Guide on the Side and LibWizard Tutorials Side-By-Side: How Do the Two Platforms for Split-Screen Online Tutorials Compare?

ABSTRACT

Split-screen tutorials are an appealing and effective way for libraries to create online learning objects where learners interact with real-time Web content. Many libraries are using the University of Arizona's award-winning, open source platform, Guide on the Side. In 2016, Springshare released a proprietary alternative, LibWizard Tutorials. This article reviews the advantages and limitations of this kind of tutorial. It also examines the differences between each platform's distinctive characteristics. These platforms create similar split-screen tutorials, but have differences that affect diverse aspects of installation, administration, authoring and editing, student learning, data management, and accessibility. Libraries now have the opportunity to consider and compare alternative platforms, and decide which one is best suited to their needs, priorities, and resources.

KEYWORDS:

• digital learning objects
• flipped instruction
• information literacy
• learner performance data
• online learning
• split-screen tutorials
• Web services

Acknowledgments

The author thanks his University of Vermont Libraries colleagues for their collaboration on online tutorials and tutorial platforms. Instruction Coordinator Daisy Benson had an instrumental role in the comparative evaluation of GotS and LibWizard. Health Sciences Education Librarian Gary Atwood and Instruction & Information Services Support Senior Megan Allison shared a number of insights on GotS and LibWizard, respectively, and offered comments on this article that enhanced the final version.

Notes

1. Frames are boxes into which the browser screen is divided in order to organize the display. They should not be confused with iframes, which are boxes that can be individually embedded in the browser screen.

2. This is often a security-based decision to block clickjacking, a hostile practice where a Web site tricks a user into clicking its links or submitting data by overlaying the real site with a frame displaying a page from a trusted site (Hansen and Grossman 2008).

3. Using a coding editor, which would be more time-intensive than using the current version's text editor. The estimated time for development does not include design, validation, and redesign.

4. Accessible via the online guide for one of the FWIL courses: http://researchguides.uvm.edu/english1/tutorials.

5. Online documentation is available only to logged-in LibApps account holders.

6. A “Regular” LibWizard user cannot access another user's tutorials or their tutorial data through the admin-side listing of tutorials, but they can access another user's text items and questions via the Question Bank.

7. The provision of this information is itself one of the standards in Section 508, $1194.41 (b): “End-users shall have access to a description of the accessibility and compatibility features of products in alternate formats or alternate methods upon request, at no additional charge” (United States Access Board 2000).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Graham Sherriff

Graham Sherriff is Instructional Design Librarian at the University of Vermont, where he administers the Libraries' tutorial platforms and has a lead role in tutorial design and development. He also provides leadership in the use of technologies for instruction and research, and participates in the administration of Web services.