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Online resources can be helpful for students and can augment the content presented in learning environments. A team consisting of four biologists, a graduate student, instructional designer and media developers collaborated on the design, development and evaluation of first-year biology online tutorials in a Canadian University. The tutorials were designed to address knowledge gaps resulting in low success rates and attrition of first-year students in biology. The decrease in the number of students in STEM has alarmed educators, prompting a call for efforts to increase STEM majors in universities. Large class sizes, such as first year biology with ∼900 registrants annually, with detail-oriented, content-heavy loads, can result in low success rates and attrition.

Active learning methods, including online formative assessments, which encourage student engagement in course material, can be effective in large introductory science classes, and thus, the authors provided engagement with tutorial online resources. The authors identified the tutorial topics by analyzing previous years' tests, student feedback and pedagogical research in undergraduate biology. The top five topics identified as common misconceptions or troublesome concepts within the course were selected. Standard instructional design processes were used to produce high-quality online tutorials. Tutorials included learning materials, videos, animations, self-assessments, reflective questions and badges to facilitate deep learning of the topics. Effectiveness of the tutorials was evaluated using quantitative methods and quasi-experimental design to compare the student learning results between the control year (without tutorials) and the year when tutorials were offered. Pre- and posttests measuring conceptual understanding were administered to assess gains in student learning. Additionally, student engagement was measured using the Classroom Survey of Student Engagement (CLASSE), and data from learning management system was collected.

Results of the study show that the tutorials were an effective means of providing supplementary assistance to students as well as fostering a gain in students' levels of engagement with the course. Data analysis indicates that there was a significant increased gain in learning of core concepts in biology. Specifically, using formative online assessments resulted in measurable learning gains in students who participated voluntarily, in comparison to students who chose not to engage in self-paced quiz testing.

As seen from the description earlier, the tutorials, and this project, provide suitable university-level complexity to address specific learning gaps in the first year course. They provide a valuable service to students in terms of representing content in an alternate format and motivating students as they engaged with videos and self-assessment most frequently. The project adds to the teaching and learning environment with respect to program design, mode of delivery and scheduling by providing self-paced tutorials that focus on specific concepts in biology. Students may review these resources whenever and as often as they feel necessary to better master the concepts. This makes the content applicable for the various preferences for approaches to learning and accommodation requirements found in students. Importantly, using formative online assessments resulted in measurable learning gains in students who participated voluntarily, in comparison to students who chose not to engage in self-paced quiz testing.

This article examines a structured redesign of one academic library's offering of its online learning objects. This process considered both improving the online learning objects and developing a feasible workflow process for librarians. The findings for both processes are discussed.

The scholarship on online library learning objects and web tutorials, beginning with Dewald's seminal study, was examined for trends, patterns, and best practices. From this research, informal interviews were conducted with library faculty members. Once this information had been collected, other public university libraries in the state of Michigan – 14 in all – were considered in terms of if, and how, they offered online learning objects and web tutorials. These three areas of inquiry provide a foundation for the best practices and workflows developed.

Based on the scholarship, librarian feedback, and informal assessment of other public university libraries' practices, best practices were developed for web tutorial evaluation and creation. These best practices are to make online learning content: maintainable, available, geared at users, informative, and customizable. Workflows for librarians around these best practices were developed. Also, using these best practices, the library redesigned its tutorials web page and employed a different content management tool, which benefitted both librarians and users with increased interactivity and ease of use.

This article shares best practices and library workflows for online learning objects in ways that are not commonly addressed in the literature. It also considers the library's online instructional presence from the perspectives of both user and librarian, and works to develop structures in which both can function effectively. This article is also of value because of the practical implications it offers to library professionals.

Vlogging constitutes a potential advertising channel for branded products. This paper aims to investigate the role and antecedents of the learning value, i.e. substantive (vs nonsubstantive) information processing, in consumers’ purchase behavior online.

The authors used a mixed-methods approach including qualitative data from 25 interviews, and two quantitative studies (a field study on 4,560 members of a vlogging learning community and a replication survey on 118 participants in a different context).

The results highlight the predominant role played by perceived learning due to the characteristics of the online environment. The authors further identify the components of vlog tutorials’ learning value. The findings distinguish structured from destructured learning content depending on consumers’ level of expertise.

The findings recommend developing the learning value for consumers. Managers should provide micro learning unit tutorials for expert consumers and complete structured learning units for novices based on core and additional learning components.

In contrast with traditional entertainment videos, tutorials provide added learning value that affects purchase behaviors to a greater extent. The results present in learning components that are recommended when developing learning tutorials.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

The paper provides information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

This paper seeks to compare the accessibility features and ease of use of three tutorial creation products – Camtasia® 6 (by TechSmith®), Captivate® 4 (by Adobe®), and VoiceThread® – to determine which product creates the most accessible tutorials.

