More Than A Pathfinder: Are We Getting the Most Out of Online Course Guides?

• Main Author: DeFrain, Erica
• Other Authors: University of Arizona Libraries
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: course guides; academic libraries; innovation in libraries; changes in libraries
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/221691

Poster presentation from the Living the Future 8 Conference, April 23-24, 2012, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. === With library budgets continuing to shrink and the ability to create online content becoming an accessible task for almost everyone, the push to offer more scalable online instruction services has never been stronger. The number of library course and subject guides has exploded in recent years, but are they really doing what librarians hope they are? This poster seeks to spark a new dialogue concerning the creation and use of online course guides by looking at the assumptions we hold and what practice has taught us. Who is using them? What is a course guide's lifespan? Do we have the data to support our pedagogical theories? What does the future hold? How can we make them better?