Characteristics and content of medical library tutorials: a review

Abstract

Online tutorials can be a useful facet of a library's instructional strategies. According to the Instructional Technologies Committee of the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), web tutorials should include interactive exercises such as simulations or quizzes [1]. These activities encourage active learning and allow students to respond to what is taught, while self-assessing their own learning. Web tutorials should also provide a way to contact a librarian for questions or to give feedback about the tutorial's design or usefulness [1]. While previous studies have looked for examples of active learning in tutorials, they did not focus on academic medical libraries [2, 3]. Dewald analyzed 20 tutorials (19 for post-secondary education; 1 for kindergarten–8th grade students) selected by the Research Committee of the Library Instruction Round Table of the American Library Association [3]. Hrycaj examined 65 tutorials created by member libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) [2]. Both studies emphasized the importance of including active learning in tutorials. Examples of active learning described in these articles include quizzes at the end of tutorial modules, questions integrated into the tutorial modules, exercises used in tutorial modules, quizzes requiring the use of separate browser windows, or options for sending quiz results to an instructor [2]. Dewald's 1999 study found that 37% of the tutorials included active learning features, and Hrycaj's 2005 study found that 60% of the tutorials contained some element of active learning. The purpose of the current project was to identify and analyze freely available online tutorials created by medical libraries. The project team was interested in identifying the topics of tutorials created by medical libraries, determining common design features used in tutorials, and assessing elements of active learning in the identified library-created tutorials. The team also generated a list of third-party tutorials to which libraries link.