TCC 2002: Barrett, Daniel, Lopez, Stegemeyer

2002 Paper Presentations

"LIBRARIANS AS INSTRUCTORS": A HYBRID COURSE

Ilene Frank (Advisor)
University of South Florida, Tampa Campus, FL, USA <ifrank@lib.usf.edu>
Heather Barrett
University of South Florida, Tampa Campus, FL, USA
Nicole Daniel
University of South Florida, Tampa Campus, FL, USA
Monical Lopez
University of South Florida, Tampa Campus, FL, USA
Sharon Stegemeyer
University of South Florida, Tampa Campus, FL, USA

DESCRIPTION

This poster session will present the teaching techniques and practices utilized in a hybrid course called "Teaching Information Literacy" offered by the School of Library & Information Sciences (SLIS) at the University of South Florida. The objectives of this course include understanding and putting into practice the teaching of basic information literacy skills as defined by the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (http://www.ala.org/acrl/ilcomstan.html). The course meets on four Saturdays monthly throughout the semester with additional work online via our course management system, Blackboard. As graduate students in this course, we will discusses our attitudes toward utilizing distance learning techniques. We will describe some of the teaching techniques (including active learning) used in face-to-face class sessions. Other techniques are used in our online discussion boards to help us develop a sense of community. We will discuss our opportunities to explore the concepts of information literacy on our own and in a traditional classroom setting. The use of alternative scheduling and the integration of classroom and distance learning provides us with a unique perspective of learning.

AN IMLS LEADERSHIP GRANT FOR LIBRARIES

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) awarded a two-year, $183,660 Education and Training grant to the Tampa Campus Library of the University of South Florida, in cooperation with the USF School of Library and Information Science (SLIS). Now in its second year, the grant is funding four library science graduate students. During the 2002 spring semester, the graduate students are enrolled in an SLIS course entitled I?NTeaching Information LiteracyO?L, and at the same time, are providing one-hour instructional sessions for undergraduates. During the summer of 2002 they will continue to provide these sessions. The graduate-level course, which has been offered to over 75 LIS graduate students and professional librarians over the past three semesters, provides instruction in general information literacy concepts and teaching techniques. The course covers such teaching concepts as active learning, dealing with diverse populations and different learning styles, assessment, and administering an information literacy program. This unique combination of classroom instruction and real-world teaching experience benefited the graduate students towards their professional development.

LIBRARIANS AS INSTRUCTORS

The four teaching assistants combined the experience they received from the course I?NTeaching Information LiteracyO?L with peer observation to create their own style of teaching information literacy. The course enabled them to view and evaluate peer instructing styles as well as the course instructorU`s styles. With this, the four teaching assistants were able to take their own path on teaching information literacy. With the course, they were able to conquer their insufficiently strong points while honing their finer qualities of instructing. They were able to take from the course the ability to teach with clear and simplistic styles that will make the learning experience interesting to the student. The four teaching assistants were able to see how using a hybrid-structured course has the benefit of teaching at a distance without feeling unguided in the learning experience. They will be able to take from their experience in the course idea of how to create their own hybrid-structured course on library instruction.

WHY OFFER "TEACHING INFORMATION LITERACY" AS A HYBRID (ONLINE) COURSE?

distance is not a factor- students from various geographical areas can be enrolled
use of discussion board allows students to participate in class discussions from the comfort of their own home
students who work full-time do not have to adjust their schedule for class meetings

CHOICE OF BLACKBOARD:

Blackboard Inc is the leading provider of Internet infrastructure software for e-Education. Already licensed by the University and in use as a Portal. Course shells are automatically created for all classes at the University and students are automatically enrolled in the classes. For more information about Blackboard click on the following link http://www.blackboard.com/

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES AND TEACHING TECHNIQUES

Teaching Information Literacy is a hybrid course that meets four Saturdays over the semester with additional work via Blackboard, the UniversityU`s online class system. Upon completing this course, students should be able to understand and put into practice basic teaching skills, including strategies concerning discussions, lectures, collaborative/experiential classwork, assessment, and the use of instructional technology. They should also understand and put into practice the teaching of basic information literacy skills, as defined by the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education.

