Creating and Implementing a Self-Paced, Multimedia Tutorial by Anna Marie Johnson and Phil Sager Unversity of Louisville http://www.louisville.edu/infoliteracy/tutorial/tutor.htm Our project involves implementing a self-paced, interactive computer tutorial that we created for our online catalog (Minerva). This project is designed not for a specific course, but rather, it is designed to support a vital part of the curriculum, namely instruction in library materials; consequently, it supports the entire student population of the University of Louisville from first-year through graduate students.

Upon completion of the Minerva Tutorial, we wanted the user to be able to

1. understand what kinds of materials an online library catalog contains;
   
2. understand what the function of an online library catalog is;
   
3. understand the concept of a bibliographic record;
   
4. manipulate the catalog to search by author, title, subject, & keyword;
   
5. understand the concept of the Library of Congress subject headings;
   
6. understand how keyword searching differs from subject searching and how both can be helpful depending on the circumstances;
   
7. understand what a call number is and how it functions;
   
8. understand the various locations for materials in U of L libraries;
   
9. understand where to go to ask for help;
   
10. understand basic Minerva-specific commands such as FOR, BAC, INDEX, etc.;
    
11. identify needed elements on a Minerva screen.

We used Authorware (a multimedia authoring package) to construct the tutorial which we placed on computers in the library and campus computer labs. The Minerva tutorial uses a variety of methods to accomplish our objectives. It contains simulations of actual Minerva screens with which the student can interact in accordance with on-screen instructions. The student will practice searching the catalog by author, title, subject, and keyword. There are both practical tips (such as "press IND" to go back to the list of titles) as well as conceptual instruction (such as a diagram illustrating the concept of Boolean searching). There are also engaging images and a friendly, easy-to-navigate interface. Evaluation was conducted in the fall and spring semesters (97/98). One-on-one interviews were also conducted with a group of students who first used the tutorial to determine its clarity and user-friendliness. In order to evaluate whether the tutorial accomplished our objectives outlined above, we designed a twenty question quiz for the students to take after they use the tutorial. The quiz is designed to test the students retention of the content of the tutorial.

If you would like to:

• see our ALA poster session, check out the slides we created using Powerpoint (and converted to HTML).

• get an idea of how Authorware can be used to design a tutorial, feel free to download a run-time version (http://www.louisville.edu/infoliteracy/runtime.htm) of a portion of U of L's tutorial for Minerva.

• try out a portion of the tutorial that has been "shocked" (i.e. converted to run on the world wide web) by running the tutorial demo (http://www.louisville.edu/infoliteracy/demo.htm). However, first you must first have a copy of the Shockwave plug-in for Authorware (Windows 95 or Windows 3.1 only; Mac version of the tutorial is not available at this time). This can be obtained at http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/alternates/index.html

• find out more about Authorware, go to the Authorware site at http://www.macromedia.com/software/authorware/

• consult a bibliography (http://www.louisville.edu/infoliteracy/tutorial/tutorbib.htm) for self-paced, multimedia library tutorial projects and a webliography of web-based tutorials.