The NMC Horizon Report for Higher Ed discussed the role of students as shifting from consumers to creators. Although the report itself is focused more on makerspaces and 'students as producers,' the driving idea behind the trend is the shifting the role of students from passive vessels to active participants. The role of the teacher will need to change in order to support student creators. Constructivist pedagogy emphasizes the importance of students as creating their own meaningful learning experiences, which teachers can support by connecting learning to their past experiences.
Technology can be applied in such a way to support student creators in the library classroom. Just as cutting edge technology can still result in a disengaged, lecture-based format, older technologies can be used to create an engaging classroom. I believe the trick is in how and why the teacher chooses to apply the technology in question. I have some rather long wish-lists for what I would like technology to do for me in the classroom, so I will focus on one aspect to explore tech tools: assessment.
To this day, we send out paper surveys to classes that have received bibliographic instruction. The surveys are usually sent out weeks after instruction. While the surveys do provide summative assessment data, I believe there are a number of other tools that can be used for formative assessment in the classroom during instruction. Live polling grew in popularity a few years ago and I believe it is still a good tool for formative assessment because it is instantaneous and anonymous. Live polling provides an opportunity for students to interact using their ubiquitous smartphones in class. Additionally, the anonymity of live polling makes it safe to fail. Any wayward or wrong answers can lead into review and instruction in much-needed areas. My experience has been that students enjoy seeing their own responses. Live polling is most definitely not the only tool that could be used for formative assessment. Short response assignments, such as 'minute papers' (where the students write for one minute on a targeted question) can also provide a snapshot of learning, as could quizzes and other more traditional forms of formative assessment.
Live polling has definitely improved my instruction by providing me with an opportunity to address any gaps in instruction after the peer-to-peer teaching exercise, where I don't have as much control over the material as a standard lecture. For my final project, I am tempted to fall into cutting edge trends. I love technology and I'm always interested in using the next shiny, new tech tool in the classroom. Instead, I'm going to focus on creating an active classroom using current technology in an innovative way. I'll be posting my final project soon after some thinking and writing. We'll see if I'm successful or not!
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Week 3: Learning Theories and Motivation
Learning Scenario
The readings for this week reinforced what I have been trying to change in my one-shot classes. Prior to attending ACRL Immersion, my one-shots were mostly lecture and demonstration, followed by student search time, during which they would then use the resource I had demonstrated to them. I was dissatisfied by the outcome. Many students were disengaged and did not use the time for searching. Additionally, there was no time for them to collaborate. I have created a group teaching activity which is much more successful. I used Constructivist learning theory to help me build the exercise.
Activity
I first randomly split the class up into groups of 3-4 students. I have divided the library resources they are expected to learn among the groups (one per group) and I have each group spend time getting to know a library resource very well in order to teach it to the rest of the class. I give them a strict time constraint as well as guiding questions for them to answer. The leading questions include asking them to describe a scenario when they would definitely use their resource and a contrasting scenario when their resource would not be an appropriate choice.
Motivation and Assessment
Presenting in front of their peers gives them an added motivation to know their resource. The group work time gives them the ability to either collaborate, if they learn collaboratively, or to learn on their own with the support of the group when needed. The presentation aspect allows the extroverted students to share and the introverted students to hang back if needed but still jump in with answers to questions. Finally, the rest of the class is more attentive when their classmates are demonstrating a database. At the end, I do a live-poll assessment that leads into a review so I can hit any points that the groups may have missed.
Reflection
While, for the most part, the group teaching activity has been successful, I would like to take it further. Ideally, I would like to draw more on the students' experiences to make learning more relevant and to align my one-shots further with Constructivist learning theory. In this activity, I don't take the time to draw out their experience with researching on the internet. I do have one group present on a resource of their choice that is not a library tool. Most of the time, students pick Google Scholar or Wikipedia and this will lead us into a discussion on the difference between internet searching and library research. I feel that I need to tap into their experience earlier in the session. I have a colleague that starts from Google and then goes into the library databases, similar to what Cooperstein and Kocevar-Weidinger wrote about in their article. I am open to any suggestions! Please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email!
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Week 2: Teaching Methods & Content
Integrating initial design phase into teaching methods.
In my previous blog post, I did come up with an activity. Although I may have put the cart before the horse, I'll take a deeper look at some of the factors Fink delineates as crucial to developing effective activities. Then, I'll see how my initial activity matches up.
