UW Information Literacy

Working with international students

2011-06-07T11:23:00.001-07:00

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the spring Quarterly Instruction Roundtable. And thanks to Jenny Halpin from the UW Writing & Research Center for sharing her experiences. For me, the main takeaway was that we serve international students well when we follow best practices for inclusive pedagogy that will benefit all students, from providing materials in multiple modes/formats, to using open-ended questioning that allows the student to drive the interaction. We also have a responsibility to consider the cultural specificity of academic practices, supporting students in learning American conventions while also honoring their own rhetorical traditions.

Following are a few notes and resources...please feel free to add your own insights, websites, programs in the comments section!

Writing across borders
An excellent 30-minute film which explores the particular challenges that international students face in meeting academic writing expectations in American higher education. They also have a companion website that offers additional resources, including discussion questions for facilitating training with tutors and faculty.
Journal of second language writing
"...devoted to publishing theoretically grounded reports of research and discussions of central issues in second and foreign language writing and writing instruction...personal characteristics and attitudes of L2 writers, L2 writers' composing processes, features of L2 writers' texts, readers' responses to L2 writing, assessment/evaluation of L2 writing, contexts (cultural, social, political, institutional) for L2 writing..."
TESOL journal
"...a forum for second and foreign language educators at all levels to engage in the ways that research and theorizing can inform, shape, and ground teaching practices and perspectives..."
College English
"...publishes articles about literature, rhetoric-composition, critical theory, creative writing theory and pedagogy, linguistics, literacy, reading theory, pedagogy, and professional issues related to the teaching of English..."
Teaching international students: improving learning for all
Book featuring discussion of writing, intercultural group learning, practical classroom strategies, and more.
Teaching a diverse student body: international students
Chapter in an online teaching manual from University of Virginia.

Georgia State copyright case - proposed injunction

2011-05-23T11:58:00.000-07:00

Is this what the future holds for academic libraries? As Kevin Smith, J.D. points out in his Scholarly Communications blog post, if the publishers win and this injunction (with no mention on fair use) is adopted by the Judge, universities are going to be pressured to adopt this model to avoid litigation.

A nightmare scenario for higher education

In anticipation of the trial starting on Monday in the copyright infringement case brought against Georgia State University by Cambridge, Oxford and Sage publishers, and partially financed by the Copyright Clearance Center, there has been a flurry of motions, mostly relating to the admission of various pieces of evidence. But amongst that deluge of paper is a truly frightening document, the proposed injunction that the plaintiffs are requesting if they win the case. I have always known that there was a lot a stake for higher education in this case, but the injunction the publishers want would be a nightmare scenario beyond even my most pessimistic imaginings.

Saying no

2011-03-16T15:37:00.000-07:00

Thanks for a great discussion at yesterday's Quarterly Instruction Roundtable. I could never capture all those great ideas in a single blog post, but I'll share a few issues that came up, and encourage you to add others that really stuck with you, or resources that you've found useful.

Here's one that I stumbled upon after our discussion, a blog post on saying no from In the Library with a Lead Pipe, a great resource for issues in library instruction. It addresses saying no in a broader scope, but some of the ideas and resources look helpful, such as this book, "The Power of a Positive No".

There was a lot of discussion of alternatives that librarians can offer to instructors in lieu of the 50-minute one-shot session, such as short online learning modules or tutorials, creating class guides to point students to key resources, or providing a menu of more focused instruction sessions that target specific research competencies.

Saying no to the 50-minute one-shot can be an opportunity to discuss assessment and invite further collaboration around developing the specific skills that students need to succeed. For example, asking instructors what they're seeing in student work that troubles them might be an entree to work together on assignment design. Or asking to see student work and assess using a rubric that identifies strengths and weaknesses in student skills as a way to target specific needs.

One recurring challenge was the 50-minute one-shot session that was less than effective (for any number of reasons), which resulted in many one-on-one student consultations later in the quarter. Possible remedies included refocusing the class session to make it more targeted and effective, setting up office hours so that students can't drop in at all times, and scheduling small group consultations to make more efficient use of time.

Summer Quarterly Instruction Roundtable summary

2010-09-15T14:51:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who joined us for our summer Quarterly Instruction Roundtable last week. Below is a summary of some of the great ideas everyone brought to share. And if you weren't able to make it, please feel free to add you own in the comments section!

Ideas for classroom instruction

Theresa is planning a class in which she’ll ask students to find the ‘best’ article on a given topic, then have them post their findings in LibGuides using the User Link Submission feature so that everyone can see all results. They’ll have a class discussion about which are best, why they think so, with Theresa suggesting other strategies, sources, and concepts to consider. Lauren has done a similar classroom exercise in which she gave them a specific citation and asked them to locate the full-text, knowing that many would try Google and come up dry. This fostered a discussion about library-restricted sources that they didn’t know about.

