Education Commons^™

Going The Distance: Best Practices In Designing And Sharing Reusable Learning Objects, Philip Russell

Conference Papers

This paper presents an overview of the suite of online interactive tutorials that have been developed at the Institute of Technology Tallaght (ITT Dublin); with a particular emphasis on best practices for pedagogy and instructional design in terms of creating eLearning tools. The author also details how these learning objects have been made available for reuse on a national and international basis as open educational resources via online repositories.

International Computer And Information Literacy Study 2013: Australian Students’ Readiness For Study, Work And Life In The Digital Age, Lisa De Bortoli, Sarah Buckley, Catherine Underwood, Elizabeth O'Grady, Eveline Gebhardt

ICT - Digital Literacy

The International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) is the first international comparative study that examines students’ acquisition of computer and information literacy (CIL): ‘the ability to use computers to investigate, create and communicate in order to participate effectively at home, at school, in the workplace and in society’ (Fraillon, Schulz, & Ainley, 2013, p. 17). Information and communication technologies (ICT) are an essential part of 21st-century society. As a result, it has become increasingly important for citizens to understand and be able to use ICT in order to effectively participate in life in the digital age. Although students use …

Thinking Critically About Data Consumption: Creating The Data Credibility Checklist, Lisa Zilinski, Megan R. Sapp Nelson

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

As STEM areas increasingly rely on pre-existing data, either to validate or extend the scientific body of knowledge, students who have baseline knowledge of how to find, evaluate, and access data will have an advantage. Accordingly, undergraduate STEM curricula is increasingly focused on research-based group projects that develop professional skills, building the professional portfolio needed for early career scientists, technologists, and engineers. This project works to develop new tools to implement basic data skills within the undergraduate disciplinary curricula. The first step in this process was to identify the competencies that are likely to be needed by those seeking data …

On The Same Page: Combining Service Desks For A Single Point Of Contact, Sally Neal, Susan Anderson, Brian Bunnett, William Weare Jr.

Scholarship and Professional Work

No abstract provided.

Best Practices For Creating Videos For Information Literacy Programming, Rachel Lux, Lucinda Rush

Libraries Faculty & Staff Presentations

In this poster session, we share our expertise in the development of short videos for use in information literacy programming. Specifically, we address development and assessment of learning outcomes for our One Minute Tips video series, and the relevant subject categories for students at our university. Additionally, we discuss the concept of information layering, and how to successfully incorporate elements of popular culture. We provide tips for promotion and use as well as assessing usage metrics. You can view our videos on the Old Dominion University Libraries' YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDnm8O5CigbS6Cit_mr7xbQ/videos .

Learning Through Play, The Old School Way, Lucinda Rush

Libraries Faculty & Staff Presentations

Poster presentation at the Virginia Library Association Conference on October 23, 2014. This poster introduces new ideas for instructional design using game structures that students are already familiar with to teach information literacy concepts. It is well documented that millennials enjoy learning through collaboration with peers and self-exploration in a fast-paced, technology rich environment, and game-based instruction can be a great way to engage them in the classroom. While millennials are comfortable with technology and enjoy learning through video and web-based games, it is difficult for libraries with limited resources to compete with the expectations that students have based on …

Technology And Power, Michael J. Paulus Jr.

SPU Works

No abstract provided.

Spanning Boundaries To Identify Archival Literacy Competencies, Sharon A. Weiner, Sammie L. Morris, Lawrence J. Mykytiuk

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

This paper is a report of a collaborative research project that identified the competencies undergraduate history majors should have related to finding and using archival materials. The boundary-spanning collaboration involved archivists, librarians, and history faculty.

