All 4 entries tagged Usereducation

Library Blogs

Writing about web page http://basementjack.blogspot.com/2007/08/blogs-in-libraries.html

I have just read the post over on BasementJack and it reminded me that a while ago I was considering trying to revive and revamp the old blog that the Science Team here at Warwick used to maintain before I came.

Library blogs are Warwick have been used to great success in some areas, for example, for supporting students using bibliographic management software blogs have been great. When we have RefWorks there was a RefWorks blog and now that we have EndnoteWeb, there is one for that.

Other blogs, aimed at specific subject areas have also been used (like our old Science Team one) and I think there could be space for improvement in getting these into shape.

I've discussed with the team the possibility of getting blogs back up and running for us (they have not been used since the staff who set them up left about 2 years ago). I wonder if having a set of blogs to cover specific subjects, rather than one general Science blog would make them more relevant to readers and make their usage more likely.

In some subjects we have quite notable web presence on the departmental sites, most impressively at the Medical School, where Sam Johnson (BioMed Librarian) is mentioned in the right hand column of many of the pages which deal with course materials.

I wonder if there is the option of RRS feeding subject-specific blogs onto departmental web pages? Potential content could include:

• Details of training sessions/drop ins being offered
• New titles received
• E-resource trials
• Hints on how to use different web services
• Useful links
• Requests for book suggestions

Any views?

Would you be interested in a subject-specific Library blog?

Katharine Widdows : 01 Jul 2008 13:52 |  Tags: Blogging Elearning Infosharing Usereducation Warwick Library Web2 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Question Mark Perception Training

Writing about web page http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/elearning/store/perception/

The team I work in is currently hoping to create some e-learning tools, online tutorials and tests/quizzes to go with them.

On June 14th Sam and I went to the training session for the ?Perception software, which allows you to create quizzes and even set them in exam conditions. It records who has logged in, when and how long for. It tracks answers given to questions, gives students feedback on answers (if you want it to) and can limit the number of times any one person can take a test or exam, or limit the amount of time the test is available on line to any given student or group of students. Its pretty impressive.

Uses for this kind of functionality within our work relate to the teaching and examining of Information Skills courses. We run a range of sessions and workshops throughout the academic year, including basic inductions, specific software and database training and even Information Skills courses which are examined as part of the credit that students get towards their degrees (obviously exam conditions are required for these!)

The sofware is not as easy to use as our own in-house Quiz Builder software (developed by Warwick University as part of the Site Builder web-authoring package) but it does have some additional functionality.

To be honest, the only real advantages of ?Perception are in the range of question formats it allows a user to create and a few handy extras, like the ability to count scores up as you go. Also it can do a few funky things, like present the questions in a random order, or randomly select a number of questions from a bank so that students dont get all the same questions or dont get them in the same order. Whether or not this extra functionality is worth all the additional work to create the quiz, I'm not really sure. And in the training session I did have great difficulty getting some of the question formats to give the correct score outputs - which makes things very frustrating.

Maybe with further practice all will become clear. In the mean time I will await the Librarians on the team to decide what direction our e-learning tools will take. I think it will be a great thing to get involved in, whichever software we go for, and whatever form it may take.

Katharine Widdows : 22 Jun 2007 13:52 |  Tags: Blendedlearning Elearning Itskills Usereducation |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Presentation Design Training

Blogging on my lunch break again - oh well . . . . . .

I went to a presentation design course in the University IT Training Suite this morning. I'm still determined to do anything I can  related to presenting until my brain just gives in and I become good at it. It has to happen sooner or later.

The course this morning was full of common sense tips about not overusing Powerpoint animations and being careful about slide structure etc. probably things that everyone has heard before, but there was some stuff that was very new to me including:

• Pack and Go function in Powerpoint
• Downloading "viewers" so you can still run your presentation on a machine with the wrong, or no, version of powerpoint
• The Powerpoint Heaven website

This will all be useful in the new academic year as, when term starts and we are running inductions again, we will also be part way through our Library Remodelling. This means we will probably have to go out to academic departments to do most of our presentations - considerations about available facilities will be important.

As far as overcoming nerves or actual speaking skills go the course did touch on this, but in a very common sense way, and there was no practical part to it, it was all presentation by the facilitator. But then the course was more aimed at presentation design and preparation than at delivery.

I will be on another presentation course in a few days - and probably any more that I can find over the summer, to get me ready for the new year. I really want to crack this.

Katharine Widdows : 14 Jun 2007 13:23 |  Tags: Communication Itskills Personaldevelopment Presentations Usereducation |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

I'm angry.

Writing about web page http://havemercia.wordpress.com/2007/05/18/personal-researchers-in-northants/

Following on from the post on Pete's blog I have to have a minor rant of my own! Please see this article published a few days ago in the Northants Evening Telegraph.

Do we really need to reinforce the idea that all Librarians do is sit about stamping books and saying "Shhhh!"??????

I was under the impression that a decent enquiry service where people could be pointed in the direction of, oh, I dont know, lets say books and web sites about lace making? was a basic part of Library provision??? 

What on earth would that poor woman have been told if she had come in with the same question 2 weeks earlier?? "Basic research?? no, I'm sorry, we're a Library and we dont do that sort of thing."?!?!

I'm very angry and more than a little confused.

Do any Public Librarians have a view on this?

Am I really being unfair in my reaction to this?

Katharine Widdows : 21 May 2007 17:09 |  Tags: Serviceprovision Usereducation |  Comments (8) |  Close comments |  Report a problem