Amanda has had students watch one of our online video tutorials before the class where she visits and has them complete a worksheet to turn in. This gets some of the basics out of the way before her classroom visit.

Ideas for orientations

Nancy has pared down her graduate orientations to 3 key things she wants them to know, rather than telling them everything she thinks they need to know. Dani modifies approach by providing a worksheet to help them focus in on those key pieces of information. Amanda focuses on things that will be most helpful as students get up and running, such as setting up RSS feeds, search alerts, RefWorks, ILL, etc. Jessica, who has long orientation sessions with her students, inserts intermittent quiz questions, with prizes, to keep their attention and keep the energy high. Questions are fun facts related to their department, or things she has shared during her session.

Terry shared a video by the Director of the Cornell Medical Library, who imparts important facts to incoming students, but keeps it light and engaging using a lot of images in his presentation.

Emily is planning to use a modified Pecha Kucha format for her 15-minute orientation for a large group of graduate students: 20 slides (mostly images), 20 seconds per slide. Nancy mentioned that she has enjoyed this format at conferences because they tend to be concise and engaging. Lauren suggested that the presentation could be based on what Emily has seen when working with students from this program in the past, using actual quotes from students about what they wish they had known.

Tools and technologies

Ann is using a freely available online polling tool, Poll Everywhere, to foster engagement in orientations. Terry, Head, Information & Education Services, Health Sciences Libraries, uses clickers to learn about her students at the beginning of her orientation session, such as whether they’re new to the university, then tailors her instruction based on what they do and don’t already know.

Theresa is trying out Prezi to create a tutorial about how to use Lexis Nexis to find polling information; Amanda, Undergraduate Instruction Coordinator, is going to use Prezi for her upcoming graduate student orientations.

New initiatives

Gabe from WWU is preparing to teach a credit-bearing course on research mentoring. The target audience is juniors and seniors who will serve as mentors to their lower-division colleagues, based on a service learning model, to leverage peer knowledge.

In our new Research Commons, a collaborative research space, subject librarians could use their staffing time on the service desk as their own office hours so that students know when and where they can find their subject librarian.

Other ideas and plans

Deb, after a successful experience last year, will have another series of ‘speed consultations’ with students in one of her department’s Spanish classes. Students sign up for a 20-minute one-on-one consultation during their regular class time, and she meets with them all throughout that time period.

Theresa has offered ‘coupons’ to students for coffee with their librarian, an informal meeting in which they can chat about their research and learn how she can support them. On another topic, she has also created an annual report that she shared with faculty, informing them what classes she has taught for them, changes to the collection, impact of the budget, and information about what they can do to maintain the collection and support students.

Who are we? What do we do?

2010-08-02T14:48:00.000-07:00

As librarians, we find ourselves pondering what our role is and will be in the academy. We want to be embedded into classrooms, included in campus meetings of faculty, and seen as the heart of campus. Reading Char Booth's "Librarians as __________: Shapeshifting at the periphery" entry on the "In the library with a lead pipe" blog, I was struck by her statement that "Existing on the edge of the academy – a widely acknowledged and consistent complaint of the research librarian – is actually one of our most valuable strengths." She goes on to explain that by being on the periphery, "Like psychologists, consultants, or social workers, librarians have the value structure and information resources that position us to provide informed counsel to a host of information scenarios, no matter our specialization, without imposing a particular bent." And I find myself totally agreeing with her statement that "When I am at my most successful in consultations and classes I am in part librarian as research therapist, someone to whom students, colleagues, and even faculty can let down their guard in order to expose the vulnerabilities in technology, methodology, or knowledge that can be addressed without judgment." As we reconsider and redefine our roles as subject liaisons and instructors, we should remember that we are librarians - "Under shifting shapes, librarians remain the singularly knowledgeable, radically neutral, and openly accessible mavens of the information world." Hear hear!

Megan Oakleaf at UW Libraries

2010-04-15T10:29:00.000-07:00

UW Librarians will have the opportunity to attend sessions with Megan Oakleaf during the week of April 19. Sessions include Faculty Collaboration and Outreach Strategies, Teaching through
Reference Services, Measuring Our Impact: Assessing Teaching and Learning, Creating Your Strategic Teaching & Learning Plan, Promoting Active Learning through Effective Lesson Plan
Design and Match your Teaching & Learning Approach with Student Learning Needs.

The complete workshop schedule and information is online at http://bit.ly/oakleaftraining

Winter Quarterly Instruction Roundtable: notes on primary sources

2010-03-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

Thanks for a great discussion, everyone! A few notes and links from our discussion...please add your favorite websites, resources, and ideas in the comment section.

