Instructional Media Design Commons^™

Students' Perceptions Of A Mobile Application For College Course Management Systems, Roopa Mathur

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Higher education administrators need data on student perceptions to support their decision making regarding mobile learning (m-learning) applications. There is a lack of research addressing students' perceptions of mobile applications for course management systems (CMS). The findings of this study may help administrators understand students' perceptions of a CMS m-learning application, Blackboard Mobile Learn (BML). This m-learning application is available on mobile devices, such as the iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone, Android, and Blackberry smartphones. The purpose of this quantitative survey study was to explore the linear relationship between the independent variables of students' perceptions of usefulness and students' perceptions of …

Why Would They Try? Motivation And Motivating In Low-Stakes Information Skills Testing, Jeanne M. Brown, Carrie A. Gaxiola

Library Faculty Research

In 2008 the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) University Libraries piloted the Educational Testing Service’s standardised test of information, communication, and technology (ICT) skills (iSkills) in spring and autumn 2008. In the course of administering the test we explored motivational strategies, a critical component in low-stakes, low-personal-consequences testing. Motivational strategies included providing feedback on test performance, highlighting the value of the test for the individual student, and appealing to the student’s willingness to improve the overall performance of the institution. We addressed ways to motivate students in order to enhance their level of participation in and performance …

The Best Test Of Ph.D. Studentsuccess: Response, David F. Feldon, Briana Crotwell Timmerman, Michelle Maher

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Newquist suggests that students' publications are important predictors of post-degree research effectiveness, due in part to the importance of collaboration in innovative research. We agree that publication record is important and helpful, but the collaborative aspects of writing render publications a noisy metric by which to assess individual growth on specific skills (1). The variable time lags between the execution of an experiment, analysis of its data, and publication of findings [e.g., (2)] further limit the ability to identify direct relationships between experiences in a doctoral program and scholarly growth. Doctoral education's overarching goal is to develop competent researchers capable …

Integrating Information Literacy Instruction In An Upper-Division Writing-Intensive Class, Ellen K. Wilson, Jeffrey M. Blankenship

The Southeastern Librarian

Writing-intensive courses are a required component of undergraduate education at the University of South Alabama, but often the courses are designed to test students’ writing skills, rather than to teach the research and writing process. In the fall of 2008, an instruction librarian and an assistant professor in political science collaborated to redesign one writing intensive course, Public Administration (PSC 401), in an attempt to address this dilemma. This project was born out of frustration – frustration on the part of the professor about the generally poor quality of writing and research skills by students in the course the previous …

The Academic Library’S Role In Fostering Digital Citizenship, Brad Matthies

Presentations

This presentation discusses Butler University Library’s efforts to introduce various campus constituents to Digital Citizenship. The primary platform featured in this presentation is the Butler University Library Digital Commons, a product by Berkeley Electronic Press. Discussed is how the presenter used this product to get digital immigrants excited about a Web 2.0 technology. Also discussed is marketing strategies for promoting similar Web 2.0 technologies to digital immigrants in higher education, and how such endeavors can also serve to transform the academic librarian’s role in the 21st Century.

Note: This presentation contains accompanying video interviews.

Why Magic Bullets Don't Work, David F. Feldon

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

We always tell our students that there are no shortcuts, that important ideas are nuanced, and that recognizing subtle distinctions is an essential critical-thinking skill. Mastery of a discipline, we know, requires careful study and necessarily slow, evolutionary changes in perspective. Then we look around for the latest promising trend in teaching and jump in with both feet, expecting it to transform our students, our courses, and our outcomes. Alternatively, we sniff disdainfully at the current educational fad and proudly stand by the instructional traditions of our disciplines or institutions, secure in our knowledge that the “tried and true” has …

Dlo To Go: Fostering Instructional Use Of New Media, Sandra G. Yee, Nardina N. Mein, Joshua Neds-Fox, Jonathan Mcglone