Historians have long relied upon archives as essential source material, and recent studies confirmed the continued significance of archives to research in this field. However, there is no detailed listing of the archival research competencies that college history students should attain. Without a clearly defined list upon which history faculty, archivists, and library liaisons to history departments agree, teaching about archives research is difficult and …

Tutorials: Resource Instruction For Distance Learners, Pam Greenlee

Faculty Scholarship – Library Science

Academic librarians, devoted to providing resources and services for learners, find both opportunity and challenge in the continuing growth of online programs in higher education. The technology tools available for online courses are also available to librarians seeking to support those courses with research and information literacy skills instruction. Researchers have delineated factors necessary for achieving defined learning outcomes with online tutorials. These factors include assignment relevance, faculty collaboration, and student interaction. A fourth issue emerges as equally critical; there must be a single iteration of the tutorial, posted in an unique online location, and subject to dynamic revision. There …

Learning Commons And Transitions To College And Workplace, Sharon A. Weiner

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

This presentation was given at the Wabash Valley Regional Library Meeting on September 30, 2014 at the Wabash Regional Education Center, West Lafayette, IN. It discusses the concept of learning commons, or spaces outside of the formal classroom setting that are conducive to learning; and the transitions of students to college and the workplace through information and libraries.

Digital Wisdom For A Digital Age: Spirituality And Technology In The 21st Century, Michael J. Paulus Jr., Ryan Ingersoll

SPU Works

No abstract provided.

Commuter Students Using Technology, Mariana Regalado, Maura A. Smale

Publications and Research

• A multi-year qualitative study of undergraduates at six colleges at the City University of New York focused on how, where, and when students accomplished their academic work and how the presence or absence of access to technology helped and hindered them.
• CUNY students have an average commute time of 45–60 minutes each way and typically use public transportation, making commuting a defining feature of undergraduate life at CUNY that offers both opportunities and challenges.
• The study sought to understand how students made time and found space to do their schoolwork outside of class, including their use of technology for coursework. …

Engaging Non-Science Majors In The Chemistry Around Us Through Information Literacy, Theresa M. Nawalaniec, Reiko M. Simmons

Michael Schwartz Library Publications

Everyone knows that teaching chemistry to non-science majors can be a special challenge! In “Chemistry in Context”, published by ACS, a heavy emphasis is placed on helping students to appreciate “chemistry” in every part of their daily lives. In our attempts to find a balance between teaching the typical basic chemistry topics and related societal issues, a program was developed to involve students in group, mini-research projects. The major purpose of this “project” was to: encourage students to search out chemistry-related information in their areas of interest, recognize the connections between scientific knowledge and our modern everyday lives, and to …

What Do Students Learn From Participation In An Undergraduate Research Journal? Results Of An Assessment, Sharon A. Weiner

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Like an increasing number of academic libraries, Purdue University Libraries provides publishing support services to the Purdue community. In 2009, Purdue University Press had recently been moved into the Libraries, and there was enthusiasm about exploring new relationships which could combine the publishing skills of the Press with use of Purdue e-Pubs, the institutional repository platform that also featured powerful publishing features. Publishing an undergraduate research journal was particularly appealing because it connected the scholarly communication program of the Libraries with strategic goals around information literacy. There is evidence that undergraduate students benefit from engaging in research experiences, and writing …

Bring Your Own Device In The Information Literacy Classroom, Ilana Stonebraker, M Brooke Robertshaw, Hal Kirkwood, Mary Dugan

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

In the 2013 school year, a team of librarians in the Parrish Library of Management and Economics at Purdue University taught a business information literacy course to approximately 500 management students in eight 70-person sessions. Due to limitations on a set of iPads borrowed from another department, one of two concurrent classes was taught with a set of iPads, while another had a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy, where students brought their own laptops or iPads. Focus groups, observations of behavior, and final evaluations were utilized to evaluate the comparative perceived effectiveness of the two technology approaches. This paper …

An Examination Of Embedded Librarian Ideas And Practices: A Critical Bibliography., Carl R. Andrews

Publications and Research

Although this annotated bibliography is primarily targeted to library science professionals in an academic setting, the literature examined can very easily support secondary and college level general education teaching initiatives. The majority of the literature examined in the list comes from journal articles. The author focused primarily on actual case studies that take place in an undergraduate academic setting. Attention was paid to community colleges and schools where there are students in need of remediation. The author was also interested in seeking out literature that addressed the needs of student academic success after an embedded program was implemented. Non-traditional embedded …

America's Missing Link: Educational Reform And Workforce Development, Sharon A. Weiner, Lana W. Jackman, Glen Warren

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

This presentation was given at a White House meeting about the potential role of information literacy in Michelle Obama's Reach Higher initiative on June 18, 2014.

