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Giving Students AIIRSS - : Using the ACRL Framework to Orient Online Students - ACRL DLS
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Giving Students AIIRSS
Using the ACRL Framework to Orient
Online Students
by Jennifer Castle, MLIS and Jonathon Hudson, MLIS
ABOUT US
ABOUT
South College is a small, private, for-profit institution based in Knoxville, Tennessee, with more than 3,000 students at five locations across Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia (and beyond with online courses). Providing academic support are five librarians, four at the two Knoxville locations and one in Nashville. The majority of our undergraduate and graduate degree programs are medical and allied health-based. We also offer several business, legal, technical, and education degrees at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
THE PROBLEM
How do we orient our student population?
CHALLENGES AND LIMITATIONS
- Library sessions are not required as part of any course curriculum.
- Many of our general education courses have moved online, so the classes that were bringing their students to the library for orientation can no longer do so.
- Increasing class sizes make it difficult to have traditional orientations in our library spaces.
- Many of our programs are accelerated courses, so it is increasingly difficult to persuade professors to allow class time for library orientation.
- There are only five librarians.
- Only three of the five locations have librarians.
- Each librarian is also responsible for fulfilling time on a physical and a digital reference desk, so schedules must be accounted for.
If the traditional library orientation methods are unable to reach our students,
we would need to try an alternative route.
THE SOLUTION
WHAT WOULD WE NEED IN A SOLUTION?
- A way to provide the information normally given in a library orientation that does not require a librarian's direct presence.
- Accessible to students who may never physically come to the library.
- Accessible to students outside of class time.
- The ability to provide orientation without a physical space.
- Due to budget constraints, the solution has to be cost effective.
- The ability to assess its effectiveness.
- The ability to confirm that a student had been oriented.
- The ability to let the orientation exist without constant monitoring.
WHY CANVAS?
VERSION 1.0 vs. 2.0
Familiarity: South College uses Canvas for all of our online courses, and all of our on-site courses have an online component. Using a platform that our students are already familiar with would circumvent some of the troubles associated with learning new technologies.
Access: Since our students already use Canvas, giving them access to the orientation would be as simple as having everyone enrolled in the course.
Assessment: The quiz functionality in Canvas would allow us to assess the effectiveness of the orientation course.
Budget: Since the institution is already using Canvas, there would be no additional technology or materials costs.
MORE BENEFITS
More Benefits
Modularity: Students can pick and choose which modules to complete if they only need to know about a specific subject; for example, a graduate student can refresh themselves on APA style with the Citations module without having to go through the Online Catalog module.
Accountability: Professors can assign all or part of the orientation to their students, and the quiz functionality will allow them to confirm whether their students participated.
Integration: Professors teaching in Canvas can pull modules and pages from the library orientation course into their courses. We also recently started using LibGuides, which can be embedded into pages in Canvas.
Version 1.0
Version 1.0
WHAT HAPPENED?
In February 2018, we were given a Canvas course to turn into an Online Library Orientation. In order to quickly and efficiently make the course available for use, the major topics covered in a basic library orientation (such as using the catalog, ILL, or information literacy) were assigned their own module. Each librarian took a module(s) and was given free rein to present the information however they chose. Since none of us had any experience with using Canvas as an instructor, this mostly resulted in several pages of dry text, with a few screenshots and embedded slideshows for variety. The one exception was the module where each page outlined library resources available specifically for each of our major programs of study.
Each module had a brief quiz at the end for assessment, both for student comprehension and for effectiveness of the module. Due to our lack of experience with Canvas and the need to be able to leave the course unattended, we were limited to multiple choice questions for the quizzes. This also hampered our ability to implement learning activities.
The last page of the course is a satisfaction survey, where we invited participants to tell us what they thought about the course.
Library Orientation Version 1.0 was made available to teaching faculty the first week of April 2018 and went live for students the week after. All teaching faculty and students were enrolled in the course. The faculty were enrolled as observers, so they could view the modules and see what their students were doing without needing a librarian's assistance.
Overall, the response has been positive (with the exception of several requests for more in-depth information on writing citations) and the feedback from the satisfaction survey has allowed us to address gaps in the information presented.
Version 2.0
Version 2.0
WHAT'S DIFFERENT?
WHAT'S THE SAME?
- Teaching faculty will be enrolled as observers.
- Multiple choice quizzes to assess efficacy and for confirming student participation.
- Information presented in a variety of styles.
- Just two librarians and an instructor enables better communication and coordination.
- Lessons are designed around the ACRL Framework.
- Learning outcomes are defined to assess efficacy.
- Incorporating materials such as scenario-based exercises, videos, infographics, and supplementary materials into the orientation will make the course more engaging.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Applying the ACRL's Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education provided us a groundwork
to create lesson plans to
educate students on
foundational ideas.
Authority is Constructed and Contextual
Knowledge Practice: Students should be able to differentiate various types of authority, but they must also understand that all established authorities are subject to fallacy.
FRAME 1
IMPLEMENTATION
Learning Outcome 1: Students will be able to define different types of authority, such as subject expertise (e.g., scholarship), societal position (e.g., public office or title), or special experience (e.g., participating in a historic event).
