VOILA! Virtual ORSEM Information Literacy Assessment Presented by Ingrid Bonadie-Joseph & Valeda F. Dent Hunter College Libraries Copyright ©2003 Hunter College Libraries. All Rights Reserved. VOILA! is a trademark of Hunter College Libraries

VOILA! An Overview  First pilot began Fall 2002  Partnership with Student Services and the First Year Experience program  Developed to address growing numbers of students in the Hunter College Orientation Seminars (ORSEMs) in need of an introduction to “baseline” library skills  To date, approximately 800 students in the Hunter College ORSEMs have participated

Why Go Virtual? Justifying VOILA!  Increased numbers of incoming students in ORSEMs  Ineffectiveness of “live” orientation efforts (Lynch 1974, 259)  Importance of the hypertext landscape for instruction efforts and its impact on active learning (Tiefel 1995, 326)  Efficiency (making the most of available human and material resources while still meeting student need)

Logistics  Length of Development – Approximately two months during Summer 2002  Staffing – Reference staff participated to help brainstorm questions for quiz. Five library staff assigned specific tasks to create the modules. Staff time invested was in addition to normal work schedule. Staff worked about 130 hours on project  Cost – No additional “start-up” funds were provided. Project utilized resources already available

The Reference Tutorial  Adapted from the CUNY Information Competency Tutorial (with permission)  Modified January 2003 to accommodate new CUNY+ Catalog

The Call Number Tutorial  Adapted from a tutorial developed by Hunter College librarians  Call Number Tutorial consisted of: Call Number Systems Biography and Fiction Finding a Book by Call Number What Call Numbers Mean How Books Are Shelved

The Virtual Tour  Developed from scratch  Work intensive  Includes details about library services, floor plans and definitions

The Quiz  Developed from scratch  Required the expertise of librarian with background in instructional design  Required consideration of reliability and validity

The Quiz con’t  Required the use of “freeware” QuizTest software to provide e-grading capability  QuizTest functionality included routing of graded & corrected quizzes to library staff and instructors, and compilation of statistics such as average score, mean & mode. Also provided frequency for questions answered correctly and incorrectly

Lessons Learned  Addition of new technology – cutting edge on a shoestring?  Monitoring student test-taking – preventing sharing of answers, etc.  Dealing with increasing numbers of students taking VOILA!  Funding  Staff time for development  Ease of access for students  Ability to assess students’ baseline skills and apply to subsequent instructional sessions  Hands-on, interactive  Students proceed at own pace  Program easily shared with other campuses Challenges Benefits

Lessons Learned con’t  Run project as a pilot first. This will allow for flexibility, growth and outcomes assessment  Academic collaboration is important. Allows library instruction to be seen in a wider context, as part of scholarship (Varner, Schwartz and George 1996, 358)  Electronic nature of VOILA! a plus

So, What’s Next?  Integration of VOILA! into credit course for Fall Will provide a library skill baseline for subsequent first-year composition instruction  Ongoing technical developments including addition of multimedia features  Ongoing assessment of quiz including reliability analysis, Fall 2003  Ongoing quest for funds (so far, grants totaling $12K have been awarded)  Collaboration with other CUNY schools to pilot VOILA!-like project  Dissemination of lessons learned through presentations and publication

VOILA! Virtual ORSEM Information Literacy Assessment A list of references will be distributed for your convenience! Look for the upcoming article, “Innovation on a Shoestring: An All Virtual Model for Self-Paced Library Orientation on an Urban Campus” in College & Undergraduate Libraries, Summer 2003 Copyright ©2003 Hunter College Libraries. All Rights Reserved. VOILA! is a trademark of Hunter College Libraries