Harold P.

Tuttlebutt Library for Online and Distance Education 1

Introduction

The Harold P. Tuttlebutt Library for Online and Distance Education at the University of Kansas (KU) would
like to apply for a grant of $250,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Sparks!
Ignition Grant. If selected, all funds would be applied toward the creation and installation of rurally located
kiosks, known as KiosKU, which will provide online distance education programs for KU students in remote
areas of Kansas. Many residents in western Kansas lack the opportunity to access higher education due to the
absence of high speed broadband Internet. The installation of the KiosKU would allow rural residents of Colby,
Kansas to obtain higher education without relocating, which would in turn help enrich the communities in
which they reside. Not only will the project make a significant impact on the lives of online distance students in
Colby, Kansas, it will also demonstrate the innovative ways in which libraries can serve and make an impact in
their communities, while still staying relevant in the modern digital world, and revolutionize the way online
distance education works for both formal and informal educational institutions.

Project Justification

Overview

This project will attempt to provide access to higher education through the use of broadband-enabled kiosks, or
KiosKU, to those in rural and remote areas of Kansas. Due to the lack of high speed Internet access in these
areas, distance education is oftentimes not feasible, even in the ever-reliable public library (Real, Bertot &
Jaeger, 2014). In fact, 27% of rural Kansans do not have access to broadband Internet, compared with just 1%
of non-rural residents (Kruger & Gilroy, 2013). Prospective students in these areas must either relocate to a
college town or settle for an associates degree at a nearby community college. The installation of the KiosKU
will provide new educational avenues for those interested. Although this concept has yet to take root in the
United States, it has proven successful in rural areas abroad (Chifwepa, 2008) and has been suggested on a local
level (Walker, 2005).

The Harold P. Tuttlebutt Library for Online and Distance Education will be partnering with KU to install two
trial KiosKU machines in Colby, Kansas to determine the viability of this new form of distance education. One
KiosKU will be located in the H.F. Davis Library at Colby Community College, and the other will be located in
Wal-Mart. The KiosKU will be enabled with broadband Internet capability and will be loaded with all pertinent
course material. Accessibility is crucial and efforts will be made to allow 24 hour access to the KiosKU.

Challenge to be evaluated

Initially, KU foresaw the need for expansion of its online distance course offerings and approached the
esteemed Harold P. Tuttlebutt Library for Online and Distance Education for ideas and assistance. A
subcommittee was formed, which completed research to examine KU enrollment numbers across the state.
Findings of these initial reports suggested that several counties in western Kansas had exceptionally low
enrollment numbers. One specific location, Thomas County and the city of Colby, Kansas, in particular, was
selected to be the primary target population of the KiosKU project. Recently KU and Colby Community
College signed an articulation agreement. This academic partnership provides students with accessibility to
higher education and guarantees a specific transfer of courses between Colby Community College and KU. In
addition to this recent partnership, the percentage of students enrolled at KU from Colby is minimal. This
venture should provide an opportunity to increase KUs presence in this region of western Kansas.

Colby, in a manner typical to western Kansas, lacks both high speed Internet as well as access to study locations
and computers during non-traditional library hours. We decided that broadband enabled kiosks located in
convenient locations, preferably with 24 hour accessibility, would remedy these needs. In addition to
Harold P. Tuttlebutt Library for Online and Distance Education 2

technological and time based needs, the challenges posed by distance itself may prove difficult to prospective
students in the area. Poor understanding of scholarly resources was another need addressed by the Harold P.
Tuttlebutt Library for Online and Distance Education. We decided to strengthen our partnerships and provide
distance education students with access to librarians at Colby Community College and KU to address the need
for better information literacy skills and to increase understanding of quality scholarly resources.

Significance of challenge to be addressed

Regardless of the ubiquity of the Internet, there are still rural areas without sufficient access. This, combined
with a lack of access to institutions of higher education, can have a detrimental effect on the community and its
viability in the modern world. With few options for the residents, and some individuals being unable or
unwilling to leave the area for the extended time necessary to receive a college degree, the prospects for rural
residents are limited.

Having a KiosKU in such a community will exponentially increase the availability of higher education. KiosKU
will provide the same lectures, assignments, and digital resources as traditional on-campus courses, as well as a
reliable Internet connection for remote submission of assignments. Eventually, KiosKU will provide access to
most, if not all, of the courses and degrees that KU offers through its online programs. The creation and
enactment of the KiosKU program would help the students of rural Kansas overcome challenges that can
impede the attainment of higher education in remote areas. This project would fill a long neglected niche in the
underserved areas of Kansas.

