Online library tutorial kudos
One of the latest additions to the PRIMO database, Baruch College’s Beginner’s Guide to Business Research, hits it out of the park, in my opinion. The production quality is higher than I’ve seen in most other library tutorials, and the instructional design elements are very strong. There’s well-timed audio, a good script, straightforward but flexible navigation, and a real sense of modularity–you can move around between components without losing your place. It’s also very content-rich.
The flip side of all this is that a large part of the tutorial development, including the coding and elements of the instructional design, was outsourced to Kognito Solutions. They did a terrific job and it sounds (from the PRIMO interview) as though they worked collegially with the librarians involved. So good for Baruch and Kognito, but it’s still an open question as to how those of us without dedicated in-house programmers and developers can replicate this level of work.
