1. What is the purpose of this tutorial? 2. What is "information literacy?" 3. What hardware and software do I need in order to use it? 4. How does it work? 5. How do you log in and have your pretest and quiz scores recorded? 6. How do you check your own scores? 7. I logged in, completed a pre-test and logged out. How do I take the quiz as a logged-in user? 8. I am a UCLA instructor. How do I view my students' scores? 9. I logged in and took the pretests and quizzes for a class. Do I have to take them again for a different class? 10. What concepts underlie this tutorial? 11. Who did the programming? 12. Who provided funding? 13. My question was not answered. How can I reach someone to get an answer?
The "Road to Research" is an information literacy tutorial, with content designed by UCLA College Library librarians, Esther Grassian, Pauline Swartz, and Diane Mizrachi, to help students evaluate and improve their information research skills.
"Information literacy is the ability to identify an information need, locate information efficiently, evaluate information, and use information effectively and ethically." (From a resolution adopted by the statewide University of California's Academic Council, September 24, 2003.)
You can use the tutorial on a Macintosh or a PC, using any of a number of different versions of Internet Explorer, Netscape, Safari or Mozilla. You will need the free Flash reader in order to view the short movies in the "Find It! Books" (page 3), "Find It! Periodicals" (page 1), and "Find It! Articles" (under development) sections. You can download the Flash reader here.
The tutorial consists of four pretests with five questions each, four instructional modules with practice exercises and answers, and a quiz for each module. Exercises are interactive and are for practice. Exercise results are not scored or stored.
The Guest version of the tutorial is the same as the UCLA Login version, with two exceptions. Guest pretests and quiz questions are always the same, and Guest pretest and quiz scores are not stored for instructor review.
Logged in UCLA users may take each pretest just once, but may take each quiz three times. Pretest and quiz questions for logged in users rotate from an SQL database. Results of logged in users' pretests and quizzes are stored and availabe to UCLA instructors.
5. How do you log in and have your pretest and quiz scores recorded?
Pull down the Help menu and select "How To."
6. How do you check your own scores?
Click on "My Scores" on the bottom green part of any tutorial page.
Begin by clicking on Guest at the Welcome screen. Then click on Skip to Tutorial. Pull down the menu for the module you want (Starting Points, Find It, Judge for Yourself, or Road Etiquette), go through the lessons and exercises, and then click on Quiz (Login). You will be prompted to log in at that point, and your quiz score will be recorded. You can take each quiz three times.
Click on Administration in the bottom green part of any tutorial page. You will be prompted to log in in order to see your students' scores.
Your pretest and quiz scores are recorded and stored. If your instructor cannot see them when s/he logs on, you can click on My Scores in the bottom green part of any tutorial page. You will be prompted to log in in order to see your own scores, and then you can print them out.
The tutorial has been designed in keeping with the ACRL "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education," and the ACRL Instruction Section's "Information Literacy Objectives for Academic Librarians." The ultimate goal of this tutorial is to help people learn how to learn.
The UCLA Center for Digital Humanities did some initial programming, with full, final programming and most of the web design created by the UCLA Social Sciences Computing Network, particularly, Mike Franks. Many others assisted in a variety of ways. See Credits for a full list of those who worked on the tutorial, their responsibilities, and their achievements.
The UCLA Office of Instructional Development provided funding support through an Instructional Improvement grant. The UCLA Library and the Librarians' Association of the University of California's President's fund provided additional funding.
Please click on Contacts in the bottom green part of any tutorial page, and send us an email message.