The main impact of KiosKU is access: to both information and an education. Working with the librarians and
staff of the Harold P. Tuttlebutt Library for Online and Distance Education will ensure that the distance students
have the best resources at their fingertips to utilize in their classes and the support of the library behind their
educational endeavor. This has an enormous impact for the library community; not only does it showcase
outreach potential, but it also demonstrates the innovative ways in which libraries can provide information and
still remain relevant in a digital era.

KiosKU could truly be the future of distance education, especially in rural communities. It provides options to
and promises a better future for people who otherwise may not have the resources available to pursue the
education they want without having to abandon their community and responsibilities. If the initial rollout of
KiosKU in Colby, KS, is successful, installation could occur in similar, rural areas. Other universities could also
adapt this idea to fit their own needs and degree offerings to provide equitable access to higher education.

Primary Stakeholders

As discussed above, a primary stakeholder for the KiosKU program is the underserved student population in
Colby, Kansas. Thus, partnering with an academic institution like KU was crucial to the projects success.

The articulation agreement between KU and Colby Community College provides an already established
relationship that can be built upon in the future. Collaboration will occur between both academic libraries to
provide students with expertise, experience, and help. The KU team will provide the bulk of the work, while
librarians and staff at Colby Community College will aid in troubleshooting or general KiosKU inquiries. Two
academic departments, Information Technology, through the Engineering Program, and Library and
Information Science will provide instructors and educational content that follows standard curriculum. Faculty
members will provide content in the form of videos, lectures, and notes that correspond with the traditional
structured courses that are available on campus. We intend to pilot this program using the already established
Bachelor of Science in Information Technology and a newly created Master of Library Science program.

Harold P. Tuttlebutt Library for Online and Distance Education 3

KiosKU Placement

The initial plan is to place two KiosKU machines in strategic locations: in the H.F. Davis Library at Colby
Community College and Wal-Mart. During regular operating hours, the H.F. Davis Library Wi-Fi will be used.
Students can utilize the KiosKU after hours or during times of Internet disruption or outages using the Freedom
Pop. Packaged content can be loaded for offline use at the students convenience. Librarians at Colby
Community College will be trained in troubleshooting and will have contact information for each team member
depending on their need.

In the private sector, we are partnering with Wal-Mart, Inc. Wal-Mart is dedicated to providing educational
opportunities to employees as well as to local communities. The location of Wal-Mart was selected because of
its accessibility and convenience, being open 24 hours a day and seven days a week. The most probable and
viable KiosKU location within Wal-Mart would be an area that has high traffic and visibility, yet maintains a
level of privacy and security. This suitable location could include the vestibule, potentially near a Redbox
machine. This provides a convenient and accessible location near the frequently traveled highway I-70.

Project Work Plan

Summary

The Harold P. Tuttlebutt Library for Online and Distance Education and KU will design, create, program, and
install two KiosKU machines in Colby, Kansas to provide access to course content and resources for online
distance students who live in rural communities and lack high speed Internet access. This pilot program will be
tested with new and incoming students in both the Master of Library Science and the Bachelor of Science in
Information Technology programs. Course materials will be developed by KU faculty members, along with
librarians, and will consist of syllabi, course handouts, lecture recordings, PowerPoint presentations,
assignments, readings, and any other materials deemed relevant by the course instructors or needed by the
online distance students. The courses offered through the KiosKU program will be incorporated with the
already established curriculum as a way to allow students in rural areas to participate in courses alongside
students taking traditional classes at KU.

Evaluation and Assessment

Several different methods will be employed to gauge and evaluate the success of the program to allow for
necessary adjustments throughout the testing phases and live implementation. KiosKU usage statistics, reported
problem tracking statistics, user satisfaction surveys, follow up in-person interviews with students, and course
completion rates will all be utilized to determine the success of the KiosKU program. At the end of each testing
phase, the advisory team will convene to continuously discuss the results of the project. Results will be
analyzed to identify any problems as soon as they are encountered and to discuss the implications of said issues
with all interested parties, constituents, and partners. Project results for the alpha and beta testing will be shared
with KU. For the live test, the advisory team will publish their results, present at relevant conferences, and share
them with the members of the KU family and community.

Project Details

During the grant period, the project will undergo four distinct phases: pre-testing, alpha testing, beta testing, and
live testing. Each phase will undergo its own assessment. Specific details about the implementation schedule
and costs of the project are detailed in the project implementation work plan and budget sections of the grant
application.

