Information literacy: Making asynchronous learning more effective with best practices that include humor

It is becoming increasingly important for students to graduate from institutions of higher learning equipped with the information and digital literacy skills necessary to succeed in an ever-changing world. It is also important for the librarians teaching these literacies to ensure the maximum amount of learning can take place in the limited amount of time made available to them. One way to make the learning environment conducive to learning is to use accepted best practices, but this raises the question of which best practices are more suited to an online environment. This research aimed to explore the efficacy of using best practices that include humor in an asynchronous online library program where there was no built-in group discussion and no contact with the librarians unless initiated by the students themselves. Comparing the results of the pre-test and post-test using statistical data analysis on the university student sample population indicated the resulting library program was effective, while the students themselves confirmed their appreciation of the humor used by the librarians. Those best practices used for the program were organized into the construct of the ADDIE instructional design model and were included in this paper.