In the United States of America, over 90% of teenage boys and girls have smartphone access at home. Smartphone access has changed the way students acquire knowledge. Despite attending in-person classes, most graduate and undergraduate students prefer digital learning content to conventional textbooks.
Likewise, seamless delivery of multi-format eLearning content delivery is a key prerequisite for the success of online education or remote learning. That is why both conventional and digital schools these days set up digital libraries for students to students’ expectations and boost their learning experiences.
While creating a digital library, apart from using a robust digital asset library software, you must focus on enabling each student to access eLearning content in his preferred format. Also, you should ensure that each student can access the required eLearning content using desktops, laptops, smartphones, or tablets. However, it is important to implement several best practices to build the perfect digital library for students.
9 Best Practices for Creating the Perfect Digital Library for Students
1. Combine Multi-Format Content
Students consume digital content in a variety of ways. Some students still expand their knowledge by reading eBooks, journals, articles, and blogs. At the same time, a surge is being noted in the number of students watching online videos and listening to podcasts.
While creating a digital library, you must focus on allowing each student to access digital learning content in his preferred ways. Hence, your strategy must explore ways to accumulate off-the-shelf content in different forms – videos, audio, eBooks, journals, simulations, and quizzes.
2. Ensure Seamless Accessibility
A digital library will enable students to access digital learning material anytime and anywhere. However, you must remember that students will access the content using various devices and platforms. Hence, a student must have the option to access the digital library seamlessly using a computer or mobile device.
At the same time, you can boost students’ experience by enabling them to access the content in offline mode. The digital library must enable students to download the content to their devices without any restrictions. Also, students must be able to access the library without internet connectivity.
3. Simplify Content Search
The digital library will allow each student to access relevant eLearning content according to his course or certification programs. However, students often enhance their knowledge by accessing relevant content.
You must ensure that they can find relevant content instantly by embedding an intuitive search interface into the digital library. However, each student must access the content in his preferred format while using the search options provided by the digital library.
4. Share Curated Content
Content curation helps you set up a digital library without creating eLearning content in multiple formats. At the same time, the strategy enables students to access up-to-date information and high-quality content written by experts. While building a digital library, you must focus on curating and sharing high-quality content from external sources.
You can curate relevant content from reliable sources using a slew of content curation tools. New-age content curation tools further share personalized content with each student using intelligence technologies. You must ensure that the digital library delivers off-the-shelf content and shares curated content simultaneously.
5. Boost Student Engagement
While setting up a digital library, you must remember that a large percentage of students do not complete online courses. The digital library must help your institution increase online course completion rates by keeping students engaged and motivated. It must keep students engaged and excited by delivering appealing content.
However, you must focus on boosting student engagement using gamification techniques. While designing the digital library, you must gamify students’ experience using features like virtual coins, badges, and scorecards. The gamification will make the digital library effective in motivating students to access content and encouraging them to complete online courses.
6. Recommend Relevant Content
Many students access digital libraries to understand a topic or concept deeply. They gather detailed information by accessing additional content. You must make it easier for students to expand their knowledge by recommending relevant content. Intelligence technologies help you recommend relevant content to each student according to his interests, preferences, and level.
7. Integrate with eLearning Tools
You can enhance the digital library’s accessibility by integrating it with widely used eLearning tools. For instance, you can boost eLearning content delivery by integrating the digital library with a learning management system (LMS). Likewise, you can enable students to access relevant content as they attend online classes by combining the digital library with virtual classroom software. The integration will create opportunities for your institution to build a unified learning platform.
8. Hire a Digital Librarian
Often traditional librarians lack the technical proficiency and skill required to maintain and manage a digital library efficiently. Hence, you must streamline the digital library management by deploying a digital librarian. A skilled digital librarian will select, preserve, and organize digital learning materials efficiently. Also, he will boost the learning experience of students by resolving various issues and problems proactively.
9. Improve the Library Consistently
You cannot meet the needs and expectations of students without improving the digital library consistently. While optimizing the library, you must work on the suggestions made by students. Hence, you must create opportunities for students to share experiences, preferences, and feedback.
At the same time, you must measure the performance of the digital library using advanced data analytics solutions. The data-driven insights shared by the software will help you improve the digital library based on the behaviors and patterns of students.
Conclusion
Digital libraries help educational institutions boost classroom, online, and remote learning processes. However, you must overcome several challenges to build the best digital library for students. Digital library software helps you overcome these common challenges.
Students can use the software to access eLearning content in multiple formats using computers or mobile devices. At the same time, the software streamlines digital library management by automating routine administrative tasks.
New-age digital library software further fosters knowledge retention by keeping learners engaged using gamification techniques like badges, scorecards, and virtual coins. Your institution can further curb infrastructural and staffing costs by opting for cloud-based digital library management software.