Harold P. Tuttlebutt Library for Online and Distance Education 4

Pre-Testing

Pre-testing will begin in January 2015. Over a period of four months, the UI interface will be created, the
physical kiosk will be constructed, programming will be completed, all software and hardware will be installed,
the kiosks will be placed in their new respective homes, and instructors will finalize their course content, which
will be uploaded to the KiosKU.

Alpha Testing

The alpha testing will begin in May 2015 with the project advisory team and will consist of a period of four
weeks. Each individual, emulating the student population base, will be tasked with logging into the KiosKU
using either RFID or account username and password, accessing appropriate course content, downloading
course materials onto a flash drive, accessing those files on laptop computers or tablets, and utilizing the 4G
hotspot from remote devices. This testing phase aims to examine the responsiveness of the UI interface, ensure
that all files are in place and uploaded correctly, and that they are easily accessible by KiosKU users, guarantee
that the kiosk is functioning properly, and verify that all aspects of the kiosk are up, running, and ready to go for
student testing in August 2015. All issues will be documented and addressed by the project advisory team after
the end of the alpha testing period. There will be approximately two months to fix critical issues and make
changes to the UI interface or programming based on feedback. Important benchmarks will be established and
the functionality of the KiosKU will be evaluated against pre-established criteria.

Beta Testing

The beta testing will commence in August 2015 with a group of preselected undergraduate students in the
Bachelor of Science in Information Technology degree program and that live in Colby, Kansas. These students
will participate in a free, one credit hour Information Literacy course that will span a period of four weeks. This
course is designed to help incoming students become acquainted with the KiosKU, how to use it, along with
how to conduct research using library databases and the OPAC. After the completion of this four week course,
revisions will be made based on feedback from course evaluation surveys, interviews with students, kiosk
analytics, and the amount of technical problems reported. The main goal of this testing phase is to determine
how user friendly the KiosKU is with the intended user population. The project advisory team anticipates there
will be a few bugs, hiccups, or road bumps along the way, but a period of four months have been allotted to fix
any encountered problems. Beta testing allows the project advisory team to understand the limitations of the
KiosKU and see how users employ each function within a naturalistic setting.

Live Testing

Beginning in January 2016, live testing will start featuring two cohorts of students: one from the Bachelor of
Science in Information Technology program and the other from the Master of Library Science program. Each
cohort will participate in one course from their respective programs offered through the KiosKU. Similar to the
beta testing phase, website analytics will be used to show the instructional and UI designer which pages can be
fixed in order to improve workflows. Access analytics will be analyzed to determine if the geographical
location of the kiosks are appropriate and what times are peak hours for kiosk usage. Finally, student feedback
will be recorded in the form of surveys and in-person interviews to aid in changing the way the course is
administered and improving the functionality and accessibility of course materials. If this program proves to be
successful, additional courses will be offered with the goal of ultimately having an entire degree program
offered through online distance education using the KiosKU machines. At the end of the live testing phase and
the period of the IMLS grant, as well, KU has agreed to pick up all costs of the program pending its success.


Harold P. Tuttlebutt Library for Online and Distance Education 5

Budget Summary

Hardware

We budgeted $7,500 for the hardware for this project, which includes the enclosure for the kiosks, the computer
and touchscreens, Internet access, and server space to hold the course information. This is a very conservative
estimate, but the actual cost could vary based on vendor cooperation. The hardware is a necessity because
without it, as a physical presence in prime locations, we would not have a project.

Software

We budgeted $4,300 for the project software including: Camtasia screencasting and video editing software for
the creation of lecture videos by the instructors, Articulate e-learning software to act as a backbone for our
online courses, and a Cisco virtual private network (VPN) to allow for remote access to the kiosks by IT staff at
the physical university. The software is a necessity because it provides the actual content deliverable to the
students via the kiosk's hardware.

Personnel

Personnel are the supportive building blocks of this project and where the bulk of our financial outlay is held -
$202,680, or 81% of our budget. We intend to hire a programmer, an instructional designer, a user interface
designer, two student interns to maintain the kiosk and edit the lecture videos, and two part time librarians - one
to act as the distance learning librarian, and one as a document writer. The programmer will be in charge of
coding the bulk of the software for the kiosks that Articulate does not cover; the instructional designer will work
with the departments and instructors to come up with course materials and instructional guidelines for the
distance courses; the UI designer will work with the programmer to design the kiosk's software, ensuring
maximum usability; the librarians will write the documentation for the kiosks and assist distance students with
accessing the resources they need to maximize their education. The interns will do various tasks for the Harold
P. Tuttlebutt Library for Online and Distance Education, namely ensuring the lecture videos for the courses are
lightly edited and formatted correctly for the kiosk and ensuring the kiosk receives maintenance as needed.