Favorite resources, websites:

Mindwalk Activity (Library of Congress)
An introduction to primary sources - what they are and how they can be analyzed.

History Matters (George Mason U.)
Gateway to web resources for teaching U.S. history. Helpful materials on how historians make sense of evidence.

History Link
Source for Washington State History resources, including materials for students and teachers on using primary sources.

Electronic Enlightenment (UW restricted)
Great source for primary sources, all disciplines, from the 18th century.

Digital Docs in a Box
Digital documentary kits in a few topic areas.

Burke Boxes
From the Burke Museum at UW, collections of artifacts, including curricula, that can be checked out by educators for use in the classroom.

Teaching ideas:

Jill shared another institution's program for incoming freshman in which they are introduced to 'stations' of primary sources, showing how those artifacts can help answer questions about a range of issues and how objects are connected. A good introduction to how historians use artifacts as evidence.

Students have a hard time digging into primary sources when they don't have enough historical/topical context to interpret the sources they're seeing. Theresa has used secondary and reference sources to help students identify relevant concepts, events, key terms, etc., then asks them to them track down primary sources on that subject. She has them send them to her, which she compiles, showing them the wide range of sources that can be gathered on a given subject.

We discussed using online modules/tutorials/lectures to convey primary source basics, which may help free up more classroom time for conceptual discussions and exercises. It may also be effective to create guides on finding/accessing/using primary sources directed towards instructors, to get past some of the hurdles that students have when instruction on primary sources isn't provided in the classroom or as part of the assignment.

It's helpful to have objects/documents that students can touch and use. Facsimiles of original sources enables this to some extent (though this approach still misses some of the features that the 'real' object doesn't have).

Evaluating and analyzing primary sources is important, recognizing the bias and audience for a work. Can be helpful to dissect the creator of the primary source to recognize the position of the author and their particular perspective, which is necessarily incomplete.

Using audio/video/images:

We discussed the importance of promoting primary sources in all formats, including artifacts, ephemera, photos, audio/video, film, etc. as a way to engage students in the historical period under study. For example, Theresa shows old films as students are filing in, something from the period they're about to study, such as showing 'hygeine' movies for a women's history class.

Students and faculty are increasingly using images in their teaching, research, and presentations, and we can play a role in supporting them as they search and integrate sources. We can also help them with the challenges of citing sources and following copyright laws.

Other ideas/issues:

It can be challenging to help faculty understand that primary sources are available in all formats, often reprinted in secondary or tertiary sources, and/or online. It may be useful to create guides aimed at instructors to guide them to useful resources. Often, instruction with primary sources is more effective when instructors are guiding students to particular sources, rather than just telling them to go out there and find something.

UW Libraries Special Collections is glad to work with faculty and librarians to meet their primary source needs for teaching and learning. From consultations with librarians about available collections, to collaboration with the Burke, Henry, and Botanical Gardens. Microforms and newspapers has some materials like this that can be taken to classes.

[Image: Assistant Librarian Hilary St. George Saunders standing in the library of the Houses of Parliament, 1943. Hans Wild, photographer.]

Information Literacy Librarian: 10 Easy Ways to Engage Students

2010-03-10T10:01:00.000-08:00

Information Literacy Librarian: 10 Easy Ways to Engage Students

Great reminders and tips!

YouTube/FoxNews evaluation exercise

2010-02-23T14:56:00.000-08:00

I just came across this neat classroom activity using one of those tv news 'let's argue about stuff and pretend it's informative news coverage' segments. The librarian shows the clip to students, which launches a class discussion about evaluating information beyond knowing the difference between popular and scholarly sources. She includes discussion of what constitutes an 'expert', evaluating claims using studies and statistical sources, and the importance of evaluating information in daily life, not just academic life.

Ted Talks course at UMW

2009-10-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

I just read about a Freshman Seminar-type course that revolves around Ted Talks as the field for exploration. The course, taught at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA, includes student-led discussions on Ted Talks that they find interesting, further written comments from students on the course blog, as well as presenting their own Ted-format talk.

What a great idea for fostering student-interest driven discussions as an introduction to the world of ideas as they enter college, and "the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world". There could be all kinds of possibilities for information literacy instruction too, but with some juicy content to explore.

Here's the syllabus if you'd like to read more. [EK]

Get real

2009-09-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

At this time of year, well, ANY time of year, it's easy to get caught up in the details of planning for instruction and preparing to meet the tidal wave that is Autumn Quarter. This uplifting, brief article is a great reminder to take time to reflect on your identity as a teacher:

Sense of self: embracing your teacher identity, by Carrie Donovan, Instruction Librarian at Indiana University, Bloomington.

