The Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning (CDTL) conducted an online survey on educational resources and faculty needs from 1 July–10 August 2003. The main objectives of the exercise were:

• To understand the academic staff’s level of interest in teaching materials/resources
  
  
• To discover whether the academic staff have knowledge of the various facilities and teaching materials available at CDTL and how frequently the staff access teaching materials/resources at the Centre
  
  
• To know about other educational resources that can support the academic staff in their teaching

In total, we received 309 responses (approximately 15% of the NUS teaching staff). The following are some findings and suggestions compiled from the survey:

1. Publicity: The CDTL Resource library and its online facility need more advertising and publicity.

2. CDTL publications: Academic staff considered CDTL newsletters and books as one of the main resources when looking for teaching related resources/materials.
   

3. A prominent link: There were suggestions to post a clear and prominent link to the CDTL Library on the home page of the NUS Libraries.
   

4. Online information: Recommendations were made to provide the following information on a regular basis:
   

   • Monthly e-Reviews of books/resources
     

   • Monthly highlights of specific books, chapters or papers that focus on practical aspects of teaching/specialised areas of teaching
     

   • Monthly recommendations of good reading materials

5. Access to resources for obtaining materials/resources related to teaching: There were suggestions to provide the academic staff with the following facilities:
   

   • Discipline specific resources

   • Listserv subscriptions (e.g. Stanford Learning Lab, Tomorrow’s Professor)

   • Online resource materials for adapted books

   • Scientific databases

   • Printed education journals and newsletters

   • Field specific educational textbooks, teaching-aids and websites

   • Publisher websites

   • Peer-reviewed journals and journal paper samples

   • CDTL Digital library

6. Recommend titles: Allow academic staff to recommend the purchase of educational journals, books and materials.
   

7. Drop-off points: Books borrowed from the CDTL Library can be returned at designated drop-off points around the campus.
   

8. Multimedia teaching aids: There were proposals for the acquisition of the following resources:

   • Acquire videos/CDs on the teaching of specific topics
     
     
   • Post video recordings of past CDTL seminars/workshops online for those who cannot attend the actual sessions
     
     
   • Field specific teaching aids like PowerPoint slides, images, short videos and audio conversations