Implementing online training sessions for library employees

Tue Jan 27 13:21:24 EST 2015

Robyn,

You have a lot of things to consider in terms of online trainings. Moodle may indeed be too big for your needs, but it allows for communication between learner and instructor. Similar options to Camtasia would be Adobe Captivate (particularly if you have designers already working with Adobe Creative Suite products) or Articulate Storyline. Both of those have the option to build questions or knowledge tests as well as incorporate video or screen captures. They aren't intuitive and you'd need time for your designer to figure out how to build what you need! You might also choose to go with a synchronous online training option, using something like WebEx or Adobe Connect to create webinar trainings in addition to the self-paced tutorials. These could also be recorded for staff to view later, though adding in a comprehension test might be a challenge.

Some things to consider:
Do you want your staff members to interact with the instructor, either in real time as the instruction takes place or asynchronously as with Moodle? 
If you have self-paced trainings, will the participant have access to audio and video capabilities on the computer they use to complete the training? Will they be doing the training while at a service point? If so, you want the option to read captions, not audio, and to pause the training to do other things.

What online training options do the ILS vendors offer? This can be a good starting point, but some vendor trainings tend to be "everything but the kitchen sink about this product" rather than "you will absolutely need to know these top-ten things the day we go live in the new system" or else they are not specific to the institution and give information about the system that conflicts with library policies. (Such as telling staff "you can change the password of any customer by doing X" when library policy states "The customer must come in with an ID to request a password change" or similar.)

Will you use this tutorial only for initial implementation for the ILS change, or will you use it for training new staff on the ILS going forward? If you want to continue to use it, make sure the software and the design allow for easily changing out screen shots/video captures as upgrades make things look or work differently.

If you're designing online training modules in-house, you need a subject expert who knows the ILS forward and backward and also knows the library's use of it and policies; an instructional designer who can figure out how to test understanding and measure completion; and a software expert who can build the exercises and tests required by the instructional designer.

I feel like I've asked more questions than answered, but it might be a starting point. 

Oh, here's a nice customer service training which I think was probably done in Articulate: http://create.coloradovirtuallibrary.org/getting-started-library-customer-service 

I'm interested to hear if others have input on this topic. Online training is great, but getting started is time-consuming if you're trying to build modules in-house!

Tiffany Hayes, Library Training Coordinator
Cumberland County Public Library & Information Center
Winner of the National Medal for Museum and Library Service
910-483-7727 ext. 1306
thayes at cumberland.lib.nc.us
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Date:    Mon, 26 Jan 2015 13:34:19 -0500
From:    XML in libraries <robyn.maler at VILLE.MONTREAL.QC.CA>
Subject: Implementing online training sessions for library employees

Hello,

I am a systems librarian at the Montreal Public Libraries. I have been
reading the questions and answers posted to this listserv for over a year
now and generally find them to be very useful and interesting. I am
writing today in the hopes of hearing from people who have implemented
online trainings for employees at their libraries.

We are a network of 45 public libraries with approximately 900 employees.
We offer two major trainings to new employees: a comprehensive training on
our ILS and a customer service training. We also offer various other,
smaller-scale trainings on specialized modules of our ILS (e.g.
cataloguing) to our technicians and librarians. We are looking at
converting these smaller training sessions into an online format in order
to make them more convenient for employees and to reduce our training
budget. We will also be migrating our ILS (Millennium to Sierra) this year
and would like, wherever possible, to offer online training on the new
ILS.

We are looking for a way to create video tutorials and then test the
participants' knowledge. So far, I have looked at Moodle, an online
courseware tool which offers a lot of great possibilities but may be
overkill for our needs, as well as the possibility of using Camtasia and a
separate survey tool to test the participants' knowledge.

Has anyone implemented online trainings for employees of their library
network? What kinds of trainings did you choose to adapt for distance
learning? What software/tools did you use, and were you satisfied with
them? How did you test employees' knowledge?

Thank you for your replies.

Robyn Maler
Bibliothécaire
Division de la planification et du développement du réseau des
bibliothèques
Direction des Bibliothèques
Service de la culture
Ville de Montréal
801, rue Brennan, 5e étage
Montréal (Québec) H3C 0G4

Téléphone: 514 872-4253
Télécopieur: 514 872-0530

robyn.maler at ville.montreal.qc.ca
bibliomontreal.com

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2015-01-27