Library Scholarly Publications

In partnership with Michigan cultural institutions, and state and national funding agencies including the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Library of Michigan, the Wayne State University Library System's New Media & Information Technology unit has been a pioneer developer of digital library collections, including the Virtual Motor City, Digital Dress, and Herman Miller Collections. These collections are accessed thousands of times per month. However, technological barriers and an ad-hoc knowledge base result in hit-and-miss use in online instruction by both faculty and students. This problem is not unique to Wayne State: nationally, it has resulted in widespread …

A Collaborative Approach To Building A Student Information And Technology Literacy Program, Kenetha Stanton, Julianne Miranda

Center for Academic Technology (CAT) - Presentations

This is a brief overview of the Information Commons program at Butler University presented during an EDUCAUSE Midwest Lightning Round. The Information Commons is professional development program jointly sponsored by The Center for Academic Technology (formerly Instructional Technology) and the Butler Libraries for student staff that provides information and technology literacy support to Butler students through scheduled desk hours and peer-to-peer training and consulting.

Improving Electronic Reserve Services: A Collaborative Effort, Xiaohua (Cindy) Li, David Demers

Librarian Publications

To improve the efficiency of Ryan-Matura Library's electronic reserve (e-reserve) service, the staff of the library and the Office of Instructional Technology at Sacred Heart University codeveloped and implemented a system that streamlined the request and delivery of e-reserves for faculty and students. This system utilizes the institution's integrated course/content management system (Blackboard) along with a custom-built Web application that facilitates the request, retrieval, digitization, and delivery of e-reserve materials directly to students within their Blackboard courses.

Linking Opencoursewares And Open Education Resources: Creating An Effective Search And Recommendation System, Brett E. Shelton, J. Duffin, Y. Wang, J. Ball

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

With a growing number of digital libraries and other open education repositories being made available throughout the world, effective search and retrieval tools are necessary to access the desired materials that surpass the effectiveness of traditional, all inclusive search engines. This paper discusses the design and use of Folksemantic, a platform that integrates OpenCourseWare search, Open Educational Resource recommendations, and social network functionality into a single open source project. The paper describes how the system was originally envisioned, its goals for users, and data that provides insight into how it is actually being used. Data sources include website click-through data, …

Knowing And Throwing Mudballs, Hearts, Pies, And Flowers: A Connective Ethnography Of Gaming Practices, Deborah A. Fields, Y. B. Kafai

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Little is known concerning how young players learn to participate in various activities in virtual worlds. We use a new integrative approach called connective ethnography that focuses on how a gaming practice spread across a network of youth at an after school club that simultaneously participated in a virtual world, Whyville.net. To trace youth participation in online and offline social contexts, we draw on multiple sources of information: observations, interviews, videos, online tracking and chat data, and hundreds of hours of play in Whyville ourselves. One gaming practice – the throwing of projectiles and its social uses and nuances – …

Stealing From Grandma Or Generating Knowledge? Constestations And Effects Of Cheating In Whyville, Deborah A. Fields, Y. B. Kafai

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Much research has described the various practices needed of gaining access and participation in multi-user game communities. Cheat sites are a continuation of game communities where players engage in knowledge building about game related challenges. In this paper we analyze the cheat sites created by players for a tween virtual world called Whyville.net, which encourages youth to participate in a range of social activities and play casual science games. Through analysis we created typologies for both the cheats and sites related to science content. Further, a case study of an exemplary cheat site elaborates on how some player generated sites …

Your Second Selves: Avatar Designs And Identity Play, Y. B. Kafai, Deborah A. Fields, M. S. Cook

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Avatars in online games and worlds are seen as players’ key representations in interactions with each other. In this article, we investigate the avatar design and identity play within a large-scale tween virtual world called Whyville.net, with more than 1.5 million registered players of ages 816. One unique feature of Whyville is the players’ ability to customize their avatars with various face parts and accessories, all designed and sold by other players in Whyville. Our findings report on the expressive resources available for avatar construction, individual tween players’ choices and rationales in creating their avatars, and online postings about avatar …

"Blacks Deserve Bodies Too!" Design And Discussion About Diversity And Race In A Tween Virtual World, Y. B. Kafai, M. S. Cook, Deborah A. Fields

