ACRL 2013 Conference Notes: Panel on Having an Instruction Arsenal

ACRL Panel Session
Topic: ""Building an Instruction Arsenal: Using Standardized Elements to Streamline Class Planning and Ease Student Learning Assessment Across the Curriculum."
Date: Saturday, April 13, 2013, 9:45am

• (This was definitely another panel I was very interested in, so worth it to be up and about on Saturday morning. This is an idea that I talked to my director about, and it has possibilities for us). 
• The question: How to deliver classes that are good with minimal planning? And then, how do you assess them?
• Three elements of planning: 
• Student Learning Outcomes (SLO). 
• Active Learning Exercises. 
• Tailored Assessments.
•  Start by thinking critically what is it students do. Map activities to SLO's. 
• SLO's become common denominators across all library instruction. 
• Guiding principles. Think strategically what students need to know and when. Use "in order to" statements. 
• Build assessment around SLO's. Measure effectiveness of instruction and use it to inform reevaluation of exercises. 
• Create a Prezi/PowerPoint repository. Each presentation aligned for SLO's. (I think we can do this for our lower level General Studies classes). Share these with other instructors. 
• Create an assessment menu for each SLO. Dozens of questions and rubrics. 
• Online activities all combined on a course LibGuide. 
• Idea is to assess the same information literacy skills in a variety of ways. 
• Another set of ideas: 
• SLO mapping of curriculum (again, something we can do for our General Studies initially, for other courses down the road). 
• Keep a set of Active Learning Exercises, customizable to assignments. 
• Assessment to be authentic, formative. Pre/post testing. Note that every class is not assessed. Do more in-class formative assessment. 
• Maximize librarian time. Scaffold learning outcomes. 
• The model is adaptable; it allows for catered instruction without much planning. It allows us to be effective and efficient. 
•  Unique but uniform. Sessions can be created quickly to meet the needs of individual classes. 
• Note the slides are available online in the conference planner as a PDF. (May want to grab them, as I noted before of the planner, who knows how long ACRL will keep it there).