Manual VU Reading Lists

Manual VU Reading Lists

1. Introduction

1.1. Notes about this manual

This is a manual for lecturers and support staff who have just started using or intend to start using VU Reading Lists. Although everyone has their own preferred way of working, the manual intends to match as much as possible to how lecturers and support staff are likely to use VU Reading Lists.

Be aware that this is a manual to get you started with VU Reading Lists; it is not an exhaustive reference work for the application. The support pages of the application’s developer are much more complete; you can find them on support.talis.com.

If you have questions, or if you have suggestions for improvements for this manual, please contact us at cip.ub@vu.nl.

Bear in mind that this manual assumes that you have a working knowledge of Canvas, the virtual learning environment used at VU. If you’re new to Canvas, please follow the course Getting To Know Canvas - Teachers first.

A note about the terminology: by “VU Reading Lists” we mean the application for creating and managing digital reading lists. We use the terms (digital) “reading list” and “reading lists” for actual lists created in this application.

1.2. What is VU Reading Lists?

VU Reading Lists is an online reading list manager that is integrated with VU Canvas and with the University Library’s catalogue system. This tool helps lecturers to organize, manage and share course literature and other sources of educational resources with students or colleagues.

It provides students with an intuitive interface where they can find, manage and access the educational resources and it gives students access to these lists in a single place.

The tool provides lecturers with a way of presenting their students with lists of educational resources by providing links to these resources in holding by the university library (such as e-books and digital journal articles), as well as external sources such as open educational resources, multimedia and websites. It also offers lecturers full control over the layout of these list so that they can tailor them to reflect the content and structure of their courses in VU Canvas.

1.3. Why should I use VU Reading Lists?

VU Reading Lists has certain advantages over other ways of presenting course literature, both for lecturers and students:

1.3.1 Advantages of VU Reading Lists for lecturers

  • Comply with the rules regarding copyright in education.
  • Easily inform students about what they should read and when they should read it.
  • Manage course literature directly from VU Canvas.
  • Organise lists in the way that best suits the course’s module as well as the students’ needs.
  • Add notes for your students, such as: “Read chapters 1-3”.
  • Easily collaborate with colleagues, share lists and manage the saved articles, books or web pages.
  • Contact the University Library and your faculty’s subject librarian directly for questions about resources by adding a note in a reading list.

1.3.2 Advantages of VU Reading Lists for students

  • All relevant literature for their course is collected in one place and is easily shared in VU Canvas.
  • Direct access to the educational resources.
  • Manage their literature and study goals in VU Reading Lists, and add their personal notes on the items in the reading lists for their courses.
  • Save literature for later by adding it to their personal bookmarks in VU Reading Lists.

1.4. Need help?

The university library has educational support staff who can help you with VU Reading Lists, such as:

  • Setting up reading lists for your course,
  • Providing training and support to faculty’s teaching staff,
  • Checking for digitally available versions of literature.

Contact the Education Support Centre or your faculty’s Subject Librarian for more information.

2. Getting started with VU Reading Lists

2.1. Logging in

Navigate to vu.rl.talis.com and log in with your VUnetID (via SURFconext). This takes you to the VU Reading Lists home screen (Figure 1). Here, you find the main menu, the search bar to search for reading lists, as well as important notifications.

Figure 1 VU Reading Lists home screen

The My Lists menu contains all the lists you have created or own. Under My Bookmarks, you will find all the resources you have searched for, imported or added.

 

2.2. Your profile

After you have logged in, you can see your profile overview by clicking on your name and choosing View Profile. You can then adjust your profile details by clicking on the Edit Profile button (Figure 2).

Figure 2 VU Reading Lists profile page


In the Edit Profile menu you can:

  • Make your profile public or keep it private,
  • View your reading intentions,
  • View all the notes you have created,
  • View the lists you own,
  • View your roles and received invitations.