The paper tested the accessibility of the tutorials created using Camtasia, Captivate, and VoiceThread against the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template® (VPAT®) criteria. The tests were completed using JAWS®, a screen‐reading software application. Results were compared to determine which product(s) created the most accessible tutorials. The products' ease of use and user manuals were also evaluated.

Camtasia and Captivate exceed VoiceThread in terms of accessibility compliance. In testing the products, the paper concluded that the VPATs were accurate, with minor exceptions. All products provide user manuals and help guides; Camtasia and Captivate have steeper learning curves than VoiceThread.

This study compares only three of the available tutorial creation products. Accessibility features may change with new versions.

The results of the evaluation will enable other librarians to make more informed decisions when purchasing and using tutorial creation products.

Ensuring accessibility of online resources is everyone's responsibility. This paper will help readers to meet that goal.

While there are comparison studies of the features of Camtasia, Captivate, and VoiceThread, accessibility features are largely uncovered. This study adds this dimension to the literature, enabling librarians to make more informed decisions when selecting and using these products to create accessible tutorials.

This paper aims to explore innovative ways to integrate business information literacy and database instruction into courses that require in-depth research.

This paper outlines the use of the instructional design process to effectively develop specialized Guide on the Side (GotS) tutorials for upper-level business students.

Students valued the interactive nature of the GotS tutorials and appreciated that the instruction was at point of need.

This paper describes one librarian’s journey of creating interactive tutorials with the instructional design process. It is a starting point for other academic librarians looking to embed tutorials in courses.

GotS is an interactive tutorial software and librarians are looking for effective ways to incorporate online tutorials into their information literacy instruction.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how the introduction of new technologies has affected student support at the United Kingdom Open University (UKOU) particularly focusing on face-to-face tutorials and online tutorials, what this impact implies for open universities and in what direction the innovations toward the sustainability of open universities should proceed.

Research on the historical development of UKOU and a literature review was conducted.

The rationale behind the foundation of UKOU has been to provide higher education to those who have time and physical constraints. There is no doubt that the introduction of advanced technologies has played a significant role in the growth of the university. However, when the university attempted to replace face-to-face tutorials with online tutorials on the basis of its purpose, a number of students and faculty members opposed the decision even though online tutorials fit within its original objective. This paper suggests that face-to-face tutorials have become the essence of the university through the process of identifying the university in the past and the university’s identity may need to be distinguished from the rationale.

This paper emphasizes the necessity of rethinking the Open and Distance Education rationale and, on the basis of past studies on UKOU, offers a unique perspective about the changes that have taken place at the university.

The paper seeks to explore and discuss in detail the application of instructional media features in developing web‐based library instruction in order to strengthen students' online learning experience.

The paper surveys research findings on instructional media features that can be incorporated into library instruction in the web environment. The effective use of media elements such as text, color, graphics, navigation systems, audio, video, as well as the implementation of interaction and feedback, are analyzed. Exemplary illustrations supplement the discussions of guidelines for the design of successful online library tutorials.

Academic libraries are taking advantage of technological innovations to extend instructional opportunities and enrich traditional classroom‐based bibliographic instruction. Web‐based library instruction requires more than duplicating print instructional materials on the web. Good online information tutorials should effectively incorporate multiple instructional media into the web presence to convey the instruction in multi‐stimulating ways.

The findings of the paper will be helpful to librarians who plan to design and develop web‐based instruction or online tutorials for the greater engagement of students.

The paper provides practical help to librarians in obtaining an understanding of various instructional media capabilities for creating effective online instructional materials.

The purpose of this paper is to share the process that Northwest Missouri State University B.D. Owens Library uses to decrease plagiarism including citation style guides, academic honesty and plagiarism tutorials, online movies, and interactive learning objects that teach citing, which can be used or adapted by other libraries in both online and on‐ground information literacy instruction environments.

Rationale for the inclusion of citation instruction in on‐ground and online formats, their application, and uses are discussed.

Citation reference questions as a percentage of the total number of reference questions answered by librarians are on the rise. This increase may be attributed to the growth of electronic resources, which are inadequately covered in citation manuals. Students frequently struggle with identifying types of sources listed in database or bibliography citations, causing them to create bibliographies filled with errors.

Resources are presented that can be adapted by academic librarians seeking to curb plagiarism and student citation problems.

Tutorials are listed and described which cover the ethical issue of plagiarism. These can be used in their native format or adapted with permission to meet the needs of local institutions.

To address an increasingly fluid online academic environment, this case study provides a systematic approach, which includes online style manual textbooks, tutorials, instruction, and reference.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

Information about each source is provided. The paper discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information in the paper may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.