Curriculum Mapping At Unlv Libraries: Strategic Integration Of Library Instruction, Nancy E. Fawley

Lied Library Open House for the 2014 American Library Association Conference

Curriculum mapping is a strategy to integrate information literacy into the undergraduate curriculum by identifying key courses within the disciplines for targeted, library instruction.

Librarians identify high impact, beginning, middle and end-level courses within their disciplines. These may or may not be courses they currently work with.

Information competencies are introduced at a beginning level, then reinforced (mid-level) and enhanced (end) throughout a student’s academic career in an intentionally scaffolded manner. Assessment strategies are included the map, as well.

Librarians use curriculum maps to inform decisions on courses and content taught so instruction efforts are not duplicated.

Assessment Of First-Year Composition Students' Information Literacy Skills, Erin E. Rinto

Lied Library Open House for the 2014 American Library Association Conference

One of the ways we have been assessing the information literacy skills of our first year students is through developing and applying rubrics to a sample of annotated bibliography projects from the required English Composition course at UNLV. The annotated bibliography assignment consists of a paper proposal and the annotations for 5 sources the student plans on using in their final research paper. The "source evaluation rubric" was applied to each individual annotation (totaling 1358 annotations) and the rubric examined the extent to which students were using the evaluative criteria of currency, relevance, and authority when selecting and evaluating an …

Welcome To The University Libraries Poster Session!, Erin E. Rinto, Melissa Bowles-Terry, Rachelle Weigel, Nancy E. Fawley, Rosan Mitola, Amanda Melilli, Amy Jo Hunsaker, Jennifer L. Fabbi

Lied Library Open House for the 2014 American Library Association Conference

Over the past eight years, the UNLV Libraries have led and contributed to campus initiatives to revise the undergraduate curriculum and student learning outcomes at UNLV. Through formal and informal leadership roles, librarians helped to create the University Undergraduate Learning Outcomes (UULOs) in the areas of Intellectual Breadth and Lifelong Learning, Communication, Inquiry and Critical Thinking, Global/Multicultural Knowledge and Awareness, and Citizenship and Ethics and a revised model for general education.

In Fall 2011, the Faculty Senate approved a vertical pathway of key courses, which serve to integrate and assess the UULOs from a student’s first year of college through …

Unlv Libraries: Partners In Student Learning, Melissa Bowles-Terry

Lied Library Open House for the 2014 American Library Association Conference

The University Libraries play a central educational role at UNLV. Librarians offer workshops for faculty on assignment design and research on student learning. The workshops emphasize learning outcomes, active learning, and assessment of student learning. Institutes leverage UNLV Librarians’ expertise with facilitation and information literacy learning outcomes.

Learning Outcomes for Faculty Institutes:

• To understand how research-based learning approaches support student success.
• To articulate goals and learning outcomes for research assignments in order to communicate expectations to students and form the basis for assessment of student work.
• To investigate research-based learning activities that integrate library and information resources.
• To discover technology …

Preparing Librarians To Be Campus Leaders Through Mapping And Integrating Information Literacy Into Curriculum, Sharon A. Weiner, Li Wang

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Curriculum mapping is a process by which curricula are methodically examined to determine where information literacy (IL) capabilities are, or should be taught during formal coursework. Curriculum integration is the process of intentionally integrating IL capability at the points in coursework when students need to master those capabilities and competencies. During this session, librarians will develop an understanding of curriculum mapping and how to integrate IL in curricula. This knowledge prepares librarians for campus leadership, since the curriculum is the primary focus of teaching and learning and affects the entire campus.