2.3. The bookmarking tool

The Talis Aspire Reading Lists Bookmarking browser extension offers the easiest way to add new items to your reading list. We suggest you therefore download the bookmarking tool before you start making your reading lists. This tool is available for Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, and Safari. The help page Bookmarking from your web browser from the manufacturer of VU Reading Lists (Talis Apire) shows you how to install the extension for your browser.

Once you have installed the Talis Aspire Bookmarking Tool in your browser of choice, pin the extension to your toolbar for easy access. The first time you click on the Talis Aspire Reading Lists Bookmarking tool in your browser you need to select and save your settings. Choose “Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam” and log in with your VUnetID (Figure 3).

Figure 3 Talis Aspire Reading Lists Bookmarking browser extension activation pop-up


After registering your institution (Vrije Universiteit), you can use the bookmarking extension every time by simply clicking on it from your browser’s toolbar.

3. Creating your VU Reading Lists

3.1. Creating a new list

To create a new list, start by choosing My Lists from the Main menu on the VU Reading Lists home screen. Here your find your published lists and draft lists. Start a new list simply by clicking the Create new list button at the top right side of the screen (Figure 4).

Figure 4 Detail of the My Lists main screen

3.2. Adding list details

The Create new list button creates a new list and opens a separate window (see Figure 5) in which you can enter the relevant details for your reading list.

Then click Save. You have now created your first reading list!

Figure 5 Reading list details screen​​


To help students find the right reading list for their courses, follow these guidelines when completing this window.

  1. For the title of your reading list, use name and course code of the corresponding course in VU Canvas, for example “S_PRRM1 | Public Relation and Reputation Management”.
  2. At 'Description’, add a description of the course that includes all relevant information. A good way to keep consistency is filling in this field by copy-pasting this information from the course description on VU Canvas.
  3. Under “internal note”, add a note that is only visible to others who edit the list and to University Library staff.
  4. Connect your list to the appropriate programme through Select Hierarchy. If your programme is not listed here, please report this at cip.ub@vu.nl and skip this step.
  5. Choose the relevant time period in which the course runs under ‘Academic Year’.

4. Building your VU Reading List

4.1. Building your reading list

After creating your reading list, the empty list is now open (Figure 6). The blue “Publish” button indicates that your list has not yet been published, but is only a draft version. Changes will be saved automatically, but you will need to publish them to make them visible to your students or colleagues.

Figure 6 Empty VU Reading List with filters and action buttons


You can start building your list by using the three buttons at the bottom of the empty list.

  • Add resource adds a source to the list. This source can be a book, article, video or webpage, basically anything that can be accessed via a hyperlink. These sources will form the main content of your list. Adding resources is explained in more detail in a later section.
  • Add paragraph adds a paragraph of text to your reading list. You can use paragraphs for whatever you need. Remember that paragraphs are purely informative; they do not contain clickable content or add any interactive structure (only visual structure).
  • Add section allows you to create sections and sub-sections in your VU Reading Lists. Using sections is very useful as list sections (and sub-sections) can be individually added to your course in VU Canvas. Using sections gives you a lot of flexibility in using your reading list in VU Canvas.

4.2. Adding resources

There are a couple of different ways to add resources to your reading list:

  • Using Add resource in the reading list,
  • Using the bookmarking extension,
  • Creating an item manually,
  • Importing bookmarks from a RIS-file.

Each of these has the same result but has its own advantages and disadvantages, although there is a lot of overlap in how they function. They are explained in the following sections.

4.2.1. Using Add resource in the reading list.

The Add resource function is the basic way to add resources to your list. This functionality works best if the resource is also in the University library’s catalogue.

This functionality shows up in the form of a separate button when your list is still empty. If you already have items in your list, it will appear when you hover your cursor over the top or bottom of an item, paragraph or section (Figure 8). The functions Add paragraph and Add section work the same way.

Clicking Add resource opens the pop-up search screen (Figure 7). The search bar in this screen is basically the same search bar as the one on the University Library’s webpage: it gives you access to the University Library’s entire catalogue.

