Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Learning By Doing: Bridging Information Literacy Theory With Practice, Melissa Mallon

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

Addressing information literacy skills at the freshmen level can often result in frustration for everyone involved. Teaching the same content over and over becomes tedious for librarians and the sessions can seem irrelevant to freshmen. This presentation will detail how the presenter collaborated with the First Year Program coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown to revamp the program's library component into a set of online, self-paced information literacy modules tied to an assignment. The modules reach a large number of students without overwhelming librarians. Come see how scalable instruction can improve the freshmen library experience!

Politics & Information Literacy: A Problem-Based Learning Approach, Peg Cook, Mary Walsh

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

Problem-based Learning (PBL) is a student-centered instructional strategy in which students collaboratively solve problems and reflect on their experiences. PBL provides an innovative format for integrating Information Literacy into course assignments. A Problem-based Learning activity in a Political Science course at Elmhurst College gave a librarian and a political science professor an opportunity to collaborate on an assignment which integrates problem-based learning information literacy instruction, based on ACRL Political Science Research Competency Guidelines, into the course assignment. Our presentation will describe our process of collaboration in developing the resulting assignment and instruction sessions, as well as some preliminary assessment information.

From Lectures And Quizzes To Wikis And Blogs In The Library Classroom, Joan Petit, Amanda Click

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

Three years ago, the required library instruction class at the American University in Cairo was full of dull lectures, multiple choice quizzes, and a required paper that rarely inspired student learning. Librarians set out to update the class, first by moving content out of Blackboard and into a collaborative wiki and then later by eliminating the weekly quizzes in favor of student blogging. Despite some challenges, the students reported that the blogs were a highlight of the now-interesting class. Come hear about the stumbling blocks, near-disasters, and ultimate success of this new approach to student learning.

A Picture Is Worth 150 Words: Using Wordle To Assess Library Instruction, Rhonda K. Huisman, Kathleen A. Hanna

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

Tired of the "one minute paper" and other "quick and dirty" assessment tools? By using word clouds, students can demonstrate their grasp of library fundamentals and information literacy concepts in less than 10 minutes. Wordle [http://www.wordle.net] is an extremely user-friendly online tool that provides an active learning activity for students and allows librarians to rapidly evaluate what students recall from the instruction session. Use it for quick assessment of student comprehension of library jargon or compare the students' Wordle clouds with information literacy standards or the main points of your instruction. It's free, flexible, and looks great on a t-shirt.

Interactive Learning With Clickers: Teaching Using Audience Response Systems In A Credit-Bearing Library Research Course, Danielle A. Becker

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

Skills/Knowledge: The skills that will be discussed in this presentation are how to use Clicker technology in the classroom. The presenter will give examples of how instructors use Clickers at Hunter College. She will also demonstrate how she successfully used Clickers in her Library 100 one-credit course. She will present research detailing how other colleges have used Clickers in the classroom and the effectiveness of active learning techniques. Then she will give a demonstration using Clickers, which will consist of a mock-class. The participants will be the students in this workshop, and the presenter will teach a session using a …

Library Instruction In A New Culture Of Teaching And Learning, Laurie Alexander, Doreen R. Bradley

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

As more information becomes available electronically and teaching and learning takes place literally anywhere, we are presented with opportunities to expand not only the types of instructional services we offer, but the contexts within which we frame those services. At the University of Michigan Library, we are building on our core values by deploying new strategies to innovate instruction. Examples include creating and redefining positions, and developing an instruction committee structure to guide us through the major questions facing us today. This session will explore these strategies and the leadership roles in developing and implementing the future of library instruction.

Bolstering The Bridge To Instructional Improvement: Librarian Self-Assessment And Strategic Planning For Information Literacy Program Development, Maria T. Accardi

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

How can a small academic library navigate the churning waters of limited resources and arrive in the land of information literacy instructional improvement? By building a bridge of assessment! This presentation will examine how a library instruction program can engineer assessment methods to bolster this path to instructional improvement. Drawing on my own experiences as Coordinator of Instruction at Indiana University Southeast, I'll discuss how I created a librarian self-assessment survey based on the ACRL Standards for Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians and Coordinators. The results of this survey provided structural supports for program assessment, growth, and development.

Learning Outcomes:

-Learn …

Tune Up Your Instruction: Transform Discipline-Based Instruction Using Active Engagement, Andi Beckendorf

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

Making the transition from lecture-based instruction delivery to an active, learner-centered model provides an excellent opportunity to blend creative ideas and new teaching strategies. Music students at Luther College are introduced to research in the discipline through learner-centered activities. You will experience elements of the Cephalonian method - music, color, and active engagement - as you participate in a component of the question-card sequence of the lesson plan. The presenter will discuss how teaching style, learning styles and pedagogy have played a role in reimagining the sessions as a place for active engagement. In looking at a selection of learning …

Follow The Rubric Road: Assessing The Librarian Instructor, Ned Fielden

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

As librarians assume ever greater instructional roles in higher education, ongoing assessment is vital for maximizing instructional quality. Rubrics as an assessment mechanism are commonly used to gauge the extent of learning outcomes in classes and library instructional sessions. Rubrics allow for standardization of application, ease of use, and provide an expandable framework for quantitative evaluations, yet their use in evaluating library instructors has neither been widely explored nor employed.

