Web-based library instruction for promoting information skills

Journal of Instructional Psychology, Dec, 2003 by Lih-Juan ChanLin, Chwen-Chwen Chang

* Feedback

When requests were responded to, some students would provide feedback or reactions toward the responded message. The feedback is varied from a thank note to a message together with another solicitation. Students' feedback was a way to know whether their questions were answered. However, feedback might not be necessarily provided after questions were responded to. Without further information, the respondents had no way to know whether their responses satisfied the solicitors or not.

* Chat

Personal statements, experiences, or ideas were shared. However, to eliminate too much unrelated chat, some warning messages were given by the web manager, reminding students as to the purposes of the discussion column.

Assessing User Responses

To assess reactions from users, an investigation was conducted to obtain user's responses. An online questionnaire containing both close-ended and open-ended questions was included in the web-site to assess both quantitative and qualitative information about students' responses. In the open-ended questions, students were asked to describe in text about the things they liked and they didn't like about the web-site. They were also encouraged to provide suggestions for improving the web-site. The close-ended questions containing 8 statements were aiming to obtain a general view towards the WBI, including organization of the content, usefulness of resources and materials, online discussion, etc (Table 1). Students were asked to rate their responses from "strongly disagree" to "strong agree" toward each statement in the Likert-type questions.

Close-Ended Response

In the close-ended questions, response scale ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly disagree) was used. A total of eighty-eight students filled out the questionnaires. Reliability coefficients alpha analyzed for the questionnaire items is 0.84. From the data analyzed, most students showed a positive attitude towards the WBI and found that it helped them learn (average point for each statement higher than 3.0). Students' responses toward items 6 and 7 reflected high value and future expectation on the web-based learning experience. Responses from 1, 2, 5, and 8 also indicated students" positive attitude toward LibTeach, including the organization of the content and the resources provided in the instruction. Students enjoyed learning with the instructional materials, and would continue learning from it. However, the responses from items 3 and 4 reflected a need for improvement in "on-line discussion", and "relation to other courses".

Open Ended Responses

Analyzed from the open-ended questions, most students felt that the web-based library instruction offered them a more individualized approach to work at their own pace. It was consistently flexible, and met students' needs to repeat or skip sections according to their needs. In the study, students reacted positively that this mode of learning allowed for greater interactivity between students and the computer, and is useful for providing hands-on simulations of online search techniques. However, the use of web-based instruction for learning library instruction posed some problems, such as low speed for surfing the web and infrequent use of on-line reference desk. Also, not many students participated in the on-line discussion. As reflected by students, "Posing questions on the web waiting for answer is not so effective as the face-to-face approach, especially when the answer to the question is in urgent need."