Figure 7 The Add resource search screen with My bookmarks and Library search sections


Under the heading My Bookmarks at the top you will see the sources you have previously added (of course this list will be empty if you are adding your first item in your first list). Below the bookmarked suggestions, under the heading Library Search, you will find the search results from the University Library’s catalogue.

After you have found your desired resource, simply click Add to list to add the item to your reading list (Figure 8). By default, items are added to the list you’re currently working with.

Figure 8 VU Reading List with first item added


Any item you add will also be added to your bookmarks (My Bookmarks). This way, you can easily add the same resource to another list (see Figure 1).

Clicking on the title of the item shows more details, most notably the availability of the source at the University Library, including buttons with links to its original location (Figure 9). This view is also what students will see when they use that reading list and click on an item. You collapse this view by clicking on the title again.

Figure 9 Detail view of a VU Reading List item


The red text “Importance not set” indicates that you have not yet indicated to the students what the importance of this item in the list is. There are three levels of importance:

  • Required reading,
  • Recommended reading,
  • Optional reading.

Setting an importance is not required.

Note: The importance label Required reading should only be used for official exam literature!

4.2.2. Using the bookmarking tool

The Talis Aspire Reading Lists Bookmarking browser extension is probably the easiest way to add any resource to your reading list if you are browsing on the internet. The source can be anything on the internet, an academic publication found on the internet, for example with Google Scholar (see Figure 10), a news item on a website, a blogpost, or a video – for example on YouTube.

Figure 10 Google Scholar search results


Once you have found your publication, import the source by clicking the Talis Aspire Reading Lists Bookmarking browser extension from your browser’s toolbar (Figure 11).

Figure 11 Adding a publication using the Talis Aspire Reading Lists Bookmarking browser extension


Running the extension opens a window showing the metadata imported by the tool (Figure 12).

Figure 12 The bookmarking tool’s metadata window


In this window you can check and – where necessary – adjust the metadata for the resource you’re importing into your reading list by clicking the Edit resource button. Section 4.2.3. explains how this works in more detail.

Click Save in My Bookmarks to add the item to your Bookmarks. In the right-hand menu Add to List you can add the bookmark to one of your lists. When you choose Add to List, a new pop-up will open in which you can choose in which list and where in the list you will add the item (Figure 13).

Figure 13 Add to list pop-up menu


This menu also allows you to add a note for your students, such as “Read chapters 3 and 4”, set the item’s importance, or add a note for the University Library, for example asking about the items availability. The Note for library will be picked up by your faculty’s subject librarian, who can contact you with information or to discuss possible options.

4.2.3. Creating an item manually

This way to add a resource should never be your go-to method of adding resources. It should only be used for sources you cannot find online.

However, you should know how this function works because you may need it to adjust the information in sources you add via the Talis Aspire Reading Lists Bookmarking browser extension, or use it to add your own resources to a VU Reading List (see above).

Creating an item manually starts the same way as adding a resource from within the list by clicking on Add resource. Instead of using the search bar, scroll to the bottom of the pop-up search screen and click on the link Create manually. This opens a new screen, Edit resource (Figure 14).

Figure 14 Manually adding a new resource


If you want to add a metadata field, select the required metadata type from the right-hand menu 'Add all fields that apply'. The metadata field will then appear in the metadata list, after which you can fill it in.

Note that the Talis Aspire Reading Lists Bookmarking browser extension will also take you to this screen, but it will then include the name of the source from which you’re importing the resource, and also show the imported metadata from the source.

4.2.4. Importing bookmarks

The fourth way to add items to your reading list is to import bookmarks. This allows you to add an entire list of materials. This can be useful if you already have a list of course literature in your personal reference manager.

Start by going into the Bookmarks menu on the Main page of VU Reading Lists by clicking the My Bookmarks option in the main menu at the top (Figure 15).

