Learn more about OER developed through the Library’s program.

Today has been a successful day! To start out, we had another week without internet problems! Let’s hope this keeps up! I’ve also been given CUNY credentials, so fingers crossed that we have solutions for the future.
I focused most of my day on my “How to develop a research question” tutorial. This slideshow tutorial takes students through the steps necessary to develop a research question for a generic research paper. Although the bulk of information is written in text format because of the nature of the topic, students can also follow along with our knight school student who is writing their first research paper on dragons using the advice from the slides. This knight and their wise mentor featured in this tutorial were developed using Photoshop by yours truly, with textual content based off of the work of City Tech librarian Nora Almeida. The tutorial will be uploaded to the City Tech Library website soon, but here’s a sneak preview:

Once this tutorial was completed, I continued working on my “Citation Holy Grail Quest” choose-your-own-adventure tutorial. This tutorial is meant to gamify the citation experience, challenging students to choose the correct aspects of a citation at risk of poison dart attacks. Right now I am writing in inklewriter, a free, browser-based publishing platform, but I’m attending a workshop on Twine this evening and may change my plan afterward. I will report in next time (which will be this Thursday) about my decisions! 

Highlights from Seminar 1 (10/6): OER Fundamentals

Highlights from Seminar 2 (10/20): Finding/Selecting OER & Licensing

Tuesday, November 7, 2017
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm
A540 Electronic Classroom
Learn more about privacy and take control of your digital identity! In this hands-on workshop, City Tech Faculty, Students, and Staff will learn how to protect themselves against surveillance and unwanted data collection. Specific topics covered will include: password security, social media privacy, browser settings, and alternative search engines.
 
RSVP: Prof. Keith Muchowski

Hi everyone! I’m happy to report that this week there were no tech problems! It’s a Halloween miracle!
I spent the morning with instructional librarian Nora Almeida brainstorming ideas for our new tutorials. We are thinking about tutorials for how to come up with a research question, how to read a citation, and how to find a database. So far, our ideas have included a slideshow/cartoon that takes users through the research question process as well as a choose your own adventure story for identifying parts of a citation. We’re still working out what we’re doing regarding the database tutorial. Our struggle has especially been what metaphor works best for finding a database. There are layers like an onion (or a parfait), but it still doesn’t quite cover the bases. I will update you as we progress!
Otherwise, I focused today on creating the cartoon for the research question process. That should be ready in the next week or so, and hopefully will be live soon. Here’s a sneak preview of what we have in store:

Happy Halloween everyone!

Today was a fairly successful day! We had rapid response from IT this morning, so I was on the internet fairly quickly! We are also well on our way to getting my credentials, so hopefully we won’t have any of these worries soon.
In terms of projects, I worked on my LibGuide based on the suggestions by the librarians from last week’s instruction meeting. I added a worksheet to the research question section, which will be downloadable and fillable for students. I also added two new quizzes using PlayBuzz. We’re hopeful that this will be the winner on the quiz front. I have also been working on tutorials for asking a research question, how to understand a citation, and how to find textbooks. I’m working on a character who will take you through these processes that I’m looking forward to debuting in the future!
Have a great week, everyone!

Nothing starts off a Monday like internet problems. But don’t worry! We might finally get this problem fixed soon with brand new credentials for this intern. It’ll be so exciting to get to access the internet as soon as I arrive instead of waiting for one of the lovely folks from IT to come up and sign me in!
This afternoon, I attended a meeting with the instructional staff here at the City Tech Library. The librarians in attendance took a closer look at the LibGuide I’ve been preparing and provided feedback on what can be done to improve it. For instance, a font I used in some of the graphics may have been a little dated. I changed them to Britannic Bold, which should be a little more with the times! We have a few tweaks to take care of next week, but I think we’re well on our way and should be publishing soon.
We also took a look at the LibWizard feature from SpringShare, the parent company for LibGuides. Our hope was that we could embed quizzes that students could take that would give them immediate feedback and help them learn. Unfortunately, it seems LibWizard is mostly for surveys and cannot give the user any feedback about their work, so we’re moving on! I’ve looked into Sporcle, a popular trivia quiz site that I’ve used as a study tool in the past. What’s nice about Sporcle is that you can easily embed your quizzes and have different types of questions for students. Unfortunately, it seems that advertising may stop us from using it, as well as some questions about our intellectual property rights. We’re still working out what we can do to embed quizzes, but we’d like to have the LibGuide be as interactive as possible.
Have a good week!

Today has been action packed here at City Tech Library! First of all, I finished the first draft of my research guide! We have a few adjustments to be made, but we it should be available for use soon.
I also spent a good portion of my day checking out the program inklewriter. inklewriter lets you write a choose-your-own-adventure story with images and links. I thought it would be a perfect way to gamify the library tutorials. Right now we’re testing it out with the “Quest for the Citation Grail,” a game where students identify parts of a citation. This test run allows us to learn how this platform works and what its capabilities truly are. We want to investigate more into intellectual property rights and the ease with which we can embed the final stories, but we think this has a lot of potential for making a more interesting website.
The most fun thing we did all day was by far acting in the library trailer being put together by the Entertainment Technology students. I watched as City Tech librarian Nora Almeida featured at the reference desk, then was asked to star in the trailer myself! I was interviewed by Joe, who asked me for tips on using the library. I suggested using the library website, which features the catalog, room reservations, and even movies! I’m really looking forward to what these awesome students come up with by the end of the semester!