1. Situational Factors
In the one-shot English library instruction session, there are a number of factors that impact the learning goals. Because they are one-shot sessions, assessment and activities must be able to accurately capture learning in a single session. Additionally, the one-shot session impacts the frequency with which I can give feedback since we are bound by time to perform all the activities in one session. All the English one-shot sessions are undergraduate and I have noticed that, sometimes, undergraduates need some 'priming' activities before we are able to go into a deeper, more creative activity. Unfortunately, time remains a factor that impacts all aspects. My learning goals must be specific and attainable, assessment and feedback must be concise and effective, and all activities must fit within a one-session time frame. Above all, I struggle with timing and how to squeeze effective learning activities that aspire to higher order thinking within a single session. There is often a disconnect between my learning goals and the learning activities because I will create learning goals based in higher-order thinking that require more time-consuming activities and more self-reflection. Finally, I notice that self-reflection in the classroom needs to be handled with care. A lot of our undergrads struggle with vague directions and time needs to be taken to create an understanding among the students of what is expected of them. Often, I find myself running up against an expectation from my students that, because I am not the professor, I don't have the same authority and there can be some disengagement in class. There can be is a disconnect between what I believe is the purpose of the class and what the students expect from the session.
2. Learning Goals and Feedback & Assessment
In the activity I created in my last blog post, I relied on reflective writing as well as discussion in order to capture what the students were learning. The reflective writing can illustrate what criteria the students are using to evaluate resources. By combining writing with discussion, I would hope students are able to use this model in their writing to deepen their understanding of the research they encounter. My hope is that this activity would help them become better learners as well as to increase their foundational knowledge and applicable skills. Feedback is key, however, to ensuring that students understand what they are learning and how to use these skills out of the classroom. I feel as though I would need to make sure to illustrate how the activity is applicable to them outside of the classroom but I'm not sure how to do this in a way that would involve the students. While I can lecture them about the importance and application about what we are doing, I would like for the students to identify how the session is useful outside of the classroom. I do have an opportunity for them to self-assess when they compare their written reflections within their groups in order to discuss the strongest reasons for including the article they chose. I'll need to create self-assessment in other activities as well.
3. Learning Goals and Teaching/Learning Activities
For my single activity on evaluating resources, it supports one specific learning goal. A year or more from the session, I hope students are able to evaluate resources. I also want them to regularly incorporate the libraries in their research process. In order to incorporate the libraries' resources, the students will need foundational knowledge to feel comfortable with using the libraries. I struggle with creating activities that will support the students choosing to regularly use the library resources. In the past, I have focused on activities that compare internet searching with using the library resources but I'm not sure how that impacts their personal research strategies. I'll have to think about my sessions a bit more carefully to see what extraneous activities could be cut out. The larger issue isn't so much extraneous activities but rather time constraints for longer activities that focus on higher order thinking skills. I may also want to reflect on my learning goals. Using Fink's process of focusing on what the students will use a year from the session is daunting, since I feel that many students forget a lot of the basic activities we cover in the session. Using other methods to create learning goals seems to be more appropriate for the one-shot. For example, using Deb Gilchrest's model produces more measurable goals that can provide a snapshot of learning in the resulting assessments.
4. Teaching/Learning Activities and Feedback & Assessment
For the evaluating articles activity, there are two opportunities for students to practice their learning. In the reflective writing activity, students can examine their reasons for choosing the article they felt was the best article for their search. In the group discussion portion, students can compare and analyze other reasons for choosing the article that they choose and in turn, revise and review their own reasons in their reflection writing piece. Finally, during the class discussion, students can then determine what the discriminating factors are for evaluating articles. Integrating writing with research in the classroom gives the students the opportunity to practice this skill before using it in their research.
Week 2: Assessment & Learning Outcomes
For the majority of this post, I will stick to my instructional situation of the one-shot English library instruction session. As I read through Fink's guide, however, I could not help but think of the semester-long class I am teaching. I grew more and more excited by the thought of applying Fink's principles to the class. I have been struggling with creating a cohesive class and Fink's work helped me to see where I was not being consistent. I was so excited to sit down and start redesigning my semester-long writing course! I'm still working on the one-shot scenario but here are some of my thoughts.
Procedures for Educative Assessment
1. Forward-Looking Assessment: Formulate one or two ideas for forward-looking assessment. Identify a situation in which students are likely to use what they have learned, and try to replicate that situation with a question, problem, or issue.
For the one-shot English library instruction classes, students will have to conduct research and write papers for other classes in the future. They would be able to rely on the resources and search strategies we explore in class. The most applicable, as well as the most likely, situation would be having to locate peer-reviewed research that supports a thesis. They will need to be able to locate peer-reviewed information and effectively determine which research is relevant to their topic. My forward-looking assessment question to direct my instruction could be this: What skills will my students need to strengthen in order to, first, find research in their subject areas and, second, filter research in order to find what is relevant to their research focus?
