What does your library need from a tutorials platform? For several years, the University of Vermont has flipped library instruction with tutorials created in Guide on the Side. This open-source program, provided by the University of Arizona, is a simple tool for producing frame-based tutorials centered on the learner’s interaction with web content. UVM adopted it principally because of its suitability to formative learning. But in 2016 Springshare launched LibWizard, an alternative platform for frame-based tutorials. It offered important functionalities that were not available in Guide on the Side, while lacking others that were integral features of our existing tutorials. Come to this session to hear how the availability of similar, yet distinct, products helped us to rethink our current and future tutorial needs. This presentation will explain how we developed and applied an evaluation rubric that could be applied to any platform of this kind. It will also highlight other aspects of our decision-making process, including questions about migrating existing tutorials, about rewiring our approach to creating tutorial objects, and about advocating for product development.
