1. 30 new Virtual Training
Suite tutorials launched
June 2010
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/
vts-tutorials@bristol.ac.uk
twitter.com/VTStutorials

2. What is the Virtual Training
Suite?
• A series of free Internet tutorials that
teach Internet research skills for over 60
university and college degree subjects
• All the tutorials have been written and
reviewed by lecturers and librarians
from UK universities, who are
experienced Internet researchers

3. Who are they for?
They are ideal for students looking for advice and
guidance on using the Web for their studies,
especially those who:
• struggle to find the right information for university
work
• get marked down for citing inappropriate sources in
their assignments
• rely too heavily on Google, Wikipedia and the open
Web, because they are unaware of key academic
and library sources

4. Screenshot of VTS
homepage

5. New tutorial titles …
Arts and Humanities Health and Life Sciences
• Architecture • Allied Health
• Archive Studies • Dentistry and Oral
• Art and Design Health
• Classics • Food Safety
• English • Pharmacy
• Fashion and Beauty
• Plant Sciences
• Linguistics
• Media &
Communication
• Music

6. New tutorial titles …
Social Sciences Science and Engineering
• Anthropology • Earth Sciences
• Hospitality and Catering • Electrical Engineering
• Social Policy • Geography
• Social Statistics • Health and Safety
• Sociology • Materials Engineering
• Sport, Leisure and • Mathematics
Recreation • Mechanical Engineering
• Travel and Tourism • Petroleum and Offshore
• Women's Studies Engineering

7. Screenshot of individual
tutorial

8. What's changed
• Written for HE students
• To help with coursework and
assignments
• Focus on academic sources online
• Includes Web 2.0 but in academic
context
• More about libraries, librarians and
using locally provided resources

9. Tutorial structure
• Four main sections - Tour, Discover, Judge,
Success
• Format - takes about an hour to complete,
includes quizzes and practical exercises
• Links Basket - so students can take away a
list of key websites for their subject
• New design, more graphics, easier to read

10. Tour
Focuses on the academic information
landscape on the Internet and aims to create
a mental map for students of the key
scholarly sources for their subject.
• Introduces the key websites for each subject
• Shows the range of different types of
academic Internet resources - journals,
databases etc.
• Enables students to collect a list of useful
websites

11. Tour Screenshot

13. Discover
Offers updated guidance on how to find
scholarly information online; choosing the
right search tool and looks at the importance
of developing a search strategy.
• Shows a range of different Internet search
tools
• Gives tips on developing a search strategy
• Provides practical exercises to test the
different tools and strategies

14. Discover screenshot

17. Judge
Shows how critical thinking can improve the
quality of online research and provides
guidance on how to judge which Internet
resources are appropriate for University work
• Demonstrates how to avoid being caught out
by unreliable information on the Internet
• Provides practical tips for critical evaluation of
websites
• Quizzes test the understanding of students in
their use of Internet information

18. Judge screenshot

20. Success
Provides practical examples of students using
the Internet for research – successfully and
unsuccessfully, so that students can learn
from the mistakes of others
• Brings together the lessons from the other
parts of the tutorial as a worked example
• Demonstrates how other people use the
Internet in genuine academic situations
• Suggests new ideas for using the Internet for
education and research

21. Success screenshot

23. Links basket
Use the tutorial to build a list of useful websites
to save and explore later. Simply drop the
website links into the links basket.
• View, print or email the selected links.
• See a list of all the links in the tutorial.
• Export the links basket in a format suitable for
importing into a web browser, Delicious.com,
or to save for later use.

25. Getting more from the
Virtual Training Suite
• Where in the curriculum?
– Research methods, study skills, information
literacy or as part of assessed subject work
• Place to mention it?
– In the student / course handbook, linked from the
library webpage / VLE or as part of plagiarism
advice
• How to use it?
– As a handbook for reviewing websites, for an
assessed web review of the subject or by
completing the tutorial in class

26. What's next?
• Confirm 12 months maintenance funding from
August 2010 to assist in moving towards a
self-sustaining business model
• Enables maintenance of the current suite of
over 60 subject based Internet research skills
tutorials, keeping them freely available
• Looking to develop and implement a licensing
model to sustain the Virtual Training Suite
beyond August 2011

27. Get in touch
• Try the new tutorials at:
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/
• Let us know what you think by email at:
vts-tutorials@bristol.ac.uk
• Follow us on Twitter at:
twitter.com/VTStutorials
• Or Tweet about the Virtual Training
Suite using the hashtag #vtstutorials