Choose Your Own Adventure

Choose Your Own Teaching Adventure: A Resourceful Way to Balance Content Consistency with Teaching Styles in a Library Orientation Program

Presented by: Katherine Hanz and Vincci Lui,  McGill University

Library Orientation broken into three components: tour and basic orientation, getting started and then finding the right stuff (starting to write my research paper). Each session was specifically branded and marketed. The key to the success of the program was a bookmark that was also ballot; prize for participating in all three sessions and also entered in a draw for 1 of 2 iPad 2.

Struggled with the third component workshop on finding the right stuff as it entered into the grey area of ILI, yet it was decided to keep it as it was a chance to interface with students

Goals for moving forward for revamping orientation program:
1. Incorporate more active learning opportunities
2. Update content and look
3. Keep 1-hour limit
4. Save time of our colleagues by creating a template that could be used within the orientation session
5. Empower librarians with workshop personalization

Choose your own adventure approach so that the instructor could pick and choose (through comment bubbles and notes section within PowerPoint) alternative activities from the standard template as appropriate for their class; including suggestions for different class sizes and disciplines.

The liaison librarians also created a one page handout highlighting key points for each session that included the library contact information, as a take away for students.

Part B: Recognized the importance of surveying librarians querying teaching experience and preferences as well as satisfaction levels and thoughts of the new program offering, utilizing an in-house survey mechanism

Positive Feedback:

• Good basic introduction, foundational IL content
• Explanations in the notes fields
• Options for activities
• Ready-made and customizable 

Needs Work:

• Editing capability on certain aspects within the template
• Handout too busy
• Not enough subject specific options 

Orientation Kit and Training

• Group training session for all librarians who provided orientation sessions
• Bin included all supplies that would be required
• Thorough discussion of how the “choose your own adventure” template works
• Chance to ask questions and receive further information