Some of you may know that as well as responsibility for ILT (e-learning) at Gloucestershire College I am also in charge of the Libraries.
This case study from the Excellence Gateway is an interesting one.
Tresham College of Further and Higher Education has introduced learning resources loan data into the main College reporting system, which has allowed all staff to see the information. This has encouraged the closer integration of learning resources with the curriculum. As one of a series of innovations this has helped almost double the amount of resources borrowed by learners.
The more you know about how the resources are been used allows you to target the resources you do have better. It also needn’t be an issue of the Learning Resources staff doing all the work, involve practitioners and learners. As Tracey Burrows, Programme Co-ordinator, School of Business and Professional Studies says:
I have used the book loan statistics with my learners and it has been useful to see which books they have used. This has allowed the group to recommend resources to each other and has led to increased book borrowing which has benefited the learners in achieving their objectives.
Of course you can overload users with data and information, so care is needed. I will be looking at this case study to see if we can implement the lessons learned.