From In the Library with a Lead Pipe, a fine blog for listening in on a wide range of conversations in librarianship. [EK]

Notes from TLG Connect: Reflections on Graduate Orientations

2009-08-13T17:22:00.000-07:00

This intimate discussion revolved around the challenges, experiences, and hopes for providing effective orientations for graduate students. Below are a few tips and ideas that emerged. Listen to the audio recording for more of our discussion.

Keep it simple (what do they need to know right now?)

After initially approaching orientations as BI sessions, Deb has since had better success with more general overviews based on what they need to know just to get started. Her current efforts include a visual orientation using images in PPT, set to a Q&A format.
Emily likes to keep the emphasis on establishing an ongoing relationship with graduate students, and presenting a human face to the Libraries, raising awareness of services they may need in the future, without getting bogged down in details.
Create handouts or guides to provide information and links.

Create an interactive environment

We’re all interested in getting more input from grad students about what they already know, what they’d like to know, how they’d like to have instruction delivered, and their research interests.
One idea is to ask them about their concerns and anxieties as they get started, as well as what they have found most valuable, whether in terms of people, tools, sources from the library in their previous academic experiences. This would give students a chance to share valuable tips with each other while giving the librarian an opportunity to translate how some of those services translate to this new setting.
Another approach would be to contact graduate students who had just completed their first year, and ask them what they wished they had known during that first month of grad school. Use this to help structure future orientations.
Hold a monthly synchronous discussion space where students can check-in, ask questions, even if off-campus.

Readings

Article explaining the use of online discussion boards for a synchronous online workshop on doing literature reviews for distance graduate students

Rempel, J. G., & McMillen, P. S. (2008). Using courseware discussion boards to engage graduate students in online library workshops. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 13(4), 363-380.

Study on the information-seeking behavior of PhD students; suggests possibilities for how librarians can more effectively communicate and serve this group:

Fleming-May, R., & Yuro, L. (2009). From student to scholar: the academic library and social sciences Phd students’ transformation. Portal: Libraries and the Academy, 9(2), 199-220.

[DLR]

Thinking like a designer...

2009-07-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

I love this blog, Designing Better Libraries, about applying design thinking to library services and settings. This particular post lays out a few design principles that clicked with the LibGuides swimming around in my brain. Among the principles, originally discussed in the context of presenting, but easily applicable to the world were about to plunge into:

--Put yourself in their shoes.

--It's not about the tools, it's about the ideas.

--Embrace simplicity.

There's more, and each elaborated upon, but with simplicity and care for the reader. Read more!

[EK]

21st Century Fluencies

2009-05-28T15:53:00.000-07:00

At the May Inforum Terry Schenold, instructor in the English Dept talked about the Critical Gaming Project, a community of UW grad & undergrad students who discuss research and create classes on the study of gaming. The CGP website is here: http://depts.washington.edu/critgame/. Terry talked about the use of gaming in teaching and instruction and gaming literacy as an emerging concept.

Terry's talk made me think about a program that I saw at ACRL and mentioned at the TLG retreat last month. This program was called Improving on Excellence: Looking Beyond Information Literacy to 21st-Century Educational Paradigms and Virtual Worlds. You can see the overview of this program here: http://www.learningtimes.net/acrlconference/2009/improving-on-excellence-looking-beyond-information-literacy-to-21st-century-educational-paradigms-and-virtual-worlds/

The program discussed the concept of "information fluency" and how some K-12 and higher ed libraries are beginning to look beyond information literacy and towards the 21st Century Fluencies described in this paper by Henry Jenkins at MIT: http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/files/working/NMLWhitePaper.pdf. 21st Century Fluencies involve things like media literacy, digital literacy, gaming literacy, scientific and economic literacy. As an example, it involves transforming media literacy from teaching students how to critically evaluate media created by a small number of people (networks, artists, etc) to looking at students as both consumers and producers of media and teaching to this - what are the ramifications in understanding media that is created by your peers?

I'm new to this concept, but have been reading a little more about here: http://newmedialiteracies.org/ and here: http://www.library.ubc.ca/wilu2008/Nicholson%20PPT.pdf

Anyway, Terry's talk at Inforum made me think that we should listen for conversations about 21st Century literacies/fluencies that might come out of the New Center for Teaching & Learning, and keep these ideas in mind as we continue to shape the vision of our Teaching & Learning Group. Gaming literacy and new media literacies seem to be discussed more heavily in the K-12 library world, but this definitely seems on the horizon for academic libraries information literacy efforts.
-Lauren

On the fly class guides?

