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After the welcome and opening remarks by the KLA LIRT officers, I went to the following sessions:
Session 1: "Gauging our Impact: Assessing Outreach and Student Learning Using Readily-Available Technologies."
- (Going to this was pretty much a given to me. Assessment has become the new big word in my workplace, and I am pretty much expected to take part in anything that has that word in it. That aside, library outreach is an interest of mine, so attending this made sense.)
- The presenters discussed a self-reflection pilot exercise for students attending library instruction sessions, getting statistics on use of library tutorials out of BlackBoard CMS for distance education students, and student feedback on course-embedded SoftChalk modules.
- Reflective opening question: What are the implications of the session for your own instruction at your library? How will today's session influence your approach to library instruction? (Question actually applicable throughout the day.)
- Context from the presenters:
- 2012-2014: They conducted a survey of professors who brought their students in for library instruction.
- 2014: Surveyed students who scheduled research consults (this I may be interested in replicating for our library).
- 2014: Embedded their LibGuides into BlackBoard.
- Suggestion to look over University of Louisville's Critical Thinking QEP. This can give ideas for partnerships and other initiatives or projects.
- On online information literacy and online modules.
- Their module objectives:
- Distinguish how information comes to be in popular sources.
- Explain the need for information evaluation.
- Informed feedback.
- Describe the biggest takeaway from the module.
- Provide comments on the modules themselves.
- You can use pen and paper or the questions feature on BlackBoard.
- They mentioned using NVivo research analysis software. (This may be more than I would want at this time, but jotting down for reference.)
- Implications:
- Develop specific outcomes for modules.
- Have formalized assessment to demonstrate grasp of learning outcomes. Allows students to reflect on module content.
- Incorporate real-life examples and multimedia.
- On BlackBoard statistics tracking of SoftChalk tutorials (this is for distance learners, but I suppose can be applicable locally too).
- Instead of sending a marketing e-mail with a lot of text containing the library and information literacy information for students, you can use tutorials to be a visual and concise message tool. You still need good instructions, including screenshots.
- The idea is to encourage our users to be empowered and more independent as distance learners.
- SoftChalk does provide tools to generate statistics reports for tutorial content. The statistics can help librarians know things like if there is a need for an online chat service and when to have it.
- Make tutorials for basic and foundational needs. Then track them to help with marketing and knowing what student needs have been met.
- On a self-reflection pilot for library instruction students. (Of the three parts in this session, this was the one that I was really interested in since we are exploring use of self-reflection exercises for assessment. If nothing else, it helped give me some validation for that work.)
- Create a reflection form with questions to answer.
- See their form here (http://louisville.libguides.com/reflection). You can also find it here (http://tinyurl.com/qbgju86 it was created on Google Docs).
- You can then create a rubric for assessment.
Session 2: "How's it Different from an Annotated Bib? Helping Students Survive the Literature Review."
- A common faculty gripe: students fail to synthesize sources for a literature review.
- Common faculty expectations (as if):
- Assume students already know how to do research (oh, I could say so much about this, but we are just taking notes here).
- Assume that students understand the purpose of a literature review (especially without bothering to actually explain it to them).
- That students understand how to use research to construct a literature review (see previous assumption).
- (Reminder to self that the presenters provided some sample handouts, which I have on my folder. If I manage to scan or such, I may include later.)
- It is important to discuss critical reading (yes, even in library instruction, but discipline faculty need to do it too). This can be done with their literature matrix (again, this was a handout).
- A question for us librarians: on using source management software, like Zotero for example, do we need to cover this a bit more in our instruction sessions? (I'd say probably, but then we get into the question of just how much time we have to cover how much content again?)
- Something to teach the students: To pull together the literature review, you do need to do prewriting, reading, annotation. Identify themes rather than just authors.
- Key questions to ask students. Get them to think about this:
- What do we know? How do we know it?
- What don't we know? Why don't we know it?
- How librarians can help faculty and students:
- Offer multiple library instruction sessions.
- Recommend building scaffolded assignments.
- Recommend other resources as needed.
- Offer workshops.
- Partner with the campus writing center and other relevant campus units.
- Citations to check out:
- Rempel and Davidson, "Providing Information Literacy Instruction to Graduate Students through Literature Review Workshops." Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship Winter 2008.