Security

We have budgeted $2,470 for security for the kiosks. This includes an RFID scanner, enough RFID tags for
each student, firewall protection, virus protection, and login management. Because the kiosks are in high-traffic,
public places, we need to ensure that they cannot be accessed by non-students, and that they cannot be
compromised in any way. Physical security will be part of the kiosk's enclosure costs, but the security and
access for the software is considered here.

Welcome Kits

We have budgeted $13,050 for welcome kits for our students. This includes 32GB flash drives for each student,
netbooks for 50 in-need students who do not otherwise have a personal computer, and cases for those 50
netbooks. Because of the nature of KiosKU's content delivery, a flash drive is a necessity for each student. Each
kiosk will include a USB port, which will be the only way to save assignments, lecture videos, and other course
deliverables, so it seems natural to provide students with the means to obtain that information. Because many of
our students may not have their own computers, or a way to complete their coursework, we will provide 50
students in need of computers with netbooks. These netbooks will come pre-installed with the software
necessary to do their coursework, free programs such as Adobe Acrobat Reader, OpenOffice, and Windows
Media Player. If they do not have Internet access at home, they still have the tools necessary to complete their
Harold P. Tuttlebutt Library for Online and Distance Education 6

assignments and watch lectures in the privacy of their own home and on their own time. The distribution of
these laptops will be determined via a separate application process with factors such as the students financial
situation and technical competency being weighed.

Contingency Funds

We have allotted $20,000 for contingency funds. Because this sort of project has not been attempted before, and
unforeseen costs are to be expected, we have planned a contingency buffer. This fund would likely be used for
higher-than-anticipated hardware costs, hiring a third student intern, or other necessary software.

Project Results

The KiosKU project has the potential to impact rural, underserved, and impoverished communities, particularly
those with individuals looking to attain higher education through distance learning that would normally require
access to broadband Internet. KiosKU will pave the way for the future of distance education by providing
access to high quality educational resources that do not require students to have high-speed or permanent
Internet access. This project aims to place educational kiosks in locations easily accessible to rural distance
learning students that are preloaded with resources from KU, such as videos that would normally require high-
speed Internet to stream that students could watch at their own convenience. The kiosks will also serve as a
place for students to upload assignments, access wireless Internet, and review pre-loaded resources. Moving
forward, we hope that this project will serve as a beacon to those students looking to attain or further their
education but have limited accessibility.

Measuring the success of the project by conducting the alpha and beta testing will provide valuable feedback for
changes that need to be made. Going live and the subsequent information obtained from the project analysis will
determine the future of the project, as full enrollment in the courses and positive student feedback will allow
stakeholders to determine if KiosKU maintenance costs are worth the continuance of the project. In the future,
the KiosKU project will serve as the base model for future innovations in distance learning. In order to further
enhance the education of those students who are underserved and who do not have access to resources, such as
high-speed Internet access, this project aims to disseminate information in a way that levels the playing field for
all eLearning students. KiosKU would enrich the lives of students and the communities in which they reside.



















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References

Chifwepa, V. (2008). Providing information communication technology-based support to distance education
students: A case study of the University of Zambia. African Journal of Library and Information
Sciences, 18(1), 51-65.

Kruger, L. G., & Gilroy, A. A. (2013). Broadband internet access and the digital divide: Federal assistance
programs. Retrieved from fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL30719.pdf

Lefler, D. (2013). Kansas still behind in high-speed Internet access. Wichita Eagle. Retrieved from
http://www.kansas.com/2013/02/10/2671332_kansas-still-behind-in-high-speed.html

Real, B., Bertot, J. C., & Jaeger, P. T. (2014). Rural public libraries and digital inclusion: Issues and challenges.
Information Technology and Libraries, 33(1), 6-24.

Walker, J. E. (2005). If you build it they will come: Kiosks and traveler booths for distance education online
enrollment at airports, train stations and retail venues. Retrieved from
http://www.utexas.edu/research/centerblackbusiness/Kinkos2006june26CBBHJeffReport2.doc