online content for the “global access” library metro workshop february 21, 2007 kathryn...
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Online Content for the “Global Access” Library
METRO Workshop
February 21, 2007
Kathryn Shaughnessy
Instructional Services Librarian
From Distance Access to Global access
Background:
• Wireless infrastructure / e-resources• Distance Learner “amenities” for all students• St. John’s “Academic Computing Initiative”• Distance Learning accreditation • Missions:
– Social Justice– Leveraging technology
From Distance Access to Global access
Academic Growth in terms of Mission:
• Title III Grant for “Core” Faculty Development
Information Literacy
Critical Thinking
Incorporation of Technology
• CTL fellows: enhancing pedagogy through technology
• SJC: Global Development and Social Justice MLS
• ASL: “See the World” Service semester abroad
From Distance Access to Global access
NEEDS ASSESSMENT
ARCHITECTURE Collaboration
CONTENT with IT, Faculty
TECHNOLOGY students, and
TEST core committees
ASSESS
Online Resources:
From Distance Access to Global access
NEEDS
ARCHITECTURE
CONTENT
TECHNOLOGY
TEST
ASSESS
Online Resources:
Creation
Distribution
Impact
From Distance Access to Global access
Creation of Online Content: NEEDS
Student access to virtual library support
– Student Location • Time zones• War/disaster zones
– Student Access to technology • computers part of tuition for most (not all)• Infrastructure (power and communication)
– Tech support– Bandwidth issues
From Distance Access to Global access
Creation of Online Content: NEEDS
Student access/barriers to local library support
– Physical – Distance– Psychological– Cultural
From Distance Access to Global access
Creation of Online Content: NEEDS
Communication to enhance “community”
– Students peers– Students Faculty– Students Librarian
• Synchronous / Asynchronous• Formal / Informal
From Distance Access to Global access
Creation of Online Content: NEEDS
Academic Literacy Issues
– Language– Cultural– Information – Visual – Technology
From Distance Access to Global access
Creation of Online Content: NEEDS
Social Justice Concerns
– Costs of materials/software – provided but also looking for open source alternatives that can be used even after graduation
– Cultural integrity -- solutions to local problems may require local resources
– Learning from students – recognition of experience/expertise in their own area
From Distance Access to Global access
Creation of Online Content:
ARCHITECTURE: For site, tutorials, projects – What is most basic—what can be added later– build framework that is expandable
CONTENT: For site, tutorials, sample projects– What do we have that already meets these
needs?• repurpose/update
– What do we need to create? • Long-term / short term / on-the-fly
From Distance Access to Global access
Creation of Online Content:
APPLY the TECHNOLOGY that FITS the NEEDS/CONTENT
Keep it simple, consider: – Consider student bandwidth– Learning curve of users– future maintenance
use technologies that allow for: – flexible access, at point-of-need
(non-linear, can jump to sections)– peer and faculty assessment, grading and portfolio
(for higher-order IL skills)– easy maintenance
From Distance Access to Global access
Creation of Online Content:
Tutorials Captivate
Podcasts Audacity
Blog WordPress
Wiki PBWiki, WikiPM
Enhancing distribution / communication
RSS & RefWorks
Skype
Del.icio.us tagging & RefWorks
Portal Group / Courseware
Tutorials: Overview
Tutorial Benefits:
• Provides visual instruction and allows repetition of lesson for individual user (especially helpful for ESL and less technologically-savvy users)
• Makes better use of librarian instruction time
– either all online with follow-up ref questions
– “just-in-time” learning to allow for higher level IL instruction
• Rough Statistics: Can put “counters” into the html of the tutorial to get rough statistics of hits and IP locations
Tutorial Pitfalls:• Maintenance (general and interface changes)
• Keeping track lots of authors, lots of locations
Podcasts: Overview
Podcast benefits:
• repetition for difficult content/material & for listeners who have difficulty with English and allows multitasking (e.g.: commuting or exercising).
• increased “frequency and depth” of learner interaction, especially in language & music -- inspired creation of podcasts – allows for “just-in-time” learning with subsequent in-depth discussion
• increased communication between students & faculty (voice connection), but also between library and IT departments; led to improved collaboration and planning, both within & among institutions.
