When I was a new Instructional Design Librarian in 2014 I sought out examples of great online tutorials from other academic libraries to get ideas for what our own library should have. Our library at the time was seriously lacking in online learning. When I joined the library, the newest YouTube videos were four years old, and there was no interactive online learning to speak of.
I did a ton of searching over several years, and I thought it would make for a fun post to share some of my favorite tutorials I’ve seen from academic libraries. I’m continually on the lookout for great tutorials. They’re hard to find, frankly. Academic libraries are rich in LibGuides, but poor in interactive online learning.
I was inspired to share this list because recently I’ve seen two instructional designer job postings for academic libraries (one at University of California, Merced, and one at the Claremont Consortium). I know someone that applied for this sort of position, and she asked me for good examples of library elearning, and I didn’t have anything quick to share with her!
When I was an ID Librarian, I advocated for having our own in-house instructional designer. The fact is that elearning development is extraordinarily time intensive, and academic librarians have too many competing priorities to make great elearning. I think it makes a lot of sense for libraries to either turn to outside firms or freelancers (like yours, truly!) or to hire their own instructional designers. I mean – how cool would it be for librarians to work with their own dedicated person to make effective online learning experiences?
Below, find a short list of online, interactive, asynchronous academic library tutorials. Some were created by librarians themselves, some by campus instructional designers, and some by private firms.
I will add – this list is Storyline-centric. That’s because I didn’t find any that inspired me (the ones that I found tended to lack interactivity). Unfortunately, though, Storyline tutorials are far from 508-compliant, so if you build out tutorials with Storyline, you should ensure they’re as accessible as possible and include pre-instructions for students using assistive technology.
LMU’s The RADAR Challenge
I first discovered this information literacy tutorial around 2014/2015 when I was first getting into developing Storyline tutorials for my own library. It was a great example for me of what Storyline could do (and I stole the star idea for my own Spark Tutorials!). It’s been updated since I first saw it, but what impressed me about The RADAR Challenge is that the learner is awarded different levels of stars depending on how they perform on multiple choice questions. Learners earn a “diamond” star for getting it right the first time, then lesser tiers of stars for having to repeat a question. The stars accumulate in the top right of the screen. This tutorial has always stood out to me because of this gamification technique, and because of the real-world content included for students to evaluate.
What was used to build this?
Articulate Storyline
Is it open?
Yes. But raw file is not available.
Pima Community College’s How to Research
I was stunned by the high quality of this set of four tutorials on how to conduct library research. The About screen in the first tutorial states that these tutorials are a co-production between the library and PimaOnline, the campus’ Center for Learning Technology. I love that the main menu is a map, I love the graphics, I love the sound effects, and the voice overs are pretty great too. I also love the place-setting – Pima is a desert community, and the tutorials commit fully to desert theming. These tutorials are so slick, they must be the result of hundreds of hours of design and development work. These are as professional as it gets.
What was used to build this?
Articulate Storyline
Is it open?
No.
LDS Business College’s There’s a Monster in the Library
This set of three tutorials are incredible because of their comic-book style and immersive storytelling. I believe the library contracted with an outside company to build these tutorials – they were something like $30,000 to produce.
What was used to build this?
These tutorials were built in HTML5 using JavaScript libraries to complete the animations.
Is it open?
No.
Marquette University’s Interactive Info Lit Tutorials
This is a lovely collection of information literacy tutorials from Marquette University. I’d say that these are classic examples of common tutorials that libraries tend to have. Common library tutorials include: practicing research questions (broader and narrower), practicing Boolean operators, evaluating sources using some example sources, practicing APA/MLA formatting with drag and drops.
What was used to build this?
Articulate Storyline
Are they open?
Yes! The raw files are available free on GitHub. The GitHub page also has more information about these tutorials and why/how they were built.
