The document summarizes planned changes to the Intute Virtual Training Suite (VTS), which provides online tutorials teaching internet research skills. Based on user feedback and trends, 30 new tutorials will launch covering key subject areas. Tutorials will be shorter and easier to read, focus more on academic resources, and help students understand academic research processes. The tutorials and website will have a new design and address evidence that internet skills are increasingly important for university-level education. User feedback supported the service and suggested improvements like incorporating more library resources and community engagement.

1. Teaching Internet research skills
New directions for the
Intute: Virtual Training Suite
Emma Place, Intute
ILRT, University of Bristol
emma.place@bristol.ac.uk

4. • What’s new with VTS?
• Why we decided to change
• Sneak preview of the changes
• Discussion

5. You are the first to know ….
The Intute: Virtual Training Suite
is launching
30 new Internet tutorials
this July

6. New tutorial titles …
Arts and Humanities
• Archaeologist
• Historians
• Philosopher
• Religious Studies
• Modern Languages
• Photography
• Performing Arts
Health & Life Sciences
• Agriculture
• Microbiology
• Health & Social Care
• Medicine
• Midwifery
• Biodiversity
• Nursing
• Veterinary Medicine

7. Science & Engineering
• Aeronautical
Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Chemical
Engineering
• ICT
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Environment
Social Sciences
• Business & Management
• Economics
• Education
• Lawyers
• Psychology
• Social Work
• Government & Politics
• Social Research Methods

8. So what’s new?
We update the service in light of:
1. Internet developments
2. User feedback

9. Internet developments
Intute editors have been following:
Web 2.0 developments
• blogs, podcasts, videos, social networks
Academic Web trends
• Changes in online academic publishing,
library services, eBooks, eJournals,
eLearning objects, Google scholar etc.

10. User feedback
1. Internal review of the VTS
2. Intute user-surveys
3. External market research report on
Intute

11. Research questions
• Is there a proven need/demand
for VTS?
• How do users want to see VTS develop?

12. Methods
• Analysis of User-Feedback Forms: qualitative and quantitative
analysis of the c5,000 online feedback forms received from VTS
users over the last 5 years
• Analysis of Web Statistics: focusing on statistics compiled
during the year 1st
Jan – 31st
Dec 2007, but also making use of
statistics from the previous 5 years.
• Locating Examples of Use of VTS in Higher Education:
examining university and library websites that link to VTS and a
sample of feedback data collected via email
• Online Survey of over 100 VTS Authors and Intute Staff: to
gather internal views on the way forward for VTS
• Tutorial Technology Review: comparison of different
technologies available for offering online training tutorials
• Literature Review: recent evidence in the academic literature
about Internet research skills in higher education

13. Results
There is a growing recognition of the need to teach
Internet research skills to university students:
• 100% of VTS survey respondents agreed
• 66% of Intute user-survey respondents felt that
a national training service like VTS was needed
• Literature review reveals that Internet research
skills are now increasingly mainstream for
undergraduate degrees (eg. explosion of text
books in this subject)

14. Is there a proven demand for VTS?
• Analysis of Web statistics reveal an
upward trend in use of the service from 2
million page views in 2002 to 12 million
for 2007
• Market research revealed that VTS is
one of the most highly used parts of the
Intute service as a whole
• Peaks in use match university terms dates, suggesting
the service is being used by the target audience (and
67% of our online feedback forms come from university
students)

15. Is there evidence of VTS being
used in HE courses?
• Online feedback forms from students
state that they were guided to the tutorial
by their lecturer/course materials
• Referrral data from the Web stats
revelas 1/3 of users are coming to VTS
from .ac.uk websites, and access via
search engines in low
• Backlinks reveal many library websites
now link to VTS tutorials, as do some
course materials

16. Which tutorials are most popular?
• Web stats enabled us to rank
tutorials from most to least used.
• Market research suggests we
should focus more on HE degree
subjects – with limited resources
focus on those subjects with the
highest student populations

17. What do users like/dislike about VTS?
Feedback forms from students suggested they:
Like
• Collection of links
• Links basket
• Easy to use
• Clarity and
simplicity
• quizzes
Dislike
• Length of the
tutorials
• Reading lots of
text on screen
• Technical
problems

18. Feedback forms from staff:
• Revealed some strong views that Web
2.0 actually increases the imperative for
teaching students to Internet research
skills.
• That significant changes to VTS would
be unpopular, now that it was built into
websites/courses
• 70% of respondents to the online survey
thought VTS would be missed if it were
gone

19. What works well, what would they
change?
Works well
• Use of experts from
the community to
update tutorials
• Tutorial approach /
tone (“friendly
expert”)
• Not just spoon-
feeding links but
teaching search and
evaluation skills
Would change
• More focus on
academic Internet
resources
• Help students
understand the
process of academic
research
• More on the
difference between
academic publishing
and Web 2.0 user-
generated content
• More community
engagement

20. Change in approach
• Target audience is now students in
higher education (not staff)
• Subject coverage VTS will not grow
in size but tutorial titles will be
based on most popular university
courses

21. Changes to content
• Written for HE students
• To help with coursework &
assignments
• Focus on academic sources online
• Includes Web 2.0 but in academic
context
• Much more about libraries!

22. Changes in design
• Brand new web design
• Easier to read online
• Shorter
• More graphics
• No technical hitches!

27. http://vtsdev.ilrt.org/tutorial/philosophy/

28. Questions
• Would you use a VTS online
community area?
• Would you like VTS to offer a place
to share methods for teaching
Internet research skills in HE?
• Would you be willing to share how
you teach these skills / use VTS?