2009-05-06T16:10:00.000-07:00

One of the joys of teaching several sections of the same class is having the opportunity to reflect and refine, to experiment with activities and see the results immediately.

One way I like to structure dynamic class discussions is by asking students what they're going to need to complete their assignment. We often brainstorm these broad categories as a group and then fill in the blanks with specific tools and resources that will help them with the assignment. For example, if they haven't chosen a topic yet, what strategies or sources might they employ to find something interesting? I enjoy this approach because it unearths the collective wisdom of the group. It also allows me to assess their current state of understanding on the fly, both in terms of sources and concepts. Then if there are additional sources or approaches I think they will find useful, I'll throw those in along with theirs, building upon what they've already collected with a "if-you-like-Wikipedia-then-you'll-LOVE-The-Encyclopedia-of-American-Foreign-Policy" tone.

Traditionally, I've also created class webpages with a selection of sources and tools for that assignment. I'll show this at some point in our discussion, going back and forth between the strategies they've outlined, their sources, and my additional offerings. But wouldn't it be cool to collaboratively create this online class guide on the fly? In a recent session, a student emailed me a link from his laptop during the our discussion, then raised his hand to share it with the class. Wouldn't it have been great to be able to add this to the guide in the moment?

Any ideas for how I might do this? Have you done something like this? One idea would be to throw a plain Jane Word document on the screen and type things in, just as I would on a whiteboard, then tell them I'm going back to my office to hard code this bad boy, then push it through MyUW via SLN linking. But that just doesn't seem very sexy. Other ideas?

[EK]

Jing!

2009-04-16T15:46:00.001-07:00

I've just put together a little video on how UW Libraries staff might use Jing, the screencasting software that you can use to quickly capture an image or record a video of what's happening on your computer screen and instantly share it with students, faculty or staff via email, Instant Messaging or websites. This can be a great tool for quickly showing a student how you do a search for information online.

Here's the video: http://uweoconnect.extn.washington.edu/jingforuwlibraries

Looking forward to hearing feedback or ideas on how you're interested in using Jing!

-Lauren

Upcoming conference: student library users

2009-03-24T16:56:00.000-07:00

This looks like a great conference, focused on, gasp, students! And it's in Berkeley...quick travel, great food, music, I mean, intensive collaboration with our California colleagues.

Student Library Users: Deliver What They Need, The Way They Want It
Friday, October 23, 2009 Clark Kerr Campus, University of California, Berkeley [EK]

[image courtesy of Ju_li_a.]

What is information?

2009-03-04T14:30:00.000-08:00

A brief, colorful video illustrating the importance of context in defining information [EK].

New computer classrooms

2009-02-11T17:27:00.000-08:00

Three new computer classrooms are coming to Mary Gates Hall in Winter Quarter! And get this, they describe them as "specially designed to support computer-based instruction, experimental education, and student collaboration". Yippee! [EK]

Small groups, large classes

2009-02-05T17:12:00.000-08:00

CIDR's Quarterly Forum on Teaching and Learning is never NOT interesting and useful. Save the date for their upcoming forum:

Using Small Group Inquiry Activities to Engage Students in Large Classes

Thursday, February 12, 2009, 3:30
Walker Ames Room, Kane Hall

[EK]

Design by the book

2009-01-13T18:06:00.000-08:00

Check out this video series featuring five artists who were invited to create unique works based on their exploration of the collections at New York Public Library. The first video provides background on each of the artists; the second features their meetings with a librarian who pulled items for each artist.

This has me thinking about that magical, unique, creative aspect of the research process in which scholars make decisions about next steps and relevance based on how the information 'meets' what they already know and what they want to learn. I struggle to find creative ways to help students experience this fun, inspiring aspect of learning, especially when so much of their experience is online, and so much of our instruction tends to be about the 'how-to'. I don't suggest that inspiration only happens in the stacks with books, but I do think it's different, somehow, and I worry that students today are missing out on much of the fun, mystery, and excitement to be found in many of our physical collections. Or at least that we haven't built the the browsing and discovery tools that replicate or remake this experience online.

What do you think? Would this video speak to your students? Or are there ideas here for us to work with in instruction and reference? [EK]

Call for participation

2009-01-09T13:46:00.000-08:00

The UW Center for Instructional Development and Research welcomes poster presentations for their annual Teaching and Learning Symposium on April 21. {EK}

2008-12-29T17:19:00.000-08:00

Here's a short video featuring quotes from the iSchool's Project Information Literacy research project. PIL studies undergraduate students' academic and everyday research habits. UW was one of the participating schools. [DLR]

Brainstorm!

