Library Assistant Training Case Study
By Maggie Argiro
Designed for South Seattle College
Background
Currently our Library Assistant training is in Canvas, which the college uses to host their courses. Canvas is a web base learning management system that is highly customizable and easy to manage. To use Canvas, students must be enrolled in the college and have an associated ID number. Until 2019, I had some admin roles in Canvas, making it easy for me to host my training there and enroll students in my training.
The training as it stands in Canvas is geared toward training the combined role of Library Assistant and STARS: student technology advice and resources support. In the library, student employees and part-time hourly employees were cross-trained in both library service assistance and technology support and the budget for these employees came from the eLearning department rather than the library. Though I was a library employee, I oversaw the Library Assistant and STARS, a group of about 17 diverse students, international students, work study students and hourly employees.
Problems
Currently our Library Assistant training is in Canvas, which the college uses to host their courses. Canvas is a web base learning management system that is highly customizable and easy to manage. To use Canvas, students must be enrolled in the college and have an associated ID number. Until 2019, I had some admin roles in Canvas, making it easy for me to host my training there and enroll students in my training.
The training as it stands in Canvas is geared toward training the combined role of Library Assistant and STARS: student technology advice and resources support. In the library, student employees and part-time hourly employees were cross-trained in both library service assistance and technology support and the budget for these employees came from the eLearning department rather than the library. Though I was a library employee, I oversaw the Library Assistant and STARS, a group of about 17 diverse students, international students, work study students and hourly employees.
The problems are as follows:
One additional aim is to give me more flexibility as a manager as well. Because my desk is in the circulation desk area, and is public facing, it has been challenging for me to take meetings or lunches uninterrupted. Because I am available to Library Assistants at any point, there is a tendency toward an overdependence asking me what to do. My goal is that by making this training stronger and more accessible and clarifying the scope of the Library Assistant role that future Library Assistants will be empowered to refer to the training before coming to me for help. This will help the library function more efficiently and effectively.
Solutions
Because the scope of the role for Library Assistants had changed, I needed to remove content that was previously used in the Canvas training. I also updated old content and recreated training videos to be current. Previously I had used a mixture of GIFs, photographs, and videos. Because Rise 360 has prebuilt blocks, I utilized labeled graphics, flashcards, and button stacks to make the training more interactive. This helps to clarify the scope of the Library Assistant role, for example, understanding which questions should be referred to IT or to eLearning. I also included knowledge checks and multimedia. You can see the changes for yourself here:
Highlighted Changes
Some of the major changes include:
Updated content and recreated videos
- Eliminated unneccesary section
- Interactive elements added
You can see examples of the interactive activities below:
Try out the new experience for yourself
If you are curious to try out the new course for yourself, click here to download the PDF or try it out the interactive web version in the frame below: