at beginning of year not at the end.” (Yr 1 Business student) “Far too long…separate pod casts with separate links on the website. listen to the bits they needed. (Year 2 Humanities & Social Sciences student) “I’ve never noticed this link before…” (Yr 1 Business student)

Where do we go from here? PROGRESSION Quiz results to be presented in an alternative presentation. Some students suggested subject specific contents (to be developed by INFORMS) Information could be presented in a more interactive way. All students asked for a more prominent link to Progressions. Audio files of content for Visually Impaired. PODCASTS Act on feedback. Publicise at Induction. Feedback from new students. Training or ILS staff to ensure continuing viability. Work for adoption as a mainstream service within ILS (and the University). Investigate developing pod casts to include: –Stills –Virtual tour –International languages –Historic tours