Point of Need Assistance: Incorporating help pages and tutorials into Online Archival Resources Jane Scales, Distance Degree Librarian Washington State University Steve Borrelli, Instructional Design Librarian Washington State University

Session topics: Barriers to Access Building Tutorials: expectations Instructional Design Designing Effective Online Resources  Design Principles  Evolution of Tutorials  Today’s Tutorials Software Available

Barriers To Access  Basic Archival Principles  Foreign Environment  Lack of Understanding of Archival Services  Challenging to Navigate Difficulty reading archival records Language Nature of Archives make them challenging to navigate:

Building Tutorials - What should you expect? Time consuming Cost (depending) Considerable planning and thought Learning a new software Collaboration and technical assistance Revisions Maintenance

Building Tutorials - What should you expect? A tool to help your online visitors navigate your site more effectively. Resources that explain and illustrate important concepts and terms to budding archivists. A game or fun activity that promotes an interest in archives to younger audiences. An instructional tool that incorporates archival material to teach a concept not specific to archives. A display case of interesting material to inform people about your collection – a “tour.”

ACTIVITY Why Did They Build It?

Instructional Design as a Discipline Is a branch of knowledge concerned with research and theory about instructional strategies and the process for developing and implementing those strategies accessed May 10, 2007

Instructional Design as a Process Is the process of analysis of learning needs and goals and the development of a delivery system to meet those needs accessed May 10, 2007

How do you Design Effective Instructional Online Resources? Deliberately Through application of instructional design models.

Instructional Design Model(s) A n a l y z e D e s I g n D e v e l o p I m p l e m e n t E v a l u a t e Instructional Design Models

Design Principles: Language speak in the vernacular Avoid Jargon 1 st person plural vs. 3 rd person singular Provide interactivity Prefer the simple to complex Balance between breadth and depth Design from the perspective of a novice user & remember user disposition

Design Principles continued: Keep it short  Don’t try to provide a comprehensive tool Chunk:  Each chunk can be viewed as a short tutorial in itself  Provide interconnectivity to areas covered in other “chunks” Fact: Users look for the quickest and easiest path to accomplish their task.

Keep Design Flexible to User Experience: Provide a defined structure that reflect objectives Continuity: maintain language and structure throughout  Establish visual characteristics for elements (text boxes, tips, quiz questions, etc.) Shape, size, color, frequency E.g. links are typically blue and underlined

Consider User Need Based Progression Design to allow for sequential and non-sequential progression:  Menu based and chunked  Narrative; dialogue based with interactivity  Taxonomy increases scent  Combination of above

Evolution of Online tutorials: Early tutorials (1 st generation) were:  Static (mostly html pages) Static (mostly html pages)  Linear  Images were ancillary to text  Text heavy  Little interactivity  Exhaustive Exhaustive

Today’s Tutorials (2 nd Generation) Interactive Paths and sub paths nested within Animation (flash) Pace is designed augmentable by user Images Examples Simple language Succinct as possible. Entertaining to a degree

Point of Need Assistance Software Options

Adobe Captivate Features Educational Pricing System Requirement and File Format creation Evaluation software version

TechSmith Camtasia Features Educational Pricing System Requirement & File format creation System Requirement File format Evaluation software version Learning Curve Samples:

Qarbon ViewletBuilder Features Educational Pricing System requirements and file format creation System requirements file format Evaluation software Learning Curve

Summary: Take a user centered approach!! Know your audience Address barriers to access:  Avoid using jargon; provide a glossary  let users know what archival services are available Design your project using an ID model (ADDIE) Write to express not impress Prefer simple to complex Include interactivity Be creative and entertaining