Information Literacy Instruction for Online Students: from class

assignments to publishable work

Howard CarrierReference Librarian, Odum LibraryValdosta State University, Valdosta, Georgia, USA.

LILAC 27th March 2013

“ITED 7900 Library Research Methods for Online Students”

ITED 7900 “Library Research Methods for Online Students” 3.0 credit hour graduate class taught by a Reference Librarian.

Class delivered entirely online during 7 week summer semester via “BlazeVIEW” (Valdosta State University’s VLE) Currently Blackboard Vista 8 Transitioning to Desire2Learn

Typical student attributes for this class Postgraduate education students▪ Majority enrolled in a Master’s programme (M.Ed. Or Ed.S.)▪ Minority of students are doctoral candidates (Ed.D).▪ Many students are professional educators▪ Non-education students tend to be criminal justice or public policy students

“ITED 7900 Library Research Methods for Online Students”

Typical student attributes for this class▪ First experience of post-graduate study▪ Returning to university education

“ITED 7900 Library Research Methods for Online Students”

Enabling publication of student work produced for this class:

Marketing the idea of seeking publication to students

Information literacy instruction Integrating writing into the ongoing

delivery and assessment of the course

MARKETING ITED 7900

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Benefits to students: A publication to include on a CV Dissemination of high-quality work, in

which much time and effort has been invested

MARKETING ITED 7900

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Benefits to students: Work which may contribute to a resultant dissertation

or thesis Student work is “research led” as per ACRL

Information Literacy Competency Standards Students can “opt out” of publication without penalty

(at least for this class)

MARKETING ITED 7900

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Benefits to students: While quantitative and qualitative research

methodologies are extensively taught at a graduate level, literature searching may not be taught to the same extent

Do not assume that undergraduate studies have prepared you to research a graduate level literature review

MARKETING ITED 7900

Simple evaluation of current skills

MARKETING ITED 7900

The pitfalls of lazy or uncertain searching (a primary source example)

What document may be found using the following citation?

O.C.G.A. § 17-4-20 (2012)

INSTRUCTION: ITED 7900

Encouraging students to make an Annotated Bibliography assignment meaningful to their wider program of study

Formulating a research question Subsequent instruction in: searching;

evaluating; writing; citing

INSTRUCTION: ITED 7900

Instruction provided by: Screen-capture videos created in

Camtasia and uploaded to VLE as mp4 files

Asynchronous discussion boards Synchronous chats

INSTRUCTION: ITED 7900

Ongoing worksheets throughout the class: Allow students practice in searching,

critiquing sources, and writing Provide feedback to students Enable students to work effectively

towards a final Annotated Bibliography of publishable quality within the short, 7 week timeframe

INSTRUCTION: ITED 7900

Some examples… ERIC documents / Gov docs

INSTRUCTION: ITED 7900

A trial run

OUTCOMES

Outcomes (based upon two semesters) Approximately 75% of students agreed to

publication 85% of papers submitted, where a

willingness to publish had been indicated by the student, were of sufficient quality to be published in a collated bibliography

Unwillingness to publish is not an good indicator of weak students or poor quality work

OUTCOMES

Outcomes (based upon two semesters)

An interesting “side-effect” Potentially publishing work in an

institutional repository sparked student interest in searching within repositories and related resources (for example: openDOAR)

OUTCOMES

Ongoing qualitative research (beyond simple student feedback)

REFERENCES

ACRL Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency

Central Michigan University Research Readiness Self-Assessment http://rrsa.cmich.edu/

openDOAR http://www.opendoar.org/

INLS 843 Seminar in Public Libraries (taught by Professor Ron Berguist, SILS, UNC Chapel Hill) http://sils.unc.edu/courses

CONTACT

Howard S. CarrierOdum Library, Valdosta State University,Valdosta, GA 31698Tel: (+001) 229-245-3744Email: hscarrier@valdosta.edu