Figure 15 The Add options in the My Bookmarks menu

You will need to have the sources ready in a RIS-file (you can prepare such a file in your reference manager). Then choose Import citations and upload your RIS-file (Figure 16).

Figure 16 The import citations pop-up window


You also have the option to add the imported materials directly to a new reading list by checking the box Add imported resources to a new list.

4.3. Using sections in your reading list

Adding sections to your reading list is very useful. Sections (and subsections) in your list can be added individually to your courses on VU Canvas (see chapter 8). This gives you a lot of flexibility in using your reading lists in VU Canvas, such as the ability to reflect the structure of the course, or by creating a section that can be used in multiple courses on VU Canvas.

To create a section, start by clicking on the Add section option in the reading list (see Figure 9 in section 4.2.1). Give the section a title and description, and click Save.

Figure 17 Adding a section to a reading list


You add new items to a new section with the button Add resource, after which you follow the steps in section 4.2. Existing items can be added to a new section by dragging them into the section using the double-arrow dragging handles; the section is indicated by the large square brackets (Figure 18).

Figure 18 An empty section with  items that can be dragged into it


You can create sub-sections in the same way: by either starting a new section within an existing section, or by moving one section into another. All sections and sub-sections will automatically be added to the Table of Contents at the top of the reading list (see the example in Figure 19).

Figure 19 Table of contents of a VU Reading List


Most editing options for items and sections in the reading list can also be accessed via the so-called “meatballs menu” (the three dots) on the right-hand side of an item or section.

5. Collaborating & sharing

If you teach a course together with other colleagues, you may want to share your reading list or even create lists together. This is possible. Most of the functions discussed in this chapter are available from the menus Edit and View & Export of the reading list you are working on.

To share your reading lists with students, we advise that you do so via VU Canvas. Chapter 8 explains the options for sharing reading lists via VU Canvas.

5.1. Who owns a reading list?

If you want to collaborate, it is important to know who owns a reading list. Formally, you are not automatically the owner (List owner) of a reading list that you have created. Your profile shows the lists that you own in the Lists owned by me tab (see Figure 2).

This may seem like an unusual approach, but it ensures that educational support staff and others (such as student assistants or university library staff) can create reading lists for teaching staff when they do not have the time or are unable to do so themselves.

Please note: Before you can formally make someone the owner of a reading list, the future owner must have logged into VU Reading Lists at least once so that they are known to the system.

If you create reading lists for others, you can make them List owner by going to the Edit menu of the relevant reading list and using the Assign list owner option (Figure 20). This can be yourself or a colleague at the VU. It is also possible to have more than one owner – this can be useful if a course has multiple lecturers.

The main purpose of adding a List owner is to make it easier for students to find the list in VU Reading Lists by searching for the name of their lecturer. This also means that being a List owner does not automatically mean that you can add new items to that list and publish the list. For that, you need the role of List publisher (see section 5.2). All VU employees are automatically assigned the role of List publisher when they log in to VU Reading Lists for the first time.

Figure 20 The Edit menu in a VU Reading List


When you have assigned someone else as the owner of a list, that list will show up in their My Lists-tab of the main menu. If you no longer need to work with the list, you can then safely remove it from your own My Lists-tab; the list will not be deleted.

5.2. Co-publishing a reading list

The Edit menu of your reading list also offers the option to invite a List publisher for a particular list. Just enter your colleagues’ email addresses and they’ll receive an invitation to become a list publisher for the list. After accepting the invitation, the reading list will show up in their My Lists-tab, and they will be able to add items to the list and make other changes.

5.3. Sharing a reading list

You will usually share your reading list in VU Canvas. How to do this is explained in chapter 8. The following paragraphs show other ways to share reading lists. There are several ways to share a reading list or the items in it from the application. The method of sharing will depend on whether your colleagues can log in to VU Reading Lists with a VUnetID.

Please note that lists must be always published before you can share them, either via VU Canvas or elsewhere. Sharing is different from co-publishing: when you share a list, you are actually just referring to the location of the list.

