Tag: instruction

Creating 21st Century Information-Literacy Programs

Rick Bearden and Emily Mitchell, Ferris State University

PILOT (Project Information Literacy Online Tutorial); Texas Information Tutorial (TILT)

One of the best things about TILT is you don’t have to recreate the wheel; it’s free.

bad: out-dated; ugly

Library Orientation all online students at Ferris State would take. PILOT was out-of-date. But limited on time: had to reorganize and restructure physical library.

New tutorial criteria

  • modular (student can just come in and take relevant part and then apply)
  • linkable (point of need)
  • easy to update (PILOT hadn’t been updated in years; not easy to update!)
  • interactive (old, boring: lots of text, bad; interactivity would need to be easily editable)

Interface features supporting criteria

  • navigation with both menu and arrows
  • Provide many ways to learn (varied display elements)
  • A new session will start from where you left off (you get interrupted)
  • Real time feedback from practice exercises

Screenshots being shown of the presentation right now.

  • Online chat embedded as part of the new tutorial
  • Simple elements such as a table can be used. Easily buildable pages (CSS does the formatting)
  • Fancier elements such as a lightboxes are available
  • Go interactive with drag and drop practice exercises (Not Flash — Javascript)
  • Code is provided for more elements: headings, paragraphs, lists, audio files, emphasis boxes, images, links (or include your own HTML)

Tutorial creation of interface

Philosophy of design: (Rick doesn’t like CMSes like Drupal) Philosophy of design: provide tools for novices to build useful tutorials but don’t dumb it down so much that it is impossible to do anything cool.

Editing Home, uses tabs

  • Add metadata
  • Edit metadata
  • Edit content
  • View content
  • Reorder
  • Delete
  • Upload File
  • Can clone it

Create and Manage quiz sets available

PILOT runs on LAMP. Code, content, and documentation will be made freely available to any library that wants it early summer 2011. Come up to leave us a business card if you want to be contacted when we are ready for distribution; or you can email us at: Rick Bearden (beardenr@ferris.edu) Emily Mitchell (mitchee3@ferris.edu)

Alan Bearman, Sean Bird, Keith Rocci, Washburn University

Interactive Presentation online

Information-Literacy Programs: The Washburn University Model (Topeka, KS)

London, Kentucky, Kansas journey — accent fun 🙂

Is the physical library in the 21st Century necessary? (The Googlization of Everything argument)

Washburn is a teaching university, sits between two research universities (KU and K-State); administration asked do we need a physical library in the 21st century. Dr. Bearman became the Dean of Libraries at Washburn University in 2008.

The library had become disengaged from the university. It had been a place that purchased lots of physical stuff just in case. Collection-centric model. Administration was really questioning the value of the library at the campus.

YES! The campus does still need a library. The library is more important today than ever before; not because of the collection but because of the people. The librarians are absolutely crucial to our teaching of information literacy. Administration response: what’s information literacy?

“To create information literate graduates the university library must be central to the student experience”

You can create information literate graduates in the information age, if they’re discontented from the students. Extend the library. Not just physical space. Digital branch. Local: tutorials for specific classes. Generic — general tutorials. Parents — orientation, library speaks to them. Library must be central to the student experience.

Washburn University Learning Outcomes (went from 9 vague standards unmeasurable to these)

  1. Communication (COM)
  2. Quantitative and Scientific Reasoning and Literacy (QSRL)
  3. Information Literacy and Technology (ILT)
  4. Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT)
  5. Global Citizenship, Ethics and Diversity (GCED)

Library had to figure out how to teach this outcome.

How did we assess our efforts? (keith is a teacher)

  1. Retention: 8% increase for 2009 cohort
  2. Student achievement: .37 increased GPA
  3. Student surveys: 84% student satisfaction

Success brings success.

Are we successful? (Sean Bird)

(data drives what we do) anecdotal evidence; Sean has seen this library since 1985 as an alum.

Library demanded them to study in the same ways as in the analog world, even in 2005

After Dr. Bearman came, things changed. No more zones. Carrels

Now different types of zones. Collaboration allowed.

  1. Library traffic increased 15%
  2. University President is a strong advocate (before didn’t think the library necessary)
  3. Academic Support Initiatives moved to library
  4. Second Assistant Dean position
  5. Coffee Kiosk

The library was packed. Every table was packed. Every computer was packed. Reading. Writing. The library place had changed.