2008-12-10T09:55:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all who came to Monday's Quarterly Instruction Roundtable. We had a great session about brainstorming! Kathleen Collins kickstarted the discussion by leading the group through a brainstorming session & also shared some interesting tips on idea generation from the Thinkertoys book. Personally, I cannot wait to try the paper airplane exercise...

Step 1: Have students write a topic idea on sheets of paper;
Step 2: Make the sheets of paper into airplanes;
Step 3: Students sail their ideas around the classroom;
Step 4: Each student then collects an airplane, adds an idea to the sheet, refolds & resails;
Step 5: Repeat as necessary. At the end of the exercise, everyone has a list of several ideas.

For those of you who might've missed this great discussion, fear not! There will be a roundtable at the end of winter quarter, as well.

Quick thinks

2008-10-17T17:30:00.000-07:00

I just attended a workshop on small group learning, where the facilitator introduced the 'quick think', a short activity which can be integrated into a lecture, demonstration, or other instructional method. Some of these might be particularly effective in our quick one-shot sessions where we're often looking for quick but meaningful activities to make our sessions more effective and engaging.

Check out this article for a concise outline of a few 'quick thinks'. Have you used any version of these techniques in your own teaching? Do tell! Do these spark any new ideas for class sessions that you have coming up? We want to hear! [EK]

Practical pedagogy fall quarter events

2008-09-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

Practical Pedagogy is a graduate student colloquium that brings together teachers from the University of Washington community to discuss strategies for putting their pedagogical values into practice.

*Special faculty guest: Dr. Anne Beaufort, UW Tacoma
"They Don't Do The Reading: How to Get Students Engaged with Texts"
Thursday October 16, 3:30-5:00, CMU 202

Students come to college experts in reading Facebook, blogs, text messages, email. When students are assigned whole books, textbooks, or difficult articles, the skills they have don't serve them well. Nor do they feel motivated to read. What can we do? In this workshop, we'll look at ways to engage analytical reading skills and to motivate reading other than through the proverbial quiz. Bring a text that students will read this quarter, or one from past or future courses.

Dr. Anne Beaufort, of the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences College at UW Tacoma, teaches writing and coaches graduate students in surviving the thesis/dissertation process. She holds a Ph.D. in Education, with a specialization in Language, Literacy, and Culture from Stanford University.

"Using Pocket Technology to Teach Interviewing Skills"
Thursday November 20, 3:30-5:00, CMU 226

The various technologies carried in the pockets of most of our undergraduates can be harnessed to teach interviewing skills or to incorporate interviewing into a class assignment. Through the use of file conversion web sites, the instructor may download and then listen to these interviews—later meeting with the student to review specific portions for praise and improvement. This technique of using digital recorders, cameras or phones for recording an interview eliminates the fear factor for most students. It also allows the instructor to easily access the file both for assessment and for review with the students. Facilitator: Peg Achterman (Communication).

Call us!

2008-09-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

Dottie Smith shared this idea from the recent Reference Renaissance Conference. During your instruction sessions, when you're telling students how they can contact the Libraries when they have questions, have them pull out their cell phones and add the Info Desk number to their phonebook (206-543-0242). Great idea! [EK]

Lunch Discussion Notes: Assessment & Undergraduates

2008-09-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

Here are the notes from one of the lunch discussion groups at our recent Putting Assessment into Practice: A Library Instruction Workshop. The topic of this discussion was: Assessment & Undergraduates

Thanks to John Holmes for moderating this discussion!

We need to take a more systematic approach to UG assessment. Too much random and redundant instruction with no developmental arc. The role of the librarian as advocate is the key to articulating outcomes, both in general education curricula and within disciplines.

Library outcomes need to be aligned with institutional curricula. And the vocabularies we use to discuss with faculty and administrators need to be customizable and built upon common goals.
Scalability is the single biggest challenge to UG assessment.
Undergrads seem to be more task-oriented than graduates, who are more career- and discipline-focused. Outcomes need to be more granular.
Pre- and post-testing UGs seems to build higher motivation and confidence.
Assessment is a strong marketing and advocacy tool. Faculty response to instruction by librarians can be used to broaden reach of programs.
UGs should build a repertoire of approaches to solving information problems. Changes in technology change problem-solving strategies, which should, in turn, change our approaches to assessment.
Perhaps the most important outcome, one that can be addressed both by librarians and course instructors, is increased metacognition in learners. The habit of reflecting on their own learning leads to better questions, better mental models, and more self-directed learning.

