When staff become students: Using a Course Management System for Alma training

Abstract

When the CSU Libraries decided to migrate to Alma, I suspected the most challenging part of the migration would be training staff. How do you approach such a huge training task when most of the people in libraries are already overworked? People need to be able to access training materials in a way that fits into their schedules. Course management systems offer an excellent option for asynchronous learning and tracking participation. In this session, I’ll walk through some of the CMS tools I used to create our Alma Training course at Sonoma State. I’ll talk about what worked and didn’t work in the training process, and how our approach evolved over the course of implementation. I’ll demonstrate some of the features of our CMS, Moodle, and talk about similar features in other CMSs. I’ll talk about how to apply pedagogical best practices to Alma training, and how to use some of the skills many librarians already have and apply them when developing Alma trainings.