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

In this paper, we investigate racial diversity in avatar design and public discussions about race within a large-scale tween virtual world called Whyville.net, with more than 1.5 million registered players of ages 8—16. One unique feature of Whyville is the player’s ability to customize their avatars with various face parts and accessories, all designed and sold by other players in Whyville. Our findings report on the racial diversity of available resources for avatar construction and online postings about the role of race in avatar design and social interactions in the community. With the growing interest in player-generated content for online …

Weedsin The Flower Garden: An Exploration Of Plagiarism In Graduate Students' Research Proposalsand Its Connection To Enculturation, Esl, And Contextual Factors, Joanna Gilmore, Denise Strickland, Briana Timmerman, Michelle Maher, David F. Feldon

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Existing literature provides insight into the nature and extent of plagiarism amongst undergraduate students (e.g., Ellery, 2008; Parameswaran & Devi, 2006; Selwyn, 2008). Plagiarism amongst graduate students is relatively unstudied, however, and the existing data are largely based on self-reports. This study investigated the rates and potential causes of plagiarism amongst graduate students in master’s and doctoral programmes in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and science or mathematics education by examining actual research proposals written by graduate students. Results indicate that plagiarism is a prevalent issue at each of the three university sites sampled and across all of the investigated disciplines. …

Adaptations And Continuities In The Use And Design Of Visual Representations In Us Middle School Science Textbooks, Victor R. Lee

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Visual representations are ubiquitous in modern‐day science textbooks and have in recent years become an object of criticism and scrutiny. This article examines the extent to which changes in representations in textbooks published in the USA over the past six decades have invited those critiques. Drawing from a correlational analysis of a corpus of 34 US middle school physical science textbooks, continuities are established with respect to the purposes that most textbook images serve and the numbers of schematic representations that are used. Changes are observed in the overall total number of representations in textbooks and in the proportion of …

Usability As A Method For Assessing Discovery, Thomas A. Ipri, Michael A. Yunkin, Jeanne M. Brown

Library Faculty Research

The University of Nevada Las Vegas Libraries engaged in three projects that helped identify areas of its website that had inhibited discovery of services and resources. These projects also helped generate staff interest in the Usability Working Group, which led these endeavors. The first project studied student responses to the site. The second focused on a usability test with the Libraries’ peer research coaches and resulted in a presentation of those findings to the Libraries staff. The final project involved a specialized test, the results of which also were presented to staff. All three of these projects led to improvements …

Digital Learning And Development Environment: Neh White Paper, Nardina N. Mein, Julie Klein, Adrienne Aluzzo, Anne-Marie Armstrong, Matthew Decker, Jonathan Mcglone, Joshua Neds-Fox

Library Scholarly Publications

Wayne State University’s Digital Learning and Development Environment was a research and development project aimed at developing a prototype for a systematic approach to digital learning using image repositories. The repositories used in the project were two of the Wayne State University Library System’s (WSULS) Digital Collections: Virtual Motor City and Digital Dress. The Collections are web portals providing universal access to digitized objects of cultural history from dispersed holdings of WSULS’s institutional partners. The project integrates easy-to-use technical tools with instructional design principles and resources for digital teaching and learning. The result is a replicable web environment where faculty …

Beyond Research: Opencourseware In The Institutional Repository, Heather Leary, Brett E. Shelton, Marion Jensen

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Presentation given at the 2009 LITA National Forum in Salt Lake City, Utah on archiving OpenCourseWare in the Institutional Repository.

The main function of OpenCourseWare is to provide open access to collections of educational materials used in formal courses. The main function of an Institutional Repository is to collect, preserve, and disseminate intellectual output of an institution. Since OCW is a significant portion of the intellectual output of a university, archiving OCW in an institutions repository seems a perfect marriage of means and opportunity.

Libguides For Information Literacy At Johnson & Wales: Leadership, Rosita E. Hopper

Library Staff Publications

This set of power point slides accompanied a talk given by Rosie Hopper to a seminar for independent school librarians, which took place on October 1, 2009 at the Lyrasis New England headquarters in Southborough, Massachusetts.

