Q: What is it?
A: It is a piece of software that helps students to learn the correct and most useful methods of searching for information:

• on the internet (using search engines)
• in online databases
• in library catalogues

It also teaches students how to reference properly in their essays and assignments, including how to:

• reference within the text {i.e. Smith et al (1974) state that…}
• write a bibliography (what goes where – correct ordering etc).
• reference all types of sources from books to electronic media (i.e. CDs, emails, web pages etc)
• toggle the examples to show one author (eg. SMITH, R.T.), two authors (eg. EVANS, W.A and SMITH, R.T.) or more than two authors (eg. SMITH et al.) in the examples

It also includes a dynamic glossary of terms with images.

Q: I have this information in handouts and on our intranet. Why should I pay for yours…
A: The Information Skills Trainer is fun, easy to use and navigate, and students come back to it often. This is because:

• It is self contained within a single application window which means that the whole scope of the subject is laid out before them.
• It uses eye-catching graphics and illustrations with only the minimum amount of text to make the various skills it teaches memorable to students.
• It has quick (and therefore student friendly!) ‘show me how to…’ sections that give students what they want to know without making them trawl through lengthy tutorials… with more in-depth explanations only a mouse-click away.
• All examples are fully interactive.

Q: What support does the product have?
A: The product has full 9 – 5 weekday working telephone support direct to the original programming team.

Q: We’ve got a Virtual Learning Environment / Managed Learning Environment / Intranet – will it run on this?
A: The Information Skills Trainer will run on pretty well anything. It is programmed in generic HTML and javaScript and is designed to work from intranets, VLEs and MLEs. As it is more of an aide-memoire than a piece of online learning and does not produce scores etc., it does not require compliance with any protocols such as SCORM etc. It simply helps students get the most from searching and referencing…

Q: We don’t use the Harvard System for referencing – can it be adapted?
A: We’d love to adapt this for other systems. Please contact the development team who will look favourably on any college or university who would like to provide relevant examples and layouts for different systems…