2. Criteria & Standards Select: one of your main learning goals, and identify at least two criteria that would distinguish exceptional achievement from poor performance. Then write two or three levels of standards for each of these criteria.
I will focus on how students should evaluate research in order to select articles that are relevant. Students that evaluate articles poorly will select articles without first reading the abstract and subject descriptors. A poor example would be selecting articles to fill out the required number rather than to illuminate the focus of the research. Students that evaluate articles effectively will select articles based on the content and scope by first determining what matches their research focus and then by expressing how the article in question informs their search for other articles. In short, poor evaluation will not include reflecting on the content of the article and how it changes or enhances the search for more research. Instead, poor evaluation selects research based on proximity, shallow key word matches, and the need to fill assignment requirements for "x number of peer-reviewed articles". Good evaluative skills will reflect the process of 'research as inquiry,' as the Framework for Information Literacy is proposing. Good evaluative skills will instead lead the researcher to select research based on abstracts, subject content, and scope. Good evaluative skills also require that one's research process is informed and shaped by the research being found, ie that one's search process must be shaped by the research one finds through the process of reflection.
3. Self-Assessment: What opportunities can you create for students to engage in self-assessment of their performance?
One possible activity for self-assessment could be to have students write a reflection on how to change their search based on one article that they have selected from a resource we are exploring. By writing a reflection piece, I will be able to see some of their thought processes in order to determine how they are being impacted by the research they are reading. Additionally, I would hope that writing while researching would reflect the process I would like the students to aspire to on their own. By writing through the research process, they will be able to deepen their understanding and prime themselves for writing a more deeply-engaged paper.
4. “FIDeLity” Feedback: What procedures can you develop that will allow you to give students feedback that is: Frequent, Immediate, Discriminating, i.e., based on clear criteria and standards, Loving.
This is a little bit difficult for a one-shot. Immediate feedback is possible through a number of means. I could have students perform the same sample search and then select an article from the first 5 and write about why they choose which article. I could use online polling to see which article was most popular. Then, we could break up into groups based on what article they chose and discuss in groups which of their written reflections they felt were the strongest and why. Then, they could discuss with the rest of the class why they choose their article. I could give feedback to each group and at the end, we could discuss which article was the best overall and why. I would tease out what we felt were the determining criteria based on what we were discussing and reiterate it for the whole class to make sure we were in agreement. By having students share, I can provide immediate feedback. By asking students why they felt certain answers were stronger, I can provide discriminating feedback. As for frequent, I would have to make sure to include a number of active learning situations that would provide opportunities for frequent feedback during the one-shot session. Finally, I believe the 'loving' part comes from how I handle the class itself. I can create a 'safe' and empathetic classroom by asking why students have come up with their answers. By allowing them to share their thought processes, I can pick out what is working and reiterate to the class as well as to ask for others to expand. I am still learning how to make sure I am empathetic in the moment. As someone who has a sarcastic sense of humor, I can sometimes be a bit critical in the moment and I am working on actively being earnest and empathetic to avoid my knee-jerk sarcasm.
I have come up with an activity that I believe would work with Fink's Procedures for Educative Assessment but I know I would have to trial it a couple of times to smooth out the mechanics. I've noticed that I can come up with exciting activities on paper that can flop in the classroom. I worry that students would not be willing to write a reflection on why they chose the article that they thought would be the best match for their search. There's also the issue of what to do if no one chooses the 'poorer' choices. We'll need a variety of answers in order to tease out how to discriminate between poor evaluation and good evaluation. I may have to think a little more on this but here is my first pass at educative assessment. Feel free to share ideas or suggestions in the comments!
Procedures for Educative Assessment
1. Forward-Looking Assessment: Formulate one or two ideas for forward-looking assessment. Identify a situation in which students are likely to use what they have learned, and try to replicate that situation with a question, problem, or issue.
For the one-shot English library instruction classes, students will have to conduct research and write papers for other classes in the future. They would be able to rely on the resources and search strategies we explore in class. The most applicable, as well as the most likely, situation would be having to locate peer-reviewed research that supports a thesis. They will need to be able to locate peer-reviewed information and effectively determine which research is relevant to their topic. My forward-looking assessment question to direct my instruction could be this: What skills will my students need to strengthen in order to, first, find research in their subject areas and, second, filter research in order to find what is relevant to their research focus?
2. Criteria & Standards Select: one of your main learning goals, and identify at least two criteria that would distinguish exceptional achievement from poor performance. Then write two or three levels of standards for each of these criteria.
