Description

Texas A&M University Libraries' orientation for student veterans is designed to mimic the checklist-style orientations common for inprocessing at military installations.  When a service member arrives at a new installation, they are commonly given a checklist or "dance card" with all of the places they need to visit to inprocess, such as finance and CIF.  The Libraries' "dance card" gives students an online checklist of library resources to visit in-person or virtually to learn about the libraries.

Housed in the University's course management system, the orientation covers the following topics:

• Academic success - video discussing research help, LibGuides, and subject librarian assistance
• Distance education - web content discussing access to resources for distance education students, including interlibrary loan
• Get It For Me - video showing students how to sign up for an interlibrary loan account
• Scholarly communications - video discussing library support for students who are writing, publishing, and building a scholarly reputation
• Searching - video providing an overview of introductory search strategies
• Spaces - interactive virtual tour of library spaces using augmented reality
• Studio - video showing library video and audio recording resources
• Workshops - video discussing topics commonly taught in workshops and how to find current schedule

Students are placed into groups in the learning management system and each group is assigned the topics most relevant to them.  For example, distance education students are assigned the Distance education page, while on-campus students are assigned the Spaces task.  

Regardless of group, students can complete the checklist incrementally over the course of their first semester.

Cost

The pilot orientation was completed courtesy of a $25,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.  Ongoing maintenance and updates require ongoing investment into video or tutorial software like Camtasia and Articulate Storyline.

Timing 

Each student's first semester on campus.

Suggested Duration

4 months

Resources needed 

• Learning management system (Canvas, Blackboard, etc.)
• Video recording capabilities (Camtasia, Screencastomatic, etc.)

Tips for Success

Keep it bounded!  Remember that this is an orientation, not everything that every student needs to know.  Try to keep it to a few topics per group in order to keep the time commitment minimal.

Assessment Ideas

LMS analytics can help you see how many students are completing each topic.  Follow-up assessment to get direct student input is important to identify areas for improvement.

Partners and Stakeholders

Campus veterans center.  Our Veteran Resource & Support Center was instrumental in putting the orientation together and getting student veterans enrolled.

Additional Resources/Bibliography

LeMire, S., Graves, S.J., Buckner, S., Freeman, D.D., & Smith, G.L. (2020). Basic training: A library orientation designed for student veterans. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 46(4), 102137.

Submitted by 

Sarah LeMire, Texas A&M University

Creative Commons License