Taming the Dragon
The Collaborative Revitalization of
an Online Library Skills Course
Carol Hansen
Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah
&
Nancy Lombardo
Eccles Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
How many librarians does it
take to create an online
course?
Today’s Objectives
 Who’s here today?
 Attendees will
 Understand the development of the
Internet Navigator online course
 Get details on its collaborative
management and funding
 View some of the newer elements of the
course
 Please ask questions at any time
The Internet Navigator Course
 What makes it unique?
 Long term experiment in collaborative
online course development
 Multiple uses
 Emphasis on information literacy
competency assessment
The Challenges
 Enabling student learning
 The ability to define, access, find evaluate
and use information effectively
 On and off campus
 Across the state and around the world
 Taking advantage of new technologies,
new pedagogies and shared resources
 NOT recreating the wheel at every
institution
Technology Background
 Library catalogs go online late 80’s
 Email gets popular early 1990’s
 Netscape Browser October 1994
 Internet Navigator launched Jan 1996
 Focus is on “what is the Internet?”
 Infotrac goes on the Web June 1997
 By 1998 a whole new focus is needed
Utah Academic Library
Consortium
 14 academic libraries
9
public (U of Utah, Utah State, Weber
State, Utah Valley…)
 2 private(BYU and Westminster)
 Over 151,000 students
 History of cooperation
 Collecting,
borrowing
 Sharing (Pioneer), Nevada Libraries too
 Instruction - Internet Navigator
Goals of Online Course
 Meeting the needs of a diverse student
body
 Enabling use of curriculum for multiple
purposes
 Integrating latest Web technologies
 Including latest pedagogies
 Managing course for delivery at multiple
institutions
More Goals
 Support lifelong learning
 Be learner centered
 Emphasize collaboration across
distances
 Emphasize individual inquiry
 Be structured enough for freshman
 Enable exploration of values and
reflection
First version
 Included content on
 Different versions of email (pine, vax, etc)
 Gopher
 Telnet
 Catalogs
 Search Engines
 Evaluating information
 HTML
 FTP
The Shift
 From - “what is the Internet?”
 To - effectively finding and using
scholarly content found in Web based
library resources
 Other shifts
 Online
and distance ed merge
 Emphasis on information literacy and
assessing student learning
1998
 Our plans began
 June LOEX of the West in Cedar City
 New Tutorials – RIO, TILT, Net trail
 The UALC Information for Life Task
Force formed
 Representation
from all academic
institutions in Utah
 The State Library offered PL representation
Primary Goals for New Course
 Promote information literacy in a global
and dynamic information technology
environment for all types of learners
 Share curriculum
 Promote shared resources in Utah
New Course Outline
 1. What is the Internet
 2. Getting Started with Research
 3. Information Navigator
 4. Web publishing
 Interactive Exercises
 Research Assignments
 Topic selection
 Annotated bibliography
 HTML and Web publishing
 Quizzes
Early Administration
and Funding
 Began with one time funding from HETI
 For 10 librarians
 Naively, no funding was sought for
maintenance and ongoing support
 Technical and server support was
donated by U of U Eccles Library
 Site has been mirrored since 1995
Information for Life Grant
 Requested $25,000 from UALC funds
for:
 Staff
Project Director
 Team
 Programmer
 Graphic design

 Development
and implementation of the
new course
 Ongoing maintenance

EXTREMELY time consuming
Program Planning
 Development
 Over a dozen librarians worked in teams to write
first drafts of new curriculum over a year
 Team worked with programmers and graphic artist
 Implementation
 Over a summer, 4 librarians rewrote rough drafts
of modules
 Group of 4 loaded new curriculum
 Larger team proofed and made additional
suggestions
 Maintenance Team meets regularly
New course
 Tested Spring 2000
 Over 1500 students enrolled each year
at WSU alone
 Very positive student response
 Over
85% rated course as excellent or very
good
 Funding for ongoing maintenance
Assessment
 Learning outcomes identified
 Pretest, skills survey
 Exercises – self assessment
 Research project – practical
 Quizzes – knowledge
 Internal feedback forms
 End of course evaluation – their feelings
 Cyclical process
Still to come
 Assignments requiring students to
reflect even more
 On
their information needs,values, ethics
 On how they use information now and in
the future to gain knowledge in their areas
of interest
 New Student end of course evaluation
 Assessing
priority learning outcomes
What we’ve learned
 Statewide funding is critical
 Collaboration is fun
 Collaboration takes more time
 For those involved in development and
maintenance
 Results are richer and more useful
 Students are loving the course
 Students are learning
Demonstration of New Course
and Questions?
 http://www-navigator.utah.edu
 Syllabus
 Instructors (Global!)
 /Faculty page – statewide clearinghouse
 Flash Exercises
 Call number
 Evaluating
 Questions?
 chansen@weber.edu