JM2010 Poster: JING: An Alternative Way of Providing Library References Service to Hybrid and Online Students
Posted on January 29, 2010 by Amy Chatfield | 1 Comment
Posted by Debby Quan, Student, UCLA Graduate School of Library and Information Science
I’ve heard about JING recently prior to coming to this conference. JING is an open source software that captures voice to onscreen actions. For example, the software records your voice and the cursor movement onscreen as you click on links or databases to perform a search. Some users learn more effectively via visual aids. I’ve used another screen casting software, Articulate, a similar tool that is fee-based. I’m curious as to how JING compares with Articulate. JING might not have as many functionalities, but it might be the perfect tool for libraries on a small budget.
Arizona State University is using JING to provide answers to students’ questions such as searching the library’s databases. I believe JING has a maximum recording time, but I was not able to find that out during the poster session because the presenter had stepped out. I’m also curious to learn the difference between basic JING free version and JING Pro, which is the fee-based version of JING. One fantastic benefit of JING is that these online recorded tutorials could be customized and tailored to each students’ reference question because it does not take much time to create them. Another benefit is that these tutorials could be delivered immediately via the Web, email, or even IM. This open source tool is also a great resource for student hybrid, distance or face-to-face education.
Some of the the challenges that was encountered using this software was that students still need further face-to-face instructions with a librarian. I’m wondering what is the percentage of students that still need personal attention after viewing a JING tutorial. A survey would be helpful in determining the effectiveness of this method of reference instruction. Also, in any case of adoption a new technology, documenting the procedures in usage and consistency in practice is also vital for the staff. This step might add more work for the library staff.
Overall, I believe JING is a quick little tool to deliver answers to users’ questions immediately. I still don’t really know what are the disadvantages of this software but I’m curious to find that out firsthand.
Posted on 1/29/10
Tags: contributed poster > JING > JM2010 > open source software > tutorials
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April 23rd, 2010 @ 3:47 pm
See the poster at: https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B6EMcnROXV0VM2ViNjBlODMtNjJiZS00ZWFlLTg3ZjUtNzU1YTlkYjFjNzZj&hl=en.
Watch Kathleen’s video at: http://www.screencast.com/users/Librarymom/folders/Jing/media/28398f7e-37d5-4ad2-98b7-fa64a143a41c.