Ithaka's 2006 Studies of Key Stakeholders in Digital Transformation in Higher Education

2008-09-04T11:37:00.000-07:00

Ithaka, a nonprofit organization that promotes the use of technology in higher education, has published an in-depth white paper with analysis and results from faculty and librarian surveys. The faculty survey focused on the relationship between faculty and their campus library, faculty dependence on electronic scholarly resources for research and teaching, the transition from print to electronic for scholarly journals, faculty publishing preferences, e-books, digital institutional repositories, and the preservation of scholarly journals. The librarian survey focused on the role of the library on the modern campus, impressions about electronic resources, digital institutional repositories, and the preservation of scholarly journals. Links to the raw data for both the faculty and librarian studies are also available. See http://www.ithaka.org/research/faculty-and-librarian-surveys

Assessment workshop opening remarks

2008-08-27T13:20:00.001-07:00

Introductory comments by Anne Zald, Head, Map Collection & Cartographic Information Services at the University of Washington Libraries, and member of the ACRL Institute for Information Literacy Immersion faculty.

Lunch Discussion Notes: Assessment techniques (Regardless of Technology)

2008-08-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

Here are the notes from one of the lunch discussion groups at our recent Putting Assessment into Practice: A Library Instruction Workshop.

The topic of this discussion was: Assessment Techniques (regardless of technology) Thanks to Deb Raftus for moderating this discussion!

Some assessment techniques our group has made use of:

In-class worksheets with exercises
Clickers
End of session satisfaction surveys
Clear/muddy questions
End of quarter online form (low response)
One-minute papers
Zoho is helpful to provide structure for reporting instruction assessment to administrators (for departmental reporting of assessment results, including stats, strategies used, and informal notes)
Reflection: one minute papers, research log
Pre and Post testing -Serves to learn what students know, as well as clue them in that there are things they don't know
Pre - class surveys of resource knowledge or research strategies: should be anonymous to encourage honesty, also reassure students that you aren't looking for a "right answer."

Individual Challenges:

Finding assessment techniques that are appropriate for returning students (or graduate students) -- don't want to come off as condescending or insulting.

Getting students to recognize value of Reference materials...how to assess use? Solution: Mark books and count for use as they are photocopied through Libraries photocopy services.

If you use a lot of informal assessment strategies, how do you measure and report the results? Recommendations: Incorporate solutions where you can collect results (WebQ, have students email an article citation to you, get bibliographies and/or final projects from faculty, follow up with faculty to see if students found appropriate sources)

How to find out what students own approach is to research, before teaching them, for the purpose of learning where they start. (How to ask in away that they will be honest?) This will help understand where they are coming from, but could also impact our reference and instruction services.

How to change mid-class based on evaluation/assessment?

How to assess students' comfort with technology before the course, in the case of an online course where technology has proven to be a barrier to student learning. Students were reluctant to ask for help during the course, so it would help to find out where students are stumbling before the class, to find alternative ways to provide the information, and assist users in a way that they are comfortable with. (Perhaps survey could also address their learning styles, how they like to learn new technologies?)

Lunch discussion Notes: Learning Outcomes

2008-08-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

Here are the notes from one of the lunch discussion groups at our recent Putting Assessment into Practice: A Library Instruction Workshop.

The topic of this discussion was: Learning Outcomes. Thanks to Emily Keller for moderating this discussion!

Is there a disconnect between the information literacy standards and developmental outcomes? How do we move beyond so much focus on the lower order skills in Bloom’s taxonomy? We may undermine students’ extant capabilities and experiences by only showing them tools, rather than tapping into the other skills and experiences they bring to the classroom.

Experiments using homework, or interactive pre-library session worksheets, to prepare students before their first library session in a class. Helps bring students up to a certain level and ensure that they’ve already covered some basics, without taking up more class time. Instructors distribute the non-graded 20-minute homework assignment. Plans to build on this work and add a post-test to measure progress through the quarter.

Struggle with translating the broader institutional outcomes into information literacy outcomes in the classroom. Examples and questions:

An English department has learning outcomes for their writing classes. How do they ensure consistency of outcomes when instructors have such discretion to teach in their own way?

If information literacy outcomes are already in a program’s objectives, what’s the next step? Working with individual instructors? How does the program assess those outcomes?

Challenging to frame information literacy outcomes when working with professional, vocational, and technical programs.

Instructors want us to teach so much in a one-shot session. Perhaps we can use learning outcomes as a tool for talking with instructors about their course goals, specific competencies that they’d like to see, where they see problems, and using that as starting point to talk about what’s realistic in a one-shot session. It can also be a way to frame what we have to offer in terms of helping instructors achieve THEIR course goals, rather than trying to get time in a class where the instructor doesn’t want to take more time away from the syllabus. Explaining how we’ve found active learning activities to be far more effective in fostering student learning that they will retain and apply, and that will take X amount of time for Z learning outcome. Learning outcomes create new ways to step into the discussion, instead of approaching library instruction as an add-on.

