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Why create interactive tutorials?

Interactive tutorials provide learners the opportunity to 

  • have a more interactive learning experience 
  • test their own understanding of material, get immediate feedback and review as desired 
  • control the pace of their own learning 

Interactive tutorials provide library staff the opportunity to 

  • Gather data on the efficacy of our eLearning content 
  • Integrate different digital resources together into paced modules that are easy to share with variety of audiences 
  • Diversify the library’s collection of eLearning content and come into alignment with current eLearning best practices  
  • Create opportunities to develop micro-credentialing in the future  

Tools for creating interactive tutorials 

Interactive tutorials can be created with the tools below to be standalone or embedded within  a LibGuide.

  • LibWizard
  • Qualtrics

Designing effective tutorials

  • Early on in the turorial, provide an outline and purpose for the learner. This outline should also include learning outcomes and time commitment.
  • Identify a learner benefit (e.g., what’s in it for them?).
  • Give control to the learner to set their own pace. This can be achieved by providing a learning pathway to help them situate themselves within the content to meet specific learning needs or the ability to skip past content they already know. 
  • Connect with prior learning before jumping into new material. Provide definitions of key terms or concepts before introducing new content.  
  • Use a combination of formats: text, visual, videos, animations, and audio recordings. People learn best when information is presented in pairs (e.g., audio and visuals). However, visuals should convey meaning and not just be decorative.  
  • Use problem solving techniques to help make the experience more interactive and engaging. 
  • Avoid redundancy or including too much information. Only information directly connected to the learning goals should be included in the tutorials to ensure learners are not overwhelmed.  

Formatting your turorial to ensure accessibility

  • Use best practices when using the rich content editor:
    • Format headings using available Styles. 
    • Use italics and bold sparingly, if at all.
    • Don’t underline text – this should be used to identify links only.
    • Copy and paste without any additional formatting: 
      • Ctrl/CMD + Shift + V 
    • Ensure sufficient contrast for text and images 
    • Use sufficient font size 
  • Use Headings to improve navigation  
    • While not all pages need Heading levels, we recommend using them as much as possible. This helps to break up content and improve comprehension for all users. Additionally, this will drastically improve navigation for users of assistive technology and keyboard only users 
  • Ensure all images are accessible by: 
    • Including alternative (alt) text  
    • Using proper colour contrast  

Qualtrics

  • Use the Simple Layout to ensure sufficient Focus contrast and font size. 
    • This is key for keyboard only users as well as users with low vision or who have trouble viewing specific colours. 
    • In addition to improving accessibility the Simple Layout also improves overall usability and the mobile experience, while also providing access to additional question types. 
  • Use ExpertReview to ensure you are using accessible question types.
    • ExpertReview will run in the background checking the overall quality of your survey. 
    • ExpertReview includes a section entitled Accessibility, this feature will check to ensure your survey or tutorial is only using accessible question types.   
    • Using WCAG 2.0 AA as the standard, Qualtrics has provided a full list of accessible and inaccessible question types in their Question Type Accessibility guide. 
  • When using Response Requirements and Validations for questions or fields: 
    • Be clear about what the requirement is. 
    • Add requirement to the question text. 
    • Error messages should include text-based messages that are as specific as possible ensuring users are aware: 
      • That an error has occurred 
      • What needs to be done to fix the error 

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