5.3.1. Sharing with someone working at VU

If you are unable or unwilling to use VU Canvas, and you want to share items or entire lists within the VU, you can simply send the recipient a link. To send someone within the VU a link to an item in your reading list, select the Share item option in the meatballs menu next to the item (see also Figure 19).

If you want to share the entire reading list with someone at VU, simply copy the URL of the list (remove everything after ‘.html’) and paste the link where you want to share the list. For example, the URL https://rl.talis.com/3/vu/lists/B37C002A-D0E4-7FA7-5AF5-45A0A70716D5.html links to The Big VU Reading List of Open Education.

5.3.2. Sharing with an external person

It is also possible to share the contents of your reading list with people outside the VU. Because they cannot log in to VU Reading Lists, these people will not be able to take advantage of all the application's features, such as adding notes or bookmarks.

To share a reading list, use the View & Export menu in the reading list you want to share (see Figure 21 in Chapter 7). Here you will find options to share the list as a RIS file for use in reference managers, a CSV file, and two types of PDFs: as a simple list or in bibliographic format. You can customise the bibliographic output format in the Citation Style menu in the reading list, to the right of the table of contents (see Figure 19, for example).

After you have selected the format, the file will be downloaded and you can share it.

6. Requesting educational resources

After you click on publish (making the list visible and searchable for others), the university library will automatically receive a notification that a new list has been published.

If you want the university library to contact you about an item, add a Note for library to the relevant item on the list. Once you have added a Note for library stating your wishes, a library employee from the Subject Librarians team will review the list and look at the note you have added. Section 4.2.2 explains how to add a Note for library. There are various reasons for adding such a note, for example:

  • To request the purchase of a book, journal or database;
  • Purchase of additional copies of a book or availability of a new edition;
  • If you have a question about a book, journal or database.

You will receive a personal notification about your request as soon as possible. You can also contact your faculty’s subject librarian directly if you have any questions about the university library's collection.

Your Note for library is not visible to students.

7. VU Reading Lists Analytics

The Analytics option in the View & Export menu provides you with additional information about how students are using your reading list (Figure 21). Clicking on this option takes you to the VU Reading Lists Analytics dashboard.

Figure 21 The View & Export menu in the VU Reading Lists manager


The Analytics dashboard shows how popular certain items are, and whether the metadata is correct (Figure 22). Next to each item is a coloured bar that indicates how many times an item has been clicked on. Green indicates that a resource is clicked on frequently, while red means it is visited rarely. In such cases, you can try promoting the item’s use by adding a note for students highlighting the benefits of the resource, or by moving it to another place on the list.

Figure 22 The analytics dashboard in VU Reading Lists


You can also see the reading intentions of students as a group, and how many students have added personal notes to that particular item. For privacy reasons, you are not able to see the names of the students who have posted them or the content of these notes.

8. Using VU Reading Lists in VU Canvas

8.1. General notes

This chapter contains instructions on working in the VU Canvas digital learning environment and assumes that you have a reasonable understanding of how this digital learning environment works. If VU Canvas is new to you, please first complete the course Getting To Know Canvas - Teachers.

Make sure that the list has been published before you try to link it to VU Canvas. Don't forget to publish any changes you make.

VU Reading Lists is fully integrated with VU Canvas. This means that, although you need VU Reading Lists to create your reading list, once you have added a reading list to VU Canvas (see below for instructions on how to do this), you can then edit the list almost entirely directly in VU Canvas.

It does not matter whether you make changes via the VU Canvas integration or via VU Reading Lists on vu.rl.talis.com. it is essentially the same environment: changes made in VU Reading Lists are immediately visible in the reading list in VU Canvas and vice versa.

8.2. Adding a VU Reading List to Canvas

There are three ways to add a reading list to VU Canvas:

  1. Via the navigation menu,
  2. In a VU Canvas Module, or
  3. On a VU Canvas Page.

You can choose one of the three options or combine them. This gives you maximum flexibility for using VU Reading Lists in VU Canvas.