CSU Dominguez Hills’ Library Tutorials
CSUDH has a large variety of tutorials, many interactive. Some of them have some graphic features and characters that look familiar to me because they used one of my own Storyline tutorials as a template! (Deja vu!) I like that these tutorials have a clean, consistent look, and they have an intro page telling students exactly what to expect from the tutorials as far as what they will experience. Remember, Storyline tutorials are far from accessible so students that use screen readers or navigate with just a keyboard will struggle.
What was used to build this?
Articulate Storyline (interactive tutorials)
Is it open?
Yes – but raw files are not available for download.
Austin Community College’s Research Success Tutorial Suite
These tutorials are similar to Marquette’s in that they are a collection of the most commonly seen library tutorials: topic choosing, evaluating sources, choosing keywords, etc.
What was used to build this?
Articulate Storyline
Is it open?
No.
University of Southern California’s Research Concepts and Skills Tutorials
In these tutorials you may spot another common feature of library tutorials: they are based on other libraries’ tutorials. That is – the Avoiding Plagiarism tutorial here has very similar content to CSUDH, because it was based on a tutorial from University of Manchester, like CSUDH’s was. Though I suspect they reused CSUDH’s Storyline files, unless CSUDH reused USC’s files, who knows. In any case, this set of tutorials is another good example of “most wanted” in library tutorials.
What was used to build this?
Articulate Storyline
Is it open?
No.
Hodges University’s APA Zombies
I have no idea how I stumbled across this one – but how fun! Zombies! GREAT example of using pop culture to try to teach something really boring: APA formatting. Get those APA citations right or you’ll be overcome by zombies!
What was used to build this?
Twine
Is it open?
No.
CSU Fullerton’s Spark Tutorials
OKAY OKAY I made these. But I think they’re pretty great. The four Spark Tutorials are both an orientation to the campus library and the basics of how to do library research. The four tutorials can be completed a la carte or as a group. I built these and popped them into the campus learning management system. Students that complete them earn digital badges.
What was used to build this?
Articulate Storyline
Is it open?
Yes! Download the raw files from my website.
Claremont’s Library Tutorials
I included this tutorial less because it’s a “good” tutorial and more because it’s a good example of a classic click-through library tutorial that is openly licensed. Claremont’s tutorials were based on UC Irvine’s Begin Your Research tutorial. I suspect that UC Irvine’s tutorial was one of the first interactive library tutorials to be offered online.
UC Irvine
Claremont:
What was used to build this?
HTML and CSS coding, I’m guessing (they’re pretty old)
Is it open?
Yes.
ASU Library’s Tutorials
ASU has an extensive set of library tutorials, many interactive. I enjoy the enthusiastic voiceover present in many of these. I’m actually listed as a contributor on a few of these since I was working at ASU libraries when they first started trying out Storyline. I built a few prototypes that got incorporated into later tutorials.
What was used to build this?
Articulate Storyline (interactive tutorials)
Is it open?
Yes. But raw files are not available.
Takeaways
I think that interactivity is the way to go with library tutorials. Get your learners practicing by doing, don’t just force them to endure a passive experience. Online tutorials are a great way to introduce students to library skills in a safe environment. Online tutorials can be used to flip classroom learning, or in place of it altogether. They can also be used for self-help.
While many of these examples are very good and should be emulated, there are also some practices here that should be avoided. For example: set questions to a limited number of tries and let the learner move on afterward. Sometimes these tutorials force learners to come up with a correct answer to continue, but the question is very poorly designed. For instance, it might be a drag and drop with dozens of ways it could be answered. A student can get stuck on one of these and thus be prevented from completing a tutorial. Use questions as a learning opportunity.
There are also some sloppy examples here – inconsistent navigation, ugly graphic design, or no accessibility features at all, like closed captions.
Finally, I’ll close with a reminder that Storyline tutorials are impossible to make fully accessible, but last week a fellow ID did share a really handy guide with me to making Storyline tutorials that are as accessible as possible.
You’ll find more inspiring tutorials over at the PRIMO Database.
Hope that these tutorials are inspiring! Is there anything else that you’d add to the list?