This is a case study of the development of an instructor rubric at San Francisco State University, and will examine both theoretical and practical issues in the creation and application …

From Pre-Defined Topics To Research Questions: An Inquiry-Based Approach To Knowledge, Michelle T. Allen, Benjamin M. Oberdick

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

In this interactive presentation, MSU librarians will replicate a library instruction session for first-year students. Audience members will participate in a Cephalonian Method icebreaker activity and use clickers to demonstrate the different ways both techniques can be used in the classroom.

Participants will view a short (3-4 min.) video, develop critical questions, and construct keywords to begin finding answers. Instruction librarians will show how the answers are the basis of their thesis statements. Next, audience members will be divided into groups and directed to find information on the Web, the route a first-year student would naturally take. Then, groups will …

Reinvigorating The Library Tour: Enhancing Student Engagement Through Library Collections, Amy Thornley

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

By design, the library tour is a typically passive exercise, but what if the tour could become an exercise to engage students in the physical library collections? This presentation describes how Miami University introduced a series of activities designed to encourage student interaction with library materials as a part of the typical library tour. Introducing a tactile element to the tours increased both library circulation and student recall of the collection, and anecdotal evidence suggests that students are undertaking more individual exploration. Examples and tips for implementation will be provided.

Break The Ice, Build The Momentum: Successful Strategies For Beginning A Library Instruction Session, Carrie Donovan, Rachel Slough

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

For information literacy instructors, a common teaching challenge is how to start a class effectively. Without previous exposure to learners, library instructors have little understanding of students' prior knowledge or research needs. At the same time, the reason for a librarian's involvement in a course at all is usually a mystery for students.

The benefits of introductory learning activities, such as warm-ups, are pedagogically sound, but library instructors may be reluctant to incorporate these strategies into information literacy instruction due to limitations of time. Yet librarians still strive to design engaging information literacy sessions that result in meaningful and long-lasting …

Librarians As Improvisers: An Improvisational Approach To Teaching Information Literacy, Anthony Stamatoplos, Edward Trout

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

Using an improvisational approach in the classroom, librarians can address their own predetermined objectives and also respond to unanticipated questions and concerns as they emerge. Lesson plans and learning outcomes are valuable components of information literacy instruction and assessment; however, they need not imply a rigid approach to teaching. Recent scholarship suggests that using techniques from improvisational theater engages students in their learning and facilitates a responsive and collaborative learning environment. Guided by experienced improvisational actors, participants in this workshop will learn principles of improvisation in a fun and lively setting, and explore ways to apply them to their teaching.

Lolcats And Celebrities And (Red Panda) Bears – Oh, My!, Mary T. Moser

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

Getting - and keeping - students' attention during library instruction sessions is an increasingly Herculean task. We all know the best practices for teaching: be engaging, ask questions, provide opportunities for active learning. But what if those techniques just aren't enough? By experimenting wildly with the presentation of my library instruction sessions, I have found that a lot of teaching power lies within the unexpected. Often, topics with very little direct correlation to libraries make interesting and engaging platforms for teaching information literacy concepts. Some of the add-ons I have used in classes include: slideshows of LOLcat pictures to impart …

Bombard Them & They Will Come: Building Relationships Using A Multi-Pronged Approach To Engage Students, Lee Pasackow

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

Google, our formidable competitor, requires us to be creative, proactive and strategic in designing services that integrate information competency into the curriculum. Faculty collaboration, library classes, freshmen orientation, club events, off-site reference and case competitions; these are the venues where Goizueta Business Librarians engage with students down the path towards using information intelligently for decision making and problem solving.

At Goizueta, the most effective way to teach research skills is to collaborate with professors on group projects. What are the elements of a successful collaboration? Why are some professors open to collaboration and others are not?

Our keystone program, Business …

Building Bridges: Restructuring Online Library Tutorials To Span The Generation Gap And Meet The Needs Of Millennial Students, Dianna E. Sachs, Carrie C. Leatherman, Kathleen A. Langan

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

This session will discuss the learning characteristics of Millennial students, and how online library tutorials can produce successful information literacy learning outcomes for this unique generation. In 2009, we transformed "Searchpath", the 2003 PRIMO award-winning online library tutorial, into "ResearchPath," a dynamic audio, visual and kinesthetic experience with the Millennial user in mind. We will share the results of the research we conducted at Western Michigan University Libraries to measure the success of our intended learning outcomes, as well as the qualitative user feedback which we gathered. We will recommend strategies for others interested in developing online tutorials geared towards …

Telling The Story: Using Narratives To Explain Why Information Literacy Education Is Important And Get Students Invested In What We Do, Heather Barrow-Stafford

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

When your instruction sessions seem to be on autopilot and your students' eyes begin to glaze over, telling a story can be an excellent way to reclaim their attention and capture that sought after, elusive goal: student buy-in.

More often than not, our instruction sessions are focused on a particular project or a discrete set of skills, and we fail to impart to students the BIG PICTURE of what we do. Stories can bridge the gap between the practical skills we teach and our larger goal -helping students become informed information seekers and users- by offering students context.

