Library Research Success: Designing an Online Tutorial to Teach Information Literacy Skills to First-Year Students

Abstract

This article reports on a collaborative effort recently undertaken between librarians and faculty at Toronto's Seneca College to develop and implement an online, interactive tutorial for first-year business students enrolled in the College's School of Business Management. The concept for this tutorial arose when library management was approached by the Acting Chair from the College's School of Business Management to partner with them in developing a library tutorial that would be incorporated into the curriculum of this newly created course, and that would accommodate its over 600 first-year students. Library management agreed, and proposed developing a self-paced online, interactive tutorial that would utilize current Web-based technology. The primary pedagogical goals were to increase student knowledge of library resources in general, and business resources in particular, and to increase levels of information literacy and basic research skills. With the help of the College's Centre for New Technology and the Centre for Professional Development, the result was a five-module tutorial entitled Library Research Success that, in addition to its main content, also incorporated hands-on exercises at the end of each module, live connections to the Library's Web site and electronic databases, as well as two assignments, which were submitted electronically to professors at the end of the tutorial by each student, and which composed 25 percent of their final mark. Feedback from both faculty and students has been overwhelmingly positive, and efforts are currently underway to adapt this tutorial to meet the needs of other student groups within Seneca College.