An Innovative Approach For Creating A Self-Guided Video Tour In An Academic Library, John H. Sandy, Mangala Krishnamurthy, Wayne Rau

The Southeastern Librarian

Millions of students visit academic libraries each year, hoping to achieve success in the classroom and make progress with their research. Many of these students need help in navigating the complex services, collections, and facilities of a large academic library. Librarians often respond to this need by offering in-person orientation tours. However, with this approach, library personnel are unable to reach all who need assistance. Furthermore, the schedules of busy students and busy librarians do not always coincide, and students may prefer to learn about the library in a more flexible, self-paced fashion. It’s known that in-person tours are a …

Scholarspace: Help Us Establish Our Place In The Scholarly Web, Barry J. Bailey

Staff Development Presentations

The presenter discusses why ScholarSpace @ JCCC, a institutional repository is essential to collecting the intellectual output of Johnson County Community College

Web 2.0: Academic Research & 10 Useful Tools, Lissa Lord

SIDLIT Conference Proceedings

This is an update of the 2008 SIDLIT presentation on "Scholarly Research: Internet & Web 2.0." The session will address questions such as: How do we navigate academic research to include the resources of Web 2.0? What are those resources? Are they primary? Can you cite them? Is this too far out of the box for academic research? Is there a search engine? And please, what is Twitter doing here? During the session you'll discuss these and other specific questions—so, bring them along. Don’t think we’re going up the creek without a paddle! We’ll have at least 10 tools to …

Building Collaborative Reference And Instructional Services For Distance Education Students, Angela P. Whitehurst, Carolyn N. Willis

The Southeastern Librarian

To meet the needs of rigorous educational programs, academic libraries must make a commitment to serve growing distance education (DE) populations. Students who participate in distance education are typically older, nontraditional students with unique characteristics who need special services provided by their university library in order to obtain an education equal to their on-campus counterparts. Creating a successful reference and instructional service for distance education students not only takes planning, collaboration, and assessment, but also requires knowing your audience, constantly experimenting with new technologies, expecting the unexpected, and being ready to problem-solve at a moment’s notice. In this article, the …

Employee Development Using Webct Vista, Jennifer Link Jones

Georgia Library Quarterly

The article reports on the technology upgrade at Georgia State University Library in Atlanta, Goergia. It offers a look at renovations of its facilities and exterior. More than 350 computers were installed in its new Information Commons and Learning Commons. The library officials jointly worked with the school's Information Systems & Technology department and established two computer technical support desk within the library. It is noted that its library employees need to further their knowledge and undergo training about various issues in library science. It also explores various library technology issues, which include public services technology competencies, construction of learning …

Creating Instruction "To Go": Maximizing Resources, Maximizing Impact, Judith M. Arnold, Veronica E. Bielat

Library Scholarly Publications

Faced with large scale instruction demands, librarians are turning to technology to maximize staff resources and extend the impact of instruction. In this presentation, participants will learn how to translate classroom instructional content into learning objects in order to make learning available to multiple users on the go. The authors will engage the audience in a series of presentations, demonstrations, interactive tasks, and discussion in order to learn how to create effective learning objects.

This presentation was delivered at the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) 14th National Conference on March 14, 2009 in Seattle, WA.

Forging New Pathways, Connie Foster, Jennifer Wilson

SelectedWorks™

No abstract provided.

Providence College Library+Commons Promotional Branding Material: Library+Commons Wordle, D. Russell Bailey

Library Commons Basics

A PDF file containg a WORDLE graphic of Library+Commons concepts.

Providence College Library+Commons Promotional Branding Material: Library+Commons Graphics, D. Russell Bailey, Carol Wiseman, Leslie Lanzieri, Laura Bucci

Library Commons Basics

A PDF file containing Library+Commons images and grapics used at Providence College.

Developing A Review Rubric For Learning Resources In Digital Libraries, Heather Leary, Sarah Giersch, Andrew Walker, Mimi Recker

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper describes the development of a review rubric for learning resources in the context of the Instructional Architect (IA), a web-based authoring tool. We describe the motivation for developing a review rubric, the process for creating it by synthesizing the rubrics of other education-related digital libraries, and the results of testing the rubric with teachers. Analysis of usability and reliability indicates that the review rubric influences how teachers design online learning resources.