This session …

Step Away From The Podium! A Lesson Plan For Peer Learning, Andrea Falcone

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

Ready to revamp the way you teach the library catalog and general databases? Learn how to turn the typical lecture session on its head and ensure each class is different from the last. This versatile lesson can easily be sliced and diced into separate lessons. Attendees will be exposed to numerous attention-getting activities and a plan chock full of teaching moments. The combination of game-like activities, exploratory learning, and presentations will generate a buzz amongst your students. During the presentation, attendees may engage with the content by responding to online polls with their personal mobile devices or laptops. All lesson …

How Do You Count That?: Statistical Reporting Of Online Library Instruction Activities, Tim Bottorff, Andrew Todd

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

Until recent years, library instruction (LI) was usually conducted in face-to-face (F2F) settings. Statistical reporting of LI activities tends, therefore, to focus on measures relevant to F2F settings -- for example, the number of "sessions" (classes) and the number of "participants" (students). However, newer forms of LI conducted in the online realm (from librarians embedded in classes through courseware, to online library tutorials, to for-credit online library research courses, and beyond) may be difficult to count in traditional ways, with significant implications: the way librarians quantify their activities can affect everything from advocacy efforts to funding decisions to individual or …

Creating Objectives Collaboratively: Actionable Goals Across The Library System, Jo Angela Oehrli

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

Imagine a room full of librarians and a blank, whiteboard. One librarian asks the group, "What do you want to teach students?" The librarians go beyond articulating instruction in the form of tools ("I teach the library catalog") to writing down ideas about real concepts ("I want students to be better information seekers") that students need to survive in an information-rich world.

How do you know if students learned from your instruction? How can you articulate your goals and assessments together as a library staff? The challenge of creating successful, measurable objectives across a large library system can be difficult …

“Wow-I Can Touch That?” Using Special Collections To Expand Information Literacy, Catherine Rod, Phil Jones

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

What happens when undergraduates get their hands on a nineteenth-century stereoscope, a first edition of _Tom Jones_, and 100-year-old student handbooks during an information literacy session? And what do these students learn through analyzing primary sources that can sharpen their responses to other kinds of scholarly evidence?

To answer these questions, participants in this interactive workshop will recreate an instruction session developed by librarians at Grinnell College using surrogates of primary sources to prompt discussion of any source's audience, authorship, reliability, and purpose. This workshop will begin with an overview of how librarians at Grinnell, a small liberal arts institution, …

It’S All In What You Ask: Techniques For Enhancing Reflection And Learning In An Online Course, Karen R. Diaz, Nancy O'Hanlon

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

There are different ways to teach in an online course, but getting students, especially undergraduates, to reflect on what they are learning and how they might improve their learning strategies can be particularly challenging in the online environment. Recently, the presenters developed a new component for an existing online course to teach students specific techniques for detecting bias, a skill critical to their academic success, and one which is often difficult for students to understand and practice. Using self-assessment in the teaching module and reflective questioning in the assessment module, the authors were able to develop effective metacognitive prompts.

In …

Making Information Literacy Stick: Finding Success In Library Instruction, Dunstan Mcnutt

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

Making Information Literacy Stick is an interactive workshop focused on making the ideas we present in the classroom unforgettable. Drawing from Chip and Dan Heath's Made to Stick (2007), I will present their formula for sticky ideas: SUCCESs (Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotions, and Stories). Many of these elements work well with prescriptions from the critical information literacy literature, honing in on the students' own experiences. In the spirit of this style of instruction, librarians will break themselves into groups of 5-10 so that they can share their personal experiences relevant to the formula's elements. In the hopes that the …

Conference Program [2012], Georgia International Conference On Information Literacy

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

N/A

A Librarian And A Hashtag: Embedded Virtually In A Classroom Via Twitter, Ellen Hampton Filgo

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

Tweeting in the classroom has started to take off, with some notable examples such as Monica Rankin's history class experiment at UT-Dallas and Cole W. Camplese's classroom backchannel at Penn State-University Park. Taking these experiments one step further, Dr. Gardner Campbell, Baylor University's Director of the Academy for Teaching and Learning and Associate Professor of Literature and Media in the Honors College, invited Ellen Filgo, Baylor Libraries' E-Learning Librarian to participate in his First Year Seminar's Twitter experiment by becoming the class' Twitter-based reference librarian.

The students in Dr. Campbell's class were required to blog faithfully on the class readings …

Strengthen Your Teaching Framework: Using Self-Assessment Of Instruction As A Structural Support, Susan Avery, Lora Smallman, Courey Gruszauskas

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2010

What role does self-assessment play in improving your teaching? The University of Illinois Undergraduate Library shares their self-assessment rubric, based on the ACRL Standards for Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians and Coordinators. Such a tool provides an important framework for self-assessment and can significantly impact the instruction of librarians at multiple points in their careers. Hear how an instruction coordinator, an early career librarian, and a library school graduate assistant use self-assessment to reflect and improve their effectiveness as teacher librarians. Learn strategies for using self-assessment that can help you become a more effective teacher, too!