Departments are holding meetings in the library because of the coffee shop.

Students are being encouraged to use the library to be questions.

Questions

  • Retention rate: Washburn had been criticized about its retention rate VERY publicly. The information literacy emphasis will hopefully drastically improve the retention rate. Students overwhelmed by information overload; must learn to deal with information. Washburn is working on this through their changes. Still to know the data.
  • Information Literacy: classes were taught for 15 years; 1 unit class “the library experience” tied to 2 unit class “the college experience” the content isn’t much different. Serials librarian teaching (rejuvenated his career); Access services librarian enjoying as well. Students get grades from this point. The instruction librarians — faculty status. The library went out and engaged the faculty and conversation and administration. That made a HUGE difference.
  • Washburn University: does have digital tutorials.

If You Widget It: They Might Use It

Building Library Widgets for your Online Learning Platforms

Amanda Lemon, OCCC & Toni Hoberecht, OU-Tulsa

Presentation webpage

From the presenters’ setup, it looked like it would be fun, even though we’d be talking about HTML some. 🙂

Presenters are at two different institutions; two different learning platforms.

Widgets are small boxes of code that can be embedded in websites.

Explanation of a widget using a bottle of wine, using a Prezi presentation & live props.

  • Bottle of wine–>decanter–>wine glass.
  • Bottle of wine–>winery aerator place in glass–>instantly funnels the wine into the glass. (This is a widget).

Widget::Wine analogy

  • Bottle of wine (rich): this is the resources, the OPAC, the databases
  • Decanter: URL/hyperlinks
  • Glass of Wine: Your End User

The aerator acts as the widget. They get the information direct where they want it in the glass. No separate container needed.

Discussion of More Than Two Hours of Daily TV, Video Game Time Can Cause Attention Problems and Hooked on Gadgets and Paying a Mental Price.

  • The end users aren’t going to just go to a different site.

The default Resources page in the OCCC Angel interface has built-in boxes for Wikipedia and Google. Where’s the library??? It wasn’t there.

They got a presence there first by having a widget built for the library catalog. Ongoing issues getting a database widget placed there.

The widget simplifies the search for the end user.

Creating the Widget

The widget parts:

  • title
  • description of what it does
  • a graphic
  • the search box
  • button;
  • link to the site

Don’t use Word to write the code. It adds “helpful” code. Use notepad, naming the file, “name.html” — using .html allows you to open the file in a web browser.

We’re making a little segmented area to put our widget onto an already existing information.

Div tag = container

At this point the presenters walked the audience through building a widget. Their presentation discussion thread works through some of this process. A couple of notes

  1. Finding the unique searching URL can be complex.
  2. LibraryWebchic.net/mashups can help out.
  3. Presenters suggested to look at others pages & source code to start get possible ideas.

The steps in summary:

  1. Make Widget in Notepad.
  2. Save as HTML file.
  3. Email file to LMS admin.
  4. Admin does the rest.

I really enjoyed this session. Even though I’ve been doing HTML coding for years, off and on, part of being self-taught means you do miss out on certain things. It was good to fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge. Also, watching someone else teach this was quite helpful for seeing other methods to teach the same times of hardcore techie skills to people who aren’t hardcore techies. I definitely learned some strategies. Analogies (like the wine bottle) are the key. The biggest thing that techies need to remember is to watch the terminology and if you’re told that people don’t understand, step back and think of an analogy of the techie skill you’re teaching that your audience can relate to. For non-techies, the biggest thing to remember is to ask for clarification if you’re confused.

unCOILED workshop Keynote panel

The keynote panel is comprised of the presenters of the different sessions today. Interesting idea. A way for everyone to hear at a least a bit from each of the sessions:

  • Elizabeth Jones, OCU
  • David Oberhelman, Hui-Fen Chang, and Helen Clements, OSU
  • Dennis Miles, SOSU
  • Amanda Lemon, OCCC and Toni Hoberecht, OU-Tulsa
  • Kathryn Plunkett, SOSU
  • Casey Ashe, TCC

Describe the project you will be talking about today, and the biggest roadblock you overcame on the way to implementing it.

