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The purpose of this paper is to report on the results of a study that assessed whether students learned information literacy concepts after taking the interactive online Tutorial for Information Power (TIP).

The methodology and design involved a pre‐ and post‐test assessment of students who completed an online tutorial.

Students who spent more time working through the tutorial had a statistically significant increase from their post‐test to their pre‐test scores.

Statistically significant results reported from this study are of interest to the educational community involved with the teaching and assessment of information literacy.

This study offers a successful model for evaluating student learning from an online tutorial.

This study is one of the few in the literature addressing the assessment of information literacy and online tutorials.

This study provides some empirical evidence of the relationship between face‐to‐face contact for accounting students by comparing their performance with their attendance at tutorials. Previous research has shown that there was no significant difference in the performance of students, measured by their results, between students who attended tutorials and lectures with those who did not. Internal students who had face‐to‐face contact outscored those who did not attend lectures and tutorials. This suggests that attendance does explain performance. Consistent with previous studies, we posit that students who attended tutorials have a greater possibility of scoring a higher mean average grade than those who did not attend tutorials. We hypothesise that attendance at tutorials is useful and is conducive to better learning in accounting at the undergraduate levels. With debate about converting all accounting undergraduate courses into the flexible mode over the horizon, this study provides some empirical evidence to accounting students, accounting academics and university administrators as to the suitability of learning and teaching modes in accounting at the undergraduate level.

The purpose of the paper is to measure the effectiveness of a highly interactive animated tutorial that aims to teach basic information literacy concepts to undergraduates and to determine which factors enhance online learning.

The tutorial was evaluated using 30 undergraduate students. Each test consisted of a pre‐tutorial questionnaire and a post‐tutorial questionnaire.

Data from the evaluative testing of the tutorial shows that the tutorial is effective in imparting information literacy concepts to undergraduate students. Students responded positively to the interactivity and game‐like nature of the tutorial.

The high degree of interactivity and the game‐like quality of the tutorial are key factors in its success. Thus, developers should aim to incorporate these elements into future online tutorials for undergraduate students.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent of the use of active learning in the online tutorials of members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and to compare these results with those found in a similar study done in 1999 by Nancy Dewald, and also to determine what major types of active learning these sites offer.

The focus of the study in this paper was on “stand‐alone” library skills tutorials, as opposed to those tutorials that need to be used in conjunction with an in‐person course in order to be effective. After defining what counts as a “tutorial” and “active learning”, ARL sites were reviewed to determine whether they employ elements of active learning.

This study found that the percentage of ARL tutorials that employ active learning is significantly greater than the percentage of such tutorials in Dewald's study. Also, some categories of the methods of active learning employed in these tutorials are determined and examples for each category are provided.

Because web page content is fluid and open to frequent changes, the findings of this study may not be accurate by the time of publication.

This paper updates and expands on (by focusing on ARL members) the findings of Dewald's original study of online tutorials. Also, the categories of active learning discussed and the examples of these provided can offer some aid to libraries that wish to add to or expand the use of active learning in their online tutorials.

Bowling Green State University Jerome Library’s Web tutorial, FALCON, models a standard library instructional session on the use of the library’s Web‐based catalog. Tutorials can be particularly helpful in reaching large numbers of students. The degree of interactivity and the design of a tutorial are dependent on the goals of its creators and the intended audience of the product. Several features make FALCON unique. It is interactive, self‐contained and focuses on a single resource. Interactivity is accomplished without scripts or forms. The tutorial’s self‐containment, achieved with a complex system of files and without a live catalog connection, enables users to learn how to search the catalog at their own pace, at a time or place of their choosing and without the threat of venturing into cyberspace. Future enhancements to the tutorial will include assessment and evaluation materials.

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.

To evaluate the impact of an interactive online tutorial aiming to improve student citing and referencing practice.

Action research involving three cycles of activity: identification of the most frequently occurring errors made by new undergraduates and postgraduates following instruction in citing and reference practice given in the autumn of 2002; creation of the tutorial for use by the same students in spring 2003, with the quizzes contributing to a portfolio assessment for the undergraduates. Comparison of the students’ performance before and after using the tutorial, monitoring through WebCT tracking facilities and usability tests with dyslexic students; adoption of the tutorial as the standard departmental practice, repeating the monitoring activities to compare the results with the previous year.

The results of the first cycle of activity showed a high number of errors, despite the instruction received by students, and the need to start the tutorial at an unanticipated basic level. The students responded positively to the tutorial and some improvements in practice were identified, although the tracking facilities revealed limited use by some undergraduates. Comparison of the errors made in 2003‐2004 with those of 2002‐2003 showed improvements all round.

Some of the improvements may be accounted for by the change of practice part way through the previous academic year and other interventions.

The methods used will inform others wishing to carry out and evaluate online learning initiatives. It shows a qualified success in the use of online learning for this purpose.

This article aims to report on a usability study to assess whether students performed better after working through a screencast library tutorial or a web‐based tutorial with screenshots.

This qualitative study asked 21 students from diverse backgrounds and learning styles to take two learning style inventories prior to a usability study. The students then went through two short tutorials (a static web page tutorial with screenshots and a Camtasia screencast (video) tutorial, as well as a pre‐ and post‐test and debriefing for each. The “think aloud” protocol was used as their movements and voices were recorded using the Camtasia software.

The results of this study indicate that across all learning preferences students performed much better in recreating tasks when they used a static web page with screen shots than they did after viewing a screencasting tutorial.

Suggestions are offered for ways to create tutorials that are effective for multiple learning styles that will fit into a student's workflow.

Results of this study may help inform other librarians in ways to effectively design tutorials and learning objects to meet student needs.

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 aim of this paper is to share the experiences and challenges faced by the Open University Library (OUL) in using screen capture software to develop online literature search tutorials.

A summary of information literacy support at the OUL is provided as background information to explain the decision to experiment with screen capture software with particular subjects. A detailed consideration of the design, development and implementation stages of a literature search tutorial in information and communication technology is given before a critical appraisal of the problems encountered.

The paper highlights the challenges in writing and designing self‐guided online learning materials in a subject context. It considers the strengths and weaknesses of the particular screen capture software used, especially with regard to accessibility.

The paper is of interest not only to other academic libraries, but also any organisation seeking to publish online help or learning materials for different audiences.

This paper is the first to document the use of screen capture software for information literacy purposes in a UK academic library and distance‐learning context.