The curriculum in higher education can be viewed as: …

Kicking The Tires: A Usability Study Of The Primo Discovery Tool, Aaron Nichols, Amber Billey, Peter Spitzform, Alice Stokes, Catherine Mundy

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Discovery tools offer users a powerful way of searching library holdings, as well as external databases and indexes. They are becoming an increasingly common part of the library user experience, and research on the usability of such tools is expanding. In 2012, a mid-sized academic research library implemented Primo Discovery and Delivery by Ex Libris and conducted a diagnostic usability test to investigate how the tool is used without instruction, to discover patterns in searching behavior, and to uncover how compatible Primo is with user search behavior. This paper will describe the design and implementation of the usability study. Despite …

Learning To Love The Loquacious Library, Luke Meagher, Susan Myers, Leanna Herbert

Arthur Vining Davis High Impact Fellows Projects

Libraries are underutilized resources available to high school teachers. Our team set out with the goal to bring more students into the library by designing a set of “units” for which teachers could bring classes into the library. Each unit addresses Common Core Standards while simultaneously teaching a valuable skill or specific lesson. We wanted these lessons to be applicable to students, include a form of genuine assessment, while also helping teachers transition to the Common Core standards. These units are designed to be taught by librarians, but to teach skills/lessons that teachers would in their own classroom.

“Let Me Gather Spring Flowers For A Wreath”: Writing About Historical Trauma For Young People In A Wreath For Emmett Till, Kelly Wissman

Literacy Teaching & Learning Faculty Scholarship

Marilyn Nelson's book, "A Wreath for Emmett Till", (2005) was named a 2006 Coretta Scott King Honor Book and given the 2006 Printz Honor Award. "A Wreath for Emmett Till" tells the story of a 14-year-old African American boy who was lynched in 1955. Within 15 sonnets accompanied by illustrations by Philippe Lardy, Nelson not only provides an account of Till's experience but also describes the wreath of flowers that she would create to honor him. In this article, Kelly Wissman explores how Nelson provides guidance to young readers in ways that make reading this text "bearable." Wissman first provides …

What Do Students Learn From Participation In An Undergraduate Research Journal? Results Of An Assessment, Sharon A. Weiner, Charles Watkinson

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

INTRODUCTION Undergraduate research journals provide students with an opportunity to disseminate their work while learning about the scholarly publishing process. The opportunities to learn about scholarly communication have been demonstrated, but such journals also offer a means of helping students attain necessary information literacy competencies. By partnering in the publication of undergraduate journals, libraries can further strategic goals related to information literacy and establish a connection between library publishing and student success. This paper reports on an assessment of the Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research (JPUR) that was designed to evaluate student learning outcomes and demonstrate connections between journal participation …

Constructing The Role Of School Librarians In The 21st Century Workforce: Implications Of Nsf-Funded Dataone For K-12 Librarianship, Kimberly L. Douglass, Dania Bilal

DataONE Sociocultural and Usability & Assessment Working Groups

This study will: 1. Uncover the characteristics of the emerging 21st Century workforce reflected in the literature associated with an NSF data infrastructure project (DataOne). 2. Compare those characteristics to the roles and responsibilities of school librarians articulated by their professional associations. 3. Compare those characteristics to the roles and responsibilities of school librarians articulated by education guidelines generally. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on the role of school librarianship in STEM education, particularly project-based learning, as well as to the broader scientific apparatus. It provides insight about how developments in K-12 education relate to scientific data …

Using Music To Teach Latin American (And World) History, Daisy V. Domínguez

Publications and Research

This article encourages teachers to use music as a pedagogical tool and discusses songs that may be used to teach Latin American history.

Library Instruction For First Year Students, Amrita Dhawan, Ching-Jung Chen

Publications and Research

Purpose

Design/methodology/approach

Fostering Rn-To-Bsn Students’ Confidence In Searching Online For Scholarly Information On Evidence-Based Practice, Carol Mcculley, Melissa Jones

Faculty & Staff Publications

Graduates of bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) programs are increasingly expected to take an active role in assessing and improving nursing practice, and nurse educators are expected to prepare BSN students for this expanding role. Information literacy, the ability to search for, find, get, and use scholarly information to inform nursing practice, should be a critical component of nursing education. This article focuses on five strategies for teaching information literacy to registered nurse (RN)-to-BSN students in an online continuing education environment. These strategies include the addition of an embedded librarian to the online courses, collaboration between the librarian and …