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7 Things to know about "Gamification"

students Comments Off

Aug 112011

(I'm sorry, but 'gamification' is not a word.) From EDUCAUSE :

"Gamification [sic] is the application of game elements in non-gaming situations, often to motivate or influence behavior. The rewards or the spirit of competition can spur students’ concentration and interest and lead to more effective learning. The use of gamification [sic] is wide-ranging in higher education, from extra-credit awards and in-class team competitions to complex multi-level schemes that can pervade a course. Although gamification [sic] can be deceptively difficult to employ effectively, it has the potential to help build connections among members of the academic community, drawing in shy students, supporting collaboration, and engendering interest in course content that students might not have otherwise explored. Gamification [sic] offers instructors numerous creative opportunities to enliven their instruction with contests, leader boards, or badges that give students opportunities for recognition and a positive attitude toward their work."

new SPEC kit : Library User Experience

students Comments Off

Jul 282011

From INFODocket :

From ARL:

...explores recent and planned user experience activities at ARL member libraries and the impact [sic] these efforts have on helping the libraries transform to meet evolving user needs. The survey elicited examples of successful user experience activities to serve as benchmarks for libraries looking to create or expand efforts in this area. It also explored whether libraries have created positions or entire departments focused on user engagement and the user experience.

The survey results revealed that nearly all of the responding ARL member institutions are employing a form of user engagement, whether or not they refer to it as user experience. While there appears to be a lack of common vocabulary or program standardization, there is a growing awareness of the need to assess libraries from the user perspective—with new positions and even departments created to accomplish this goal. Overall, respondents feel that efforts made in assessing the user experience are well spent. They articulated numerous projects that resulted in major program updates and facility revisions and that were well received by library administration, governing/funding boards, and most importantly, by library users.

Direct to Executive Summary and TOC (15 pages; PDF)

"Usability Testing for e-Resource Discovery"

research methods, students, Web design Comments Off

Jul 152011

From the latest issue of JAL :

Usability Testing for e-Resource Discovery: How Students Find and Choose e-Resources Using Library Web Sites

Amy Frylow and Linda Rich

ABSTRACT In early 2010, library staff at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in Ohio designed and conducted a usability study of key parts of the library web site, focusing on the web pages generated by the library's electronic resources management system (ERM) that list and describe the library's databases. The goal was to discover how users find and choose e-resources and identify ways the library could improve access to e-resources through its web site. This article outlines the usability study conducted at BGSU, presents its conclusions about how students at BGSU find and choose databases, contextualizes these findings with other current research about user behavior, and makes recommendations for increasing student use of library e-resources.

...

“‘If It is Too Inconvenient, I’m Not Going After It:’ Convenience as a Critical Factor in Information-Seeking Behaviors”

Instruction, students Comments Off

Jun 082011

I couldn't have said it better myself. From INFODocket :

Authors :

Lynn Silipigni Connaway, OCLC Research
Timothy J. Dickey, OCLC Research
Marie L. Radford, Rutgers University.

From the Abstract:

In today’s fast-paced world, anecdotal evidence suggests that information tends to inundate people, and users of information systems want to find information quickly and conveniently. Empirical evidence for convenience as a critical factor is explored in the data from two multi-year, user studies projects funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The theoretical framework for this understanding is founded in the concepts of bounded rationality and rational choice theory, with Savolainen’s (2006) concept of time as a context in information seeking, as well as gratification theory, informing the emphasis on the seekers’ time horizons. Convenience is a situational criterion in people’s choices and actions during all stages of the information-seeking process. The concept of convenience can include their choice of an information source, their satisfaction with the source and its ease of use, and their time horizon in information seeking. The centrality of convenience is especially prevalent among the younger subjects (“millennials”) in both studies, but also holds across all demographic categories—age, gender, academic role, or user or non-user of virtual reference services. These two studies further indicate that convenience is a factor for making choices in a variety of situations, including both academic information seeking and everyday-life information seeking, although it plays different roles in different situations.

Direct to Complete Article (46 pages; PDF)

"This Preprint is Scheduled to Appear in Library and Information Science Research (33: 179-190) and is being made available by OCLC Research."

languages & social media webinar

students Comments Off

Jun 082011

From the DICA-lab (University of Luxembourg) website :

Webinar “Where languages collide: How multilingual literacies make social media real”

14 June 2011, University of Luxembourg and broadcast live, 4 PM [that's 9am CDT]

Media and more specifically social media exist in and through multiple languages – in keyboarding, texting, dubbing, subtitling, translating, gaming and in many other ways of media interaction. Multilingualism is key when participating in (social) media. Media literacy is build from various languages and contexts of language use.

How do social media rely on multiple languages ?
Is there media literacy without multilingualism ?
How do users bridge languages and contents in multiuser contexts ?
How does media literacy construct language identities ?