  • IM chat: not just supply the answer and but teach those at the other end how to find the answer; had to learn from others
  • Widgets: Will be able to build a widget after this session; had to learn to code
  • LibGuides — faculty embedding these in their courses online. Just getting started. What it is and what it can do to help reach out to distance learners.
  • For-credit IL class online: Difficulties teaching in an online environment; switching from F2F to online environment; challenges were working with administration getting the course set up.
  • new look at COIL: customizing IL for different subject areas and designing it to fit the different professors’ need.
  • Second Life: facilitate teaching within it; challenges: takes a year to get used  to the environment (not like WoW)

Is it easier or harder to provide library instruction for DL than F2F students? Why?

  • Toni: Distance ed lacks the human component. Hard to compensate for that in teaching. We’re going to have to make it work but it’s hard. (Comment: How can this challenge be overcome? Live video cameras? Live voice? Blogging? What types of interaction? Has research been done on what the students think?)
  • Helen: Agrees; students said being f2f did make a difference, even if it’s just once.
  • Casey: engaging them in the different parts of the process is difficult.
  • Kathryn: it’s hard now bc it’s new, but it’s the future. It’s forcing us to be really relook at our teaching. Have to look at different ways of learning to reach different learners. Creativity & flexibility.
  • David: competition from online universities; humans interact better f2f. Find ways to bridge that gap online. How to bring in the in-person interaction experience?

How can libraries most effectively connect with Distance Learners?

  • Casey: much more important now to connect with the faculty in this environment; collaboration with the faculty much more significant
  • Toni: Proximity is everything. Try to insert your access to students when they need you. Predict when the assignment begins; cooperation with faculty.
  • Kathryn: chat is perfect example of this; students were there first and then we adopted it. They are already comfortable with this platform.
  • Beth: marketing is important; make sure students know how to contact us. Make the library’s name prominent and easy to find.
  • Amanda: online option to ask questions is important. Majority of her libraries’ reference qs come online. Students are so appreciative of the online interface to ask questions because they don’t like the phone.
  • Text message reference experimentation: OCCC uses (not marketed much); it’s what’s next.
  • Google Voice # for text chat and then shows up in the chat interface. Google Voice can be used for receiving texts in a chat <– will have to look into this.
  • AIM hack through Meebo text chat is a free way. (but doesn’t work well)

What Web 2.0 technology do you think is the most overrated for distance library services or libraries in general, and why?

  • Twitter (many on the panel don’t like it; don’t get it; Amanda sees both sides of Twitter’s uses)
  • Facebook
  • Library tutorial videos; Amanda spends a lot of time on them, but feels students don’t use them. Thinks they get used because professor sends link out. How to gauge their effectiveness? BYU video mentioned as a great video; many others are boring. Too long. 4 minutes; but that’s way too long, still. ASU library Minute videos are good. The length is the key. People show those in their instruction sessions. Atomic learning ones are really quick too. XKCD on library websites. In Plain English videos by Common Craft

What do you think Distance learning library instruction will look like in 5 years (at your institution and beyond?)

  • More of it for sure
  • Half f2f/half online in 5 years
  • 5-10 years will be doing much more on cell phones & touch screens (5 years?? sooner than that!!)
  • working from home.
  • Digital divide discussion. Rural vs. urban? How are you going to provide distance learning to those in the rural areas who don’t have decent Internet access at their homes, remotely? Even the public libraries where these students could go are struggling to keep up with technology (fund it; pay for internet access; have enough computers to meet all needs).

Open Discussion

  • Bring the legislators into the more rural areas and show them the reality of the broadband and cell phone situations. That’s a really really good point.
  • Instructional content packaged for textbooks. Rather than giving them a website to go to, give them packaged content in a DVD. (Comment: schools, blocking social networking sites (wikis, youtube, etc.), this isn’t a good idea; issue here is working with the schools to show them how these tools are good and why they need to be accessible)
  • Discussion on info lit teaching; missed some of the discussion.
  • Web camera usage: open class period to talk over the web chat. It’s coming. The exchange is so much richer. It’s available now. It’s just getting the camera to use. Someone has used Skype and Dim Dim with her students. “Ignorance is nice.” “How did you do that? I don’t know. I hit the button and it works.”