PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to measure the effectiveness of a highly interactive animated tutorial that aims to teach basic information literacy concepts to undergraduates and to determine which factors enhance online learning.Design/methodology/approachThe tutorial was evaluated using 30 undergraduate students. Each test consisted of a pre‐tutorial questionnaire and a post‐tutorial questionnaire.FindingsData from the evaluative testing of the tutorial shows that the tutorial is effective in imparting information literacy concepts to undergraduate students. Students responded positively to the interactivity and game‐like nature of the tutorial.Originality/valueThe high degree of interactivity and the game‐like quality of the tutorial are key factors in its success. Thus, developers should aim to incorporate these elements into future online tutorials for undergraduate students.
The popularity of customizable Web sites in libraries has increased librarians’ interest in supplementing user services with portal technology. The open source-software MyLibrary gives the librarian control over the resources directed to users based on their interests. University of Illinois at Chicago librarians developed My Chicago Library as a way to streamline user access to library resources. A usability study designed around common task categories tested the participants’ abilities to customize a personal library Web page, understand the resource categories as defined by librarians, and manage the discipline-specific content available in the portal.
A test of the effectiveness of interactive multimedia Web sites demonstrates that library users' topic knowledge was significantly greater after visiting the sites than before. Library users want more such sites about library services, their majors, and campus life generally. Librarians describe the roles they want to play on multimedia production teams after working on the LUMENS Project.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.