Library Connection: An Interactive, Personalized Orientation for Online Students

Abstract

Library orientations are a very common learning experience for residential and online students. These all have similar goals of introducing students to the library and helping them feel more comfortable in navigating the library. The Library Connection is a unique type of library orientation that provides meaningful feedback to students in a personalized, connected learning environment. This program is offered through digital badges. A conventional qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the text responses of students completing this orientation. Six interesting themes emerged from these data including student perceptions of the use of the library, developing advanced search techniques, and managing a complex information environment. Interesting trends include the disparities between student and instructor perspectives of their learning and the need for a hybrid orientation that provides scaled instruction while still giving meaningful feedback and personalized responses to students from librarians.