What about collaboration, engagement, and group work as learning outcomes in themselves? Not just processes or activities, but as the very learning that you’re trying to foster? In one instance, group activities fostered engagement that the librarian and instructor now pursue that as a goal itself.

Variety of activities to foster better articulation between community college and upper division information literacy outcomes.

E-portfolios, integrating info lit objectives into the curriculum which we would then expect to see in summative student products such as portfolios.

Lunch Discussion Notes: Assessment Tools & Technology

2008-08-26T13:09:00.000-07:00

Here are the notes from one of the lunch discussion groups at our recent Putting Assessment into Practice: A Library Instruction Workshop.

The topic of this discussion was: Assessment Tools & Technology. Thanks to Jennifer Fairchild for moderating this discussion!

Favorite Tools:

Game Show Software (about $350) and Who’s First (buzzers, about $150). Both are available through Trainer’s Warehouse. http://www.trainerswarehouse.com/default.asp
TurningPoint Audience Response System, the clickers and the software. http://www.turningtechnologies.com/

Available Tools:

Survey Monkey: free version and paid
Quia: includes surveys, quizzes, html coding, web pages, tutorial, games, classroom management. Can be open source or password protected. http://www.quia.com/web
Blackboard: http://www.blackboard.com/inpractice/highered/index.bb
Moodle: open source http://moodle.org /
ANGEL: many higher education institutions are replacing Blackboard with ANGEL http://www.angellearning.com/
E-Portfolio: http://www.eportfolio.org/
Online Faculty Learning Commons
WebQ/Catalyst
“real life” tools (i.e. the catalog or websites) used to compare sources or locate items during a class session for example

Impediments to our instruction and assessment:

Budget cuts
Limited classroom time, how do we fit instruction and assessment into one short session with a class?

What could be improved?:

Resource sharing! It would be wonderful if all of the library communities of Washington State could easily access and share instruction (i.e. online tutorials) and assessment tools with colleagues so that the wheel is not being reinvented over and over again.

Putting Assessment into Practice: Resources

2008-08-15T15:30:00.001-07:00

We currently have two sources for additional articles and web sites regarding instruction and information literacy assessment:

del.icio.us: Assessment4Librarians bookmarks - http://delicious.com/assessment4librarians

RefWorks: shared folder - Assessment for Librarians
-- or, if you don't have access to RefWorks, a static page of current resources has been posted at http://faculty.washington.edu/elcoe/assessmentreferences.htm

Putting Assessment into Practice: a Library Instruction Workshop

2008-08-08T17:04:00.000-07:00

Sponsored by the Instruction & Information Literacy Working Group at the University of Washington Libraries, this hands-on workshop is for librarians who want to better understand what their students know before, during, and after library instruction sessions. The workshop will introduce accessible concepts, techniques, and technologies for implementing classroom assessment in any setting.

Date: August 18, 2008

Time: 8:30am to 3:00pm

Location: University of Washington, Seattle campus, Mary Gates Hall (MGH) (campus map)

Agenda

8:30-9:00 Check-in and coffee/pastries (MGH 228)

9:00 - 9:30 Welcome and Introductory comments (MGH 228)

Anne Zald, Head, Map Collection & Cartographic Information Services at the University of Washington Libraries, and member of the ACRL Institute for Information Literacy Immersion faculty

9:45 -10:45 Tools for Learning What your Students Have Learned: Outcomes for Classroom Assessment (MGH 228)

Margy Lawrence, Center for Instructional Development and Research (CIDR), University of Washington

11:00 - 12:00 Catalyst WebQ: Applications of Survey Tools for Information Literacy Learning Assessment (MGH Computer Classroom)

Deb Raftus, Romance Languages and Literatures Librarian, University of Washington Libraries, and Catalyst staff.

12:15 - 1:15 Lunch (MGH Commons)

Seeded small group informal discussion. Participants can choose a table/topic that interests them. Topics will be Learning outcomes, assessment tools (technology), assessment techniques (regardless of technology), Working with undergraduates, Working with graduates.

1:30-2:30 Click! Click! in the Classroom: Quick Assessment of Student Learning Using an Audience Response System (MGH Computer Classroom)

Janet Schnall, Information Management Librarian, Health Sciences Libraries, University of Washington

2:30 - 3:00 Wrap up (MGH Computer Classroom)

John Holmes, Undergraduate Services Librarian, Odegaard Undergraduate Library, University of Washington

Welcome

2008-06-05T13:33:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the UW Instruction & Information Literacy blog! Have a question about an upcoming instruction session? Want to keep up to date on InfoLit? Then this is the place!

This blog is maintained by the University of Washington Libraries Instruction and Information Literacy Working Group for the benefit of all instruction librarians everywhere.