I will focus on how students should evaluate research in order to select articles that are relevant. Students that evaluate articles poorly will select articles without first reading the abstract and subject descriptors. A poor example would be selecting articles to fill out the required number rather than to illuminate the focus of the research. Students that evaluate articles effectively will select articles based on the content and scope by first determining what matches their research focus and then by expressing how the article in question informs their search for other articles. In short, poor evaluation will not include reflecting on the content of the article and how it changes or enhances the search for more research. Instead, poor evaluation selects research based on proximity, shallow key word matches, and the need to fill assignment requirements for "x number of peer-reviewed articles". Good evaluative skills will reflect the process of 'research as inquiry,' as the Framework for Information Literacy is proposing. Good evaluative skills will instead lead the researcher to select research based on abstracts, subject content, and scope. Good evaluative skills also require that one's research process is informed and shaped by the research being found, ie that one's search process must be shaped by the research one finds through the process of reflection.
3. Self-Assessment: What opportunities can you create for students to engage in self-assessment of their performance?
One possible activity for self-assessment could be to have students write a reflection on how to change their search based on one article that they have selected from a resource we are exploring. By writing a reflection piece, I will be able to see some of their thought processes in order to determine how they are being impacted by the research they are reading. Additionally, I would hope that writing while researching would reflect the process I would like the students to aspire to on their own. By writing through the research process, they will be able to deepen their understanding and prime themselves for writing a more deeply-engaged paper.
4. “FIDeLity” Feedback: What procedures can you develop that will allow you to give students feedback that is: Frequent, Immediate, Discriminating, i.e., based on clear criteria and standards, Loving.
This is a little bit difficult for a one-shot. Immediate feedback is possible through a number of means. I could have students perform the same sample search and then select an article from the first 5 and write about why they choose which article. I could use online polling to see which article was most popular. Then, we could break up into groups based on what article they chose and discuss in groups which of their written reflections they felt were the strongest and why. Then, they could discuss with the rest of the class why they choose their article. I could give feedback to each group and at the end, we could discuss which article was the best overall and why. I would tease out what we felt were the determining criteria based on what we were discussing and reiterate it for the whole class to make sure we were in agreement. By having students share, I can provide immediate feedback. By asking students why they felt certain answers were stronger, I can provide discriminating feedback. As for frequent, I would have to make sure to include a number of active learning situations that would provide opportunities for frequent feedback during the one-shot session. Finally, I believe the 'loving' part comes from how I handle the class itself. I can create a 'safe' and empathetic classroom by asking why students have come up with their answers. By allowing them to share their thought processes, I can pick out what is working and reiterate to the class as well as to ask for others to expand. I am still learning how to make sure I am empathetic in the moment. As someone who has a sarcastic sense of humor, I can sometimes be a bit critical in the moment and I am working on actively being earnest and empathetic to avoid my knee-jerk sarcasm.
I have come up with an activity that I believe would work with Fink's Procedures for Educative Assessment but I know I would have to trial it a couple of times to smooth out the mechanics. I've noticed that I can come up with exciting activities on paper that can flop in the classroom. I worry that students would not be willing to write a reflection on why they chose the article that they thought would be the best match for their search. There's also the issue of what to do if no one chooses the 'poorer' choices. We'll need a variety of answers in order to tease out how to discriminate between poor evaluation and good evaluation. I may have to think a little more on this but here is my first pass at educative assessment. Feel free to share ideas or suggestions in the comments!
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Week 1 & Fink exercise
Introduction
I am currently the Instructional Design Librarian for the Florida International University Green Library. My main reason for taking this online course is to deepen my knowledge of instructional design in order to apply it to my job responsibilities. Right now, I am attempting to pull together a strategic document that will guide the processes of creating learning objects, including storage and maintenance.
For this course, I would like to focus on using instructional design principles to increase the effectiveness of our one-shot instruction sessions for our English composition courses. Each one-shot class has around 25-30 students. We primarily do instruction for our lower division, undergraduate English composition course, ENC 1102 Writing & Rhetoric II. While most sessions are one-shot, we have some sessions that span two class periods.
We teach these sessions in our instruction labs, which have individual computers for the students. The set-up also encourages collaboration. The original design of our labs puts two students to one computer to allow for small group work. The students only have access to this space during the instruction session. We also have a instructor station with a projector, desktop, document camera, microphone, and other technology.
The library instruction session is meant to correspond with the writing assignments in ENC 1102. Each class must write an exploratory essay, an argumentative essay, and a research essay. ENC 1102 is also a required class for our students. There is a similar class that is required of our transfer students. The learning expectations of the course focus on the connection between critical thinking and writing. The students are expected to write for different purposes and audiences, to understand argumentative structures, and to create conscientious research questions that will lead them through meaningful inquiry of a topic.