8.2.1. The navigation menu

VU Reading Lists appears by default in the navigation menu on the left side of every course in VU Canvas (Figure 23). You can use the option in the navigation menu to link your published list. You can find the published list using the search bar that appears when you click on VU Reading Lists in the navigation menu. Select the list and then click on Embed List. The application may ask you to log in again to VU Reading Lists (Talis Aspire) before you can add your list.

Figure 23 VU Reading Lists in the navigation menu of a VU Canvas course


Your list is now fully embedded in the course. If you still want to link a different list, follow the same steps (note that the button that was previously called Embed now appears as Embed a different list – however, the process remains the same).

8.2.2. VU Reading Lists in a Canvas Module

In Modules, you can share either a section of a reading list or the entire list. To do this, click on Modules in your course in VU Canvas and select the module to which you want to add your reading list. Click on the plus sign and select VU Reading Lists from the list in the External tool menu (Figure 24).

Figure 24 VU Reading Lists in a Canvas Modules' External tool menu

Search for the VU Reading List that you wish to add to the Module. Based on your ownership of lists, the tool will already suggest lists that you may want to add (Figure 25).

Figure 25 Reading list search menu in VU Canvas


You can choose whether you want to add the entire list by selecting Embed list, or only part of the list by selecting Select section. If you select Select section, a new window will open in which you can add a section or subsection of the reading list (see Figure 26). Please note that the application may ask you to log in again to add your list.

Figure 26 Embed options for VU Reading Lists in VU Canvas


The intended reading list or section (or subsection) appears as an embedded page in the Module. Embedding also means that you can make changes to the list directly in VU Canvas.

8.2.3. VU Reading Lists on a Canvas Page

You can link your reading list to a Page in VU Canvas. To do this, go to the Edit menu of the page, click on the plug icon in the menu of the page's content editor, and search for VU Reading Lists (Figure 27).

Figure 27 VU Reading Lists in the VU Canvas Page's content editor


Similar to adding a reading list to a Module, you can choose whether you want to add the entire list or only part of it by selecting the section or subsection.

The intended reading list or section (or subsection) is not embedded on the Page but appears as a link to the reading list in VU Reading Lists where students can access the list.

9. Questions & Answers

Below are some questions that may have come up after reading this manual. For general help with using VU Reading Lists, contact the Copyright Information Point.

Question

Answer
How do I start with VU Reading Lists? Go to vu.rl.talis.com and log in with your VUnetID.
How do I install the bookmarking tool? See the instructions and links on the Talis Aspire help page for this.
Can I add video’s to my reading list? Yes, you can. With the bookmarking extension, you can add almost all digital web resources to your list, including pages with videos.

Can I put my own materials or video’s on Canvas on a VU Reading List? [*]

Yes, that is possible. Use the bookmarking extension to add the source from VU Canvas to your reading list.

You can add videos you have made by linking to their location in Panopto, the university’s video platform.
What do I do if a source on my list is not available in the University Library? You can still add this source to your reading list. If it is exam literature, make sure to add a Note for library with a purchase request, or contact the University Library.
Can I copy a VU Reading List? Yes, you can. Go to the list, then click Edit > Copy list. Alternatively, in your My Lists-menu, click on the meatballs menu of the list you wish to copy and select Copy to a new list.
Can I import references from EndNote or another reference manager? Yes, this is possible. On how to do this, see section 4.2.4 or How to import a reading list as a RIS-file.
Can teachers see what notes students have made in VU Reading List? No. For privacy reasons, teachers cannot see the content of the notes that students have made.
Can I use a different citation style that is not among the options given? Contact the University Library to explore what is possible.

[*] If you have created more extensive materials, the University Library can help you to find a more durable solution, or with creating an open educational resource.

 

10. Useful links

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