Webifying a Workshop

Abstract

The Knowledge Bank is The Ohio State University's institutional repository, which houses various works by students, faculty, and staff. One of the text collections in the Knowledge Bank is electronic honors theses. Training students to submit their theses was initially given in the form of in-person workshops. Turnout for these workshops was sparse despite attempts to vary the times and days on which they were held and in contrast to the increasing number of questions received about the submission process. In addition to low turnout, requests for workshops at branch campuses made the idea of providing the workshop via the Web seem a desirable solution. This article discusses the criteria for creating such online tutorials and includes information from the literature about similar projects creating Web-based instruction. The authors created the KB Honors Theses tutorial through the use of screen-capture software and voiceover narration. The process through which the authors created their online tutorial is given, including technical aspects and examples of solutions to problems that arose. A description of each module of the tutorial serves as an overview of the content. Each module can be accessed as part of an overall video or individually. Testing and evaluation of the tutorial is also described, including an examination of Web statistics to determine which operating systems and browsers are most commonly used to access OSU Libraries Web pages. Details of problems encountered and solutions to those problems are given. The article concludes with ideas for future directions for the online tutorial.