Creating an Online Tutorial for Consumer Health Information Center Volunteers

Abstract

This article describes the creation of an online tutorial for volunteers who serve the patrons of consumer health information centers. The tutorial's objective was to improve overall training, and followed a year of using printed material and face-to-face instruction. Library graduate assistants and librarians from a large, academic health science library collaborated with a health educator and volunteers from a hospital-based consumer health information center. The completed tutorial gained high ratings for presentation and content in a subsequent usability study which also identified beneficial revisions to tutorial topics. The tutorial's content and design may serve as a guide for similar projects.

Key Words:

• Voluntary workers
• teaching materials
• educational technology
• usability study
• information centers
• consumer health information