Some of the assignments in the course syllabus are as follows:

Lecture/Presentation 1 Students will perform a practice demonstration of some aspect of a library resource such as a particular database. They will use the ?instructorO?L computer and projection system in classroom to present.

Annotated Bibliography 1 Students will choose a topic on an aspect of Information Literacy and select 20 articles they find to be the best and create an annotated bibliography.

Teaching Techniques 1 Prepare an example of a method that can be used to teach some aspect of information literacy. Be prepared to verbally describe the technique to the class. Be prepared to discuss potential problems, advantages, or disadvantages. The technique might require a certain amount of time. The technique could be something applied for use in a face-to-face classroom or via distance learning.

The "Four Corners" Exercise:
One of the teaching techniques the students had a chance to implement during the class session was the I?NFour CornersO?L exercise. Here the class counted off into groups of four (i.e. all the "Ones" worked together; all the "Twos" worked together, and so forth.) They had instructions to study and learn as much as they can about a particular website. In this case they were genealogy websites such as:

The Social Security Death Index ( http://ssdi.rootsweb.com).

The American Family Immigration History Center (http://www.ellisislandrecords.org).

The International Genealogical Index of the LDS (http://www.familysearch.org, then click the Search tab, then click the link for the IGI on the left).

The RootsWeb WorldConnect Project (http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com).

They were asked to learn the following:

What is the source of the data? Who publishes it? Where does it come from?

What is the scope of the data? What years? What geographic area? What's in it? What's not in it?

How often is it updated?

How do you do a search? What are some things to watch out for?

The object of this technique is for students to learn as much as they can, then they become an I?NexpertO?L that can in turn, teach their fellow classmates what they learned. Once each group of students had twenty or thirty minutes to explore their respective websites, the students went back to their orginal seats making sure that there was an expert on each of the four websites available. Then each member taught the others about their particular website. The class agreed that this was a successful method for learning how to search specific databases.

TEACHING ASSISTANTS

Heather Barrett, Nicole Renshaw, Sharon Stegemeyer, and Monica Lopez

TCC Online Conferences
Kapi`olani Community College
University of Hawai`i
Honolulu, HI




