Using the Virtual Training Suite to enhance information skills

University of Plymouth,Learning Technologies seminar

Angela Joyce 27 April 2010

What is VTS?

• Origins• Free tutorials for teaching info skills for H.E.

students, subject-based• Flexible, easy, fun• Popular service, funded by JISC• Part of Intute service – but Intute itself to be

wound down from July 2010

• http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/

VTS today

VTS templateEach tutorial is divided into four main sections: • Tour

the best of the Web for your subject • Discover

how to find scholarly information online • Judge

which Internet resources are appropriate for university work • Success

examples of students using the Internet for research

Example – Internet for Business and Management

http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/tutorial/business/

What do users think of VTS?

User surveys & link analysis…

• VTS popular part of Intute• Users link mainly thru

lecturers, course materials, not search engines

• Users impatient!

• Tutorials emphasise difference between academic & popular Web 2.0 content

• Include Google tips• Recommend libraries &

specialist d/bases etc.

Why bother with VTS?

• Higher education in a Web 2.0 world

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/generalpublications/2009/heweb2.aspx JISC, 2009

On prior experience of H.E. learners:

‘Information literacies, including searching, retrieving, critically evaluating information from a range of appropriate sources and also attributing it – represent a significant and growing deficit area…’

VTS can help students to acquire valuable information skills.

30 new tutorials due, summer 2010

• Architecture• Archive Studies* (MIMAS tutorial)• Art and Design• Classics• English• Fashion and Beauty• Linguistics• Media and Communication• Music• Anthropology• Hospitality and Catering• Social Policy• Social Statistics• Sociology• Sport, Leisure and Recreation

• Travel and Tourism• Women's Studies• Allied Health• Dentistry and Oral Health• Food Safety• Pharmacy• Plant Sciences• Earth Sciences• Electrical Engineering• Geography• Health and Safety• Materials Engineering• Mathematics• Mechanical Engineering• Petroleum and Offshore Engineering• Video/audio

Ideas for using VTS… •Put a link in Blackboard to one for your subject

•Use it in lectures, as part of learning

•Get students to pick their top 5 sites, and why

•Share useful websites on Blackboard, delicious, etc

Future plans

Community-driven

modelFree JISC-funded

model

Keep in touch

• VTS Twitter channel coming

• Intute blog for updates/tipshttp://www.intute.ac.uk/blog/

• Email me with any comments/ideasangela.joyce@bristol.ac.uk

Thanks!

Angela Joyce