Duke Report, 2004 – 2005 and SJU feedback 2005-2007
Podcast Pitfalls • Creating/editing takes time
• Keeping them manageable size/length• Troubleshooting user error
Blog: Overview
Blog benefits:
• Push technology brings instruction to subscribed student in an easy way
• Good way to get timely instruction out fast, yet if written with longevity in mind, archived, categorized and searchable entries make old entries salient.
• Good way to get students to write/journal as part of e-portfolio
• Comment feature is a good way to get informal feedback
Blog Pitfalls• Creating/editing takes time
• Keeping them timely and interesting as well as instructional
• Spam on comments – to prevent must have users register
Wiki: Overview
Wiki benefits:
• Low technology learning curve, makes participation more likely
• Good way to collaborate, for short term project, for long-term document, for a resource that builds over time (past the semester!)
• Comment feature is a good way to get informal feedback
• accessible for good for rubric grading and portfolio evaluation
Wiki Pitfalls• Creating/editing takes time
• must have users register to prevent “vandalism”
RSS: Overview
RSS syndication/distribution:
• Podcasts, blogs and wikis are “digi-born” and they can be accessed like webpages or syndicated/distributed through RSS feeds
• You can use RSS can facilitate communicating your content quickly
• you can also create RSS “libraries” (of internal or external content) for your constituents, but know that at this point, not everyone knows about RSS so:– you may need to “pre-feed” rss into courseware pages/portal– have RSS feed appear on your subject pages– or teach folks about RSS readers (RefWorks/Personal Google)
Skype: Overview
Skype benefits:
• Low technology learning curve, makes participation outstanding!
• Alternate formal communication channel, for when courseware is malfunctioning but also acts as an informal communication channel: IM service but also allow voice-in-real time for free
• History feature saves “chats” and serves as a good way to capture informal and formal feedback and a way to track requests over time; allows sending tutorial links at point of need, later accessible for rubric grading
• Allows attachments for documents and pictures – helps in troubleshooting
Skype Pitfalls• Unsolicited “callers” on SkypeMe mode – to prevent
this, users register and must be accepted as a contact
Delicious/RefWorks: Overview
Delicious & RefWorks benefits:
• Allows web access to favorite research/resources from anywhere, Allows “sharing” of resources with collaborators anywhere – also allows a librarian to generate a constantly updating pathfinder on a topic.
• increased communication between students & faculty and between scholars both within & among institutions.
• Natural segue for talking about Citing Sources & Avoiding Plagiarism
Delicious & RefWorks pitfalls • Delicious is mainly for websites, RefWorks for databases and
catalogues. They don’t “communicate” well.
• RefWorks is proprietary, have to pay after graduation
• Both are potentially unwieldy if organizing tools not used
Testing: Overview
Testing Mantra: Library 2.0 is always in Beta
All of these content-creation and content-delivery technologies are “in Beta,” especially given that we are always getting feedback and always tweaking/expanding/instructing
Title III and CTL faculty, and students/faculty in the core courses and the Global Masters’ programs (as well as our very energetic early-adopter faculty and students in DLIS) are our Beta-testers
Assessment: Overview
ASSESSMENT
Tied to Objectives – with the understanding that not all assessment is able to be captured in numbers/statistics; To be meaningful, must collaborate with faculty, and ultimately have the faculty member integrate lessons and IL in assignments; To be manageable – assign several people
• Barbara Walvoord
– keep a positive attitude, start small
– keep the “stakeholders” informed – library newsletter, annual report, or “individualized” reports if necessary for funding
• Barbara Fister
– keep a “big picture” outlook, start small
– although we need accreditation statistics, don’t let that
put a stranglehold on library instruction assessment
Assessment: Overview
ASSESSMENT
Feedback: From students
From faculty (several)
From focus group
From informal chats
Pre-post Tests for IL tutorials (IL)
Comments features (IL)
Surveys in-class: high/low survey (Instructors)
LibQual: (Ann)
Statistics popular page hits, tutorial counters (e-services)
OPAC data captures – (IL & e-services)
Rubrics wiki/blog projects & portfolios (Provost)
More information
To peek at some of the technologies talked about in this presentation, visit this del.icio.us account page:
http://del.icio.us/kgshaughnessy/MetroGlobal
Contact information:
Kathryn Shaughnessy
St. John’s University Libraries