Welcome About 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007	2002 Paper Presentations "LIBRARIANS AS INSTRUCTORS": A HYBRID COURSE Ilene Frank (Advisor) University of South Florida, Tampa Campus, FL, USA <ifrank@lib.usf.edu> Heather Barrett University of South Florida, Tampa Campus, FL, USA Nicole Daniel University of South Florida, Tampa Campus, FL, USA Monical Lopez University of South Florida, Tampa Campus, FL, USA Sharon Stegemeyer University of South Florida, Tampa Campus, FL, USA DESCRIPTION This poster session will present the teaching techniques and practices utilized in a hybrid course called "Teaching Information Literacy" offered by the School of Library & Information Sciences (SLIS) at the University of South Florida. The objectives of this course include understanding and putting into practice the teaching of basic information literacy skills as defined by the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (http://www.ala.org/acrl/ilcomstan.html). The course meets on four Saturdays monthly throughout the semester with additional work online via our course management system, Blackboard. As graduate students in this course, we will discusses our attitudes toward utilizing distance learning techniques. We will describe some of the teaching techniques (including active learning) used in face-to-face class sessions. Other techniques are used in our online discussion boards to help us develop a sense of community. We will discuss our opportunities to explore the concepts of information literacy on our own and in a traditional classroom setting. The use of alternative scheduling and the integration of classroom and distance learning provides us with a unique perspective of learning. AN IMLS LEADERSHIP GRANT FOR LIBRARIES The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) awarded a two-year, $183,660 Education and Training grant to the Tampa Campus Library of the University of South Florida, in cooperation with the USF School of Library and Information Science (SLIS). Now in its second year, the grant is funding four library science graduate students. During the 2002 spring semester, the graduate students are enrolled in an SLIS course entitled I?NTeaching Information LiteracyO?L, and at the same time, are providing one-hour instructional sessions for undergraduates. During the summer of 2002 they will continue to provide these sessions. The graduate-level course, which has been offered to over 75 LIS graduate students and professional librarians over the past three semesters, provides instruction in general information literacy concepts and teaching techniques. The course covers such teaching concepts as active learning, dealing with diverse populations and different learning styles, assessment, and administering an information literacy program. This unique combination of classroom instruction and real-world teaching experience benefited the graduate students towards their professional development. LIBRARIANS AS INSTRUCTORS The four teaching assistants combined the experience they received from the course I?NTeaching Information LiteracyO?L with peer observation to create their own style of teaching information literacy. The course enabled them to view and evaluate peer instructing styles as well as the course instructorU`s styles. With this, the four teaching assistants were able to take their own path on teaching information literacy. With the course, they were able to conquer their insufficiently strong points while honing their finer qualities of instructing. They were able to take from the course the ability to teach with clear and simplistic styles that will make the learning experience interesting to the student. The four teaching assistants were able to see how using a hybrid-structured course has the benefit of teaching at a distance without feeling unguided in the learning experience. They will be able to take from their experience in the course idea of how to create their own hybrid-structured course on library instruction. WHY OFFER "TEACHING INFORMATION LITERACY" AS A HYBRID (ONLINE) COURSE? distance is not a factor- students from various geographical areas can be enrolled use of discussion board allows students to participate in class discussions from the comfort of their own home students who work full-time do not have to adjust their schedule for class meetings CHOICE OF BLACKBOARD: Blackboard Inc is the leading provider of Internet infrastructure software for e-Education. Already licensed by the University and in use as a Portal. Course shells are automatically created for all classes at the University and students are automatically enrolled in the classes. For more information about Blackboard click on the following link http://www.blackboard.com/ CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES AND TEACHING TECHNIQUES Teaching Information Literacy is a hybrid course that meets four Saturdays over the semester with additional work via Blackboard, the UniversityU`s online class system. Upon completing this course, students should be able to understand and put into practice basic teaching skills, including strategies concerning discussions, lectures, collaborative/experiential classwork, assessment, and the use of instructional technology. They should also understand and put into practice the teaching of basic information literacy skills, as defined by the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Some of the assignments in the course syllabus are as follows: Lecture/Presentation 1 Students will perform a practice demonstration of some aspect of a library resource such as a particular database. They will use the ?instructorO?L computer and projection system in classroom to present. Annotated Bibliography 1 Students will choose a topic on an aspect of Information Literacy and select 20 articles they find to be the best and create an annotated bibliography. Teaching Techniques 1 Prepare an example of a method that can be used to teach some aspect of information literacy. Be prepared to verbally describe the technique to the class. Be prepared to discuss potential problems, advantages, or disadvantages. The technique might require a certain amount of time. The technique could be something applied for use in a face-to-face classroom or via distance learning. The "Four Corners" Exercise: One of the teaching techniques the students had a chance to implement during the class session was the I?NFour CornersO?L exercise. Here the class counted off into groups of four (i.e. all the "Ones" worked together; all the "Twos" worked together, and so forth.) They had instructions to study and learn as much as they can about a particular website. In this case they were genealogy websites such as: The Social Security Death Index ( http://ssdi.rootsweb.com). The American Family Immigration History Center (http://www.ellisislandrecords.org). The International Genealogical Index of the LDS (http://www.familysearch.org, then click the Search tab, then click the link for the IGI on the left). The RootsWeb WorldConnect Project (http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com). They were asked to learn the following: What is the source of the data? Who publishes it? Where does it come from? What is the scope of the data? What years? What geographic area? What's in it? What's not in it? How often is it updated? How do you do a search? What are some things to watch out for? The object of this technique is for students to learn as much as they can, then they become an I?NexpertO?L that can in turn, teach their fellow classmates what they learned. Once each group of students had twenty or thirty minutes to explore their respective websites, the students went back to their orginal seats making sure that there was an expert on each of the four websites available. Then each member taught the others about their particular website. The class agreed that this was a successful method for learning how to search specific databases. TEACHING ASSISTANTS Heather Barrett, Nicole Renshaw, Sharon Stegemeyer, and Monica Lopez TCC Online Conferences Kapi`olani Community College University of Hawai`i Honolulu, HI