While there are theoretical aspects, many instructors place a lot of emphasis on the practical aspects of writing. Recently, there has been a decision to transform the first session, ENC 1101 Writing & Rhetoric I, into a course focused only on developing writing skills. As a result, we have see the numbers of ENC 1101 library instruction sessions drop away while our ENC 1102 sessions have held steady. Our professors complain about the lack of critical thinking skills among our students. Since information literacy skills support critical thinking, it is easy for us as librarians to see our role in support student success.
At FIU, we have a number of students who are nontraditional or first-in-the-family as well as a number of transfer students. While we are diverse, we also have many students who have grown up in Miami. FIU has seen a huge growth in its student enrollment and expectations of students has changed over the past 5 years. Many of our students are also juggling other work and family responsibilities. Our students are very comfortable with collaborative learning. This is due to the fact that a number of the larger core courses employ collaborative learning in order to engage students. As a result, group work comes together fluidly and naturally. For me, instruction is the most engaging and exciting part of my job as a librarian.
I believe instruction to be my key responsibility. I focus on incorporating active learning and collaborative group work but I worry about ensuring the quality of work that results from these activities from instruction session to instruction session. I also struggle with engagement, particularly due to the constraints of a one-shot session. I believe my strengths in teaching lies in my willingness to guide learners and the encourage them to find their own answers. While I'm comfortable with instructing undergraduate research classes, I do worry that my subject knowledge is not deep enough for graduate level classes. Regardless, my hope is to increase my understanding of instruction design to create a classroom environment that will allow for greater opportunities for learning.
I am currently the Instructional Design Librarian for the Florida International University Green Library. My main reason for taking this online course is to deepen my knowledge of instructional design in order to apply it to my job responsibilities. Right now, I am attempting to pull together a strategic document that will guide the processes of creating learning objects, including storage and maintenance.
For this course, I would like to focus on using instructional design principles to increase the effectiveness of our one-shot instruction sessions for our English composition courses. Each one-shot class has around 25-30 students. We primarily do instruction for our lower division, undergraduate English composition course, ENC 1102 Writing & Rhetoric II. While most sessions are one-shot, we have some sessions that span two class periods.
We teach these sessions in our instruction labs, which have individual computers for the students. The set-up also encourages collaboration. The original design of our labs puts two students to one computer to allow for small group work. The students only have access to this space during the instruction session. We also have a instructor station with a projector, desktop, document camera, microphone, and other technology.
The library instruction session is meant to correspond with the writing assignments in ENC 1102. Each class must write an exploratory essay, an argumentative essay, and a research essay. ENC 1102 is also a required class for our students. There is a similar class that is required of our transfer students. The learning expectations of the course focus on the connection between critical thinking and writing. The students are expected to write for different purposes and audiences, to understand argumentative structures, and to create conscientious research questions that will lead them through meaningful inquiry of a topic.
While there are theoretical aspects, many instructors place a lot of emphasis on the practical aspects of writing. Recently, there has been a decision to transform the first session, ENC 1101 Writing & Rhetoric I, into a course focused only on developing writing skills. As a result, we have see the numbers of ENC 1101 library instruction sessions drop away while our ENC 1102 sessions have held steady. Our professors complain about the lack of critical thinking skills among our students. Since information literacy skills support critical thinking, it is easy for us as librarians to see our role in support student success.
At FIU, we have a number of students who are nontraditional or first-in-the-family as well as a number of transfer students. While we are diverse, we also have many students who have grown up in Miami. FIU has seen a huge growth in its student enrollment and expectations of students has changed over the past 5 years. Many of our students are also juggling other work and family responsibilities. Our students are very comfortable with collaborative learning. This is due to the fact that a number of the larger core courses employ collaborative learning in order to engage students. As a result, group work comes together fluidly and naturally. For me, instruction is the most engaging and exciting part of my job as a librarian.
I believe instruction to be my key responsibility. I focus on incorporating active learning and collaborative group work but I worry about ensuring the quality of work that results from these activities from instruction session to instruction session. I also struggle with engagement, particularly due to the constraints of a one-shot session. I believe my strengths in teaching lies in my willingness to guide learners and the encourage them to find their own answers. While I'm comfortable with instructing undergraduate research classes, I do worry that my subject knowledge is not deep enough for graduate level classes. Regardless, my hope is to increase my understanding of instruction design to create a classroom environment that will allow for greater opportunities for learning.
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