Learning Outcome 2: Students will be able to recognize different types of media bias.
Lesson Plan: Compare and contrast written pieces by authority figures. Show examples of media bias and have students detect clues of each.
Assessment: Multiple choice quiz.
Information Creation as a Process
Knowledge Practice: Articulate the capabilities and constraints of information developed through various creation processes. Recognize the differences in information created and presented for various audiences.
FRAME 2
IMPLEMENTATION
Learning Outcome 1: Students will be able to compare characteristics of different types of publications in order to further understand the unique capabilities and constraints of the information creation process.
Learning Outcome 2: Students will learn the details of the information cycle.
Lesson Plan: Compare and contrast written pieces by authority figures. Show examples of media bias and have students detect clues of each.
Assessment: Multiple choice quiz.
Information Has Value
Knowledge Practice: Give credit to the original ideas of others through proper attribution and citation.
FRAME 3
IMPLEMENTATION
Learning Outcome 1: Students will be able to identify the citation elements needed in order to properly cite their sources in APA format.
Learning Outcome 2: Students will understand the concepts of peer review, copyright, and public domain.
Lesson Plan: Students will complete an exercise where they build three common citations.
Assessment: Multiple choice quiz.
Research as Inquiry
Knowledge Practice: Determine an appropriate scope of investigation.
FRAME 4
IMPLEMENTATION
Learning Outcome 1: Students will be able to articulate the type of information they need to complete a given task.
Learning Outcome 2: Students will be able to identify the appropriate uses for various information formats.
Lesson Plan: Give a set of hypothetical topics for a paper and have students determine which topic is strongest using the Digital Information Fluency Model. Evaluate sources cited in an article; decide what value they add to the article. Sort sources into types (books, articles, reports, statistics).
Assessment: Multiple choice quiz.
Scholarship as Conversation
Knowledge Practice: Students will learn that authoritative positions on subjects can change over time.
FRAME 5
IMPLEMENTATION
Learning Outcome 1: Students will be able to recognize how serial publications are presented in databases and how to read them chronologically.
Learning Outcome 2: Students will be able to follow the "literary conversation" and understand how it has changed over a span of decades.
Lesson Plan: Students will trace the way a journal’s field of knowledge is defined over time by studying subject terms assigned to the articles in one issue per decade for the last 50 years.
Assessment: Multiple choice quiz.
Searching as Strategic Exploration
Knowledge Practice: To match information needs and search strategies to appropriate research tools. Use different types of searching language (controlled vocabulary, keywords, natural language) appropriately.
FRAME 6
IMPLEMENTATION
Learning Outcome 1: Students will be able to select an appropriate database to begin researching their topic.
Learning Outcome 2: Students will be able to search using subject headings/terms or the thesaurus of a database to become familiarized with the structure.
Lesson Plan: Search various databases and tools and compare results. Introduce the concept of controlled vocabularies, subject headings, and Boolean operators.
Assessment: Multiple choice quiz.
IN THE MIDST OF THINGS
IN
MEDIAS RES
Because the course isn't completed, we're learning new ideas and approaches as we progress. This method isn't necessarily ideal, but the opportunity to work together despite being in different locations is
exciting and fosters a sense of
departmental community.
LEARNING CURVE
WHAT WE'RE LEARNING
Admittedly, we're not trained in instructional design, so creating lesson plans has been a learning experience for us. Seeing how other institutions instruct information literacy and using the ADDIE model has helped inform our decisions.
ACRL Sandbox
& CORA
Research
The wealth of information available through the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy Sandbox and the Community of Online Research Assignments has provided excellent insight into and inspiration for the instructional design process. While we're limited in that we cannot create assignments for the course because it's non-credit, the fact librarians are so willing to share their experiences with information literacy instruction is proving invaluable.
21st Century Librarians
Communication
Communication technology has proven to be a key component of our collaboration because we're on different campuses in different time zones. We've made use
of Skype meetings and instant
messaging, email, Google and Word docs, LibChat internal instant messaging,
phone calls and texts.
EVALUATION STAGE
- Review and assess analytics and feedback to determine areas for improvement or redesign.
- Work on updates through the winter break for start of 2020 winter quarter.
- This stage should be a continuous part of the course development and delivery process.
Start January 2019
- Officially created new Canvas course.
- Began exploring functions and conducting research on instructional design.
- Decided to apply ACRL Framework to lesson plans.
Evaluation
Winter
Planning Winter
TIMELINE TO CREATE NEW INFORMATION LITERACY COURSE FOR
SOUTH COLLEGE
TIMELINE
DESIGN STAGE
- Create a course design template.
- Agree on a course design plan and a project schedule.
- Begin formulating individual lessons in separate modules using a combination of text, videos, infographics, exercises, and quizzes.
Development Spring-Summer
Launch
Fall
IMPLEMENTATION STAGE
- Launch the course.
- Create course announcements so instructors can include the course in curriculum.
- Publicize the course through the South College intranet.
DESIGN STAGE, CON'T
- Review and refine the user experience.
- Involve faculty members and fellow librarians to test usability.
Refinement Late Summer