An interactive debate with two leading researchers in the area of multilingualism and media literacy will address recent findings and discuss examples collected from the multilingual audience preparing and attending the webinar.

Smartphone App for Book Citations

students, tools No Responses »

Feb 162011

Interestingly, while my reaction to this was overwhelmingly positive, a colleague thinks entirely the opposite. What are your thoughts?

From the Chronicle's Wired Campus :

Smartphone App Makes Book Citations a Snap

February 14, 2011, 3:27 pm

By Ben Wieder

A new smartphone application takes most of the grunt work out of citing books in scholarly papers.

Quick Cite, which costs 99 cents and is available for both iPhones and Android-based phones, uses the camera on a smartphone to scan the bar code on the back of a book. It then e-mails you a bibliography-ready citation in one of four popular styles—APA, MLA, Chigaco, or IEEE.

...

Students Left To Their Own Devices . . . Again!

Collaboration, students No Responses »

Feb 112011

One point of "This Is Your Brain on the Internet," my peer-led, peer-taught, class is to give pairs of students, each week, the opportunity to think about the entire shape of our course and all the possibilities offered by our university and shape an intellectual experience--assignments, field trips, all that--that is challenging and inspiring. Every week, I am blown away by what they come up with. To reiterate, I have created a syllabus in the past. For this class, that syllabus still exists. There are some unchangeable events (three guest speakers, collaborative midterm exam, etc) but for every other unit, the two students in charge read what I have planned, and decide to go with that, to add something, or to change the topic. So far, all the peer leaders have changed the topic . .. and the class is like nothing I have ever experienced.

"Perceptions of Libraries, 2010: Context and Community"

faculty, statistics, students No Responses »

Jan 222011

From the ResourceShelf, a new report from OCLC:

From an OCLC Announcement:

Perceptions of Libraries, 2010: Context and Community, a follow-up to the 2005 Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources, is now available. The new report provides updated information and new insights into information consumers and their online information habits, preferences and perceptions. Particular attention was paid to how the current economic downturn has affected information-seeking behaviors and how those changes are reflected in the use and perception of libraries.

The OCLC membership report explores:

+ Technological and economic shifts since 2005
+ Lifestyle changes Americans have made during the recession, including increased use of the library and other online resources
+ How a negative change to employment status impacts use and perceptions of the library
+ How Americans use online resources and libraries in 2010
+ Perceptions of libraries and information resources based on life stage, from teens to college students, to senior Americans.

The membership report is based on U.S. data from an online survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of OCLC. OCLC analyzed and summarized the results in order to produce this report.

On pages 94-97 (beginning on page 51 of PDF) some numbers from the original research Harris Interactive are reported for the first time. The section is titled, "2010 Hot Spots."

On pages 98-101 (beginning of page 53 of PDF) some advice for librarians from library users.

Download the Report (Free)
The report can be downloaded as one document (59 pages; PDF) or by chapter.

You can also purchase a bound version of the report for $19.00/U.S. Details here.

report on "How Different Generations Use the Internet"

Announcements, faculty, Instruction, students, Web design No Responses »

Dec 182010

From the ResourceShelf :

Generations 2010

HTML Version (Searchable) ||| PDF Version (29 pages)

From the Overview Page:

The dominance of the Millennial generation that we documented in our first “Generations” report in 2009 has slipped in many activities.

Milliennials, those ages 18-33, remain more likely to access the internet wirelessly with a laptop or mobile phone. In addition, they still clearly surpass their elders online when it comes to many communication- and entertainment-related activities, such as using social network sites and playing games online.

However, internet users in Gen X (those ages 34-45) and older cohorts are more likely than Millennials to engage in several online activities, including visiting government websites and getting financial information online.

Finally, the biggest online trend is that, while the very youngest and oldest cohorts may differ, certain key internet uses are becoming more uniformly popular across all age groups. These online activities include seeking health information, purchasing products, making travel reservations, and downloading podcasts.

A Few Stats From the Report:

...

+ Few of the activities covered in this report have decreased in popularity for any age group, with the notable exception of blogging. ...

...

+ About six in ten American adults (59%) go online wirelessly, either through their smartphones or through a wireless card in their laptop.3 Adults age 45 and younger are the most likely to connect to the internet with a laptop, cell phone, or other internet-connected mobile device, as 82% of Millennials and 71% of Gen X connect that way. Only 9% of the G.I. Generation go online wirelessly.

+ Email and search engine use remain the backbone of online activities, with 88% of the oldest generation using email. Communicating by email is not as popular with teens, however; only 73% of teens use email.

Full Text HTML Version (Searchable) ||| Complete PDF Version (29 pages)

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project