A Journey in Progress: Been There! Done That! What’s Next! York University’s Virtual Learning

Commons: Phase I and Phase IIVivienne Monty & Sarah Coysh

5th Annual Learning Commons Conference, Kingston, Ontario, June, 2010

2

York University’s Online Learning Commons:

Modular models

York has two: one physical and one virtual

3

Background to Development: Our Students

An overview of York student demographics clearly identifies why one size cannot fit all:

Almost half our students commute more than 40 minutes each way 60% of our first-year students work off campus at an average of 16 hours per week Many of our students work long hours because they have an aversion to debt 50% of our incoming students are first generation with parents that see education as a means of enhancing economic prospects Undergraduate times to completion are longer than the provincial average Almost 50% of first-year students report that they spend 5 hours or less on campus each week outside scheduled class time

York’s Provostial White Paper for Strategic Planning *(Building a More Engaged University: Strategic Directions for York University 2010-2020)

4

Student Needs

Our students usually need help 24/7.

5

Forming the First YULearn Group

Formed in 2007

Makeup of the group

6

Virtual Commons Basics: Criteria of Site Development

The site needed to be integrated and holistic.

All relevant data must fit into one page of web viewing and no scrolling should be necessary.

It must have an online index for easy access.

The site should provide one stop shopping for various skills sets that are needed. Currently there are too many places to look and search in.

7

More Principles and Criteria

Modules must be portable to faculty webs; Moodle etc. and also must be interactive and “fun” for students. They should contain exercises, sample assignments and the like.

The Library should be key/central in development.

Modules would have various media and types of activity such as PowerPoint, Video, exercises and so on.

8

…And the List Goes On

Survey methodology to assess the usefulness of each module should be present.

Skills modules should aim at “post secondary” skills only.

It should have no passwords or other gate keeping attached to it.

The site must undergo usability testing.

9

How We Look Todayhttp://www.yorku.ca/yulearn

10

Don’t Have a Site Without It

Making changes to the site must be easy and seamless. Different media must be integrated effortlessly. The people who design and create the modules in this online presence are also meant to be modular in the same fashion. The team is constantly changing as per requirements. Librarians, however, will continue to provide the backbone as developers and administrators.

11

Done That! Results of the First Year of Development

It took a full year, as we projected, to develop the basic model and for some time our laundry list of what needed to be included grew and grew. In the end, we knew we had to whittle it down to key concepts if it was to work and be used without confusing the users.

12

What’s Next???

Currently, in phase two, we are constructing more interactive modules. As each section develops either the interactivity or the way a module is built is dependant on the nature of the need, students’ feedback and so on.

13

Phase II: Are We Having Fun Yet?

Virtual Learning Commons Committee Members:Counselling Disability ServicesWriting DepartmentYuLearn Project Co-ordinatorAssociate University LibrarianDepartment Head of Scott LibraryE-Learning Librarian

14

Virtual Learning Commons Mandate

1) Replacement of the Library Research Roadmap

2) Replacement of YuLearn

15

Research Roadmaphttp://www.library.yorku.ca/roadmap/

Re-use the contentNeed to integrate writing, learning skills, critical thinking throughout the tutorialDifficult to update (keep in mind when choosing platform)Game Concept: “Snakes and Ladders”Incorporate detours and dead-ends to show flexibilityIncorporate audio visual components (ie. images, sound bytes & video clips).

16

Environmental Scan

Examine online tutorials from around the world.Examined 174 tutorialsSomoza-Fernández, M. and Abadal, E. (2009)"Analysis of web-based tutorials created by academic libraries." Journal of academic librarianship, 35 (2), 126-131 http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/00991333/v35i0002/126_aowtcbal

17

Observations

A table of contents on each pageIncorporated different starting points for students http://www.une.edu.au/library/eskillsplus/

Listed the learning objectives at the start of every module Used faculty and students in photo clips with voice overs

Fun games http://www.lib.cmich.edu/departments/reference/instruct/intro/

Ability to print handouts Incorporated visualization exercises http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~estec/tutorials/scholarly.htm

Audio capability (auditory learners/learning disability) French to English, ie. U of Ottawa http://www.biblio.uottawa.ca/biblio/documents/flash-rsc/deploy/htm/english/Units.htm

18

Project Proposal

Investigating Costs and Designs: University of Ottawa

Cost ($20,000)Who involved? (Professional programmers and designers, instructional designer)Technical requirements (Flash)Story Board (Librarians)

19

Audience: Undergraduate student Generated Key Learning Objectives: Recursive

Functions (Writing, Learning skills and Library research)

Getting Focus

Exploring Topic

Structuring/Thinking

Content

20

Where do we go from here?

Project Proposal

Internal Resources

External Resources

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?