Lollipops for Learning Resources

Leo Appleton & Anthony Beal

March 18th, 2008

Overview

• Information Literacy @ West Cheshire College• Discovering Lollipop• Information Literacy staff development

@ West Cheshire College• Project results

Information Literacy @West Cheshire College

• Learner – thorough induction introduce catalogue InfoTrac etc

• Two full weeks during induction for all full time students

• Learning Resources Workshop includes introduction to the VLE and i-skills

• Quiz at end of LRW with prize of an MP3 player

• Follow up i-skills sessions publicised by Springboard

Information literacy in the curriculum

High Profile Curriculum Links

• Gatekeepers and regarded as such of:

– i-skills

– Research skills

– Referencing

– E-learning

– Intranet

– Web 2.0

– Digital media

Induction Quiz on VLE

Learning Resources Home Page

Curriculum Area Page

West Cheshire College model

40067 39737 42844 41515 38464 34660 31471 24125

25236

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

45000

Total Heritage issues

96/97

97/98

98/99

99/00

2000/01

2001/02

2002/03

2003/04

2004/05

Declining use of print resources

West Cheshire College modelProof of expanding e-resource use

Full text

retrieval

Actively promote information and research skills training

• Bespoke

• Springboard

– Planning essays

– Research skills (i-skills)

– Harvard

– Reflective Learning

– Presentation skills

• i-skills embedded into assignments

Learning Resources Staff

• Recently converged, multi-disciplinary service

• No real overall awareness of information literacy within curriculum areas

• Curriculum liaison and information skills teaching done by selected staff

• Needed a holistic awareness and approach

• Opportunity for VLE familiarisation

Lollipop Information Literacy

• Prior to the course all staff took part in Information Literacy discussions

• All Learning Resources staff taking part

• Blended learning

• No charge for the materials that can be modified as required for hosting institution

• All web based

• At WCC now built into our VLE, Fronter

Lollipop content – learning materials

Lollipop content - forums

Lollipop content - blogs

Lollipop Staff Development – Results

How important do you think information literacy is?

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

Very important

Quite important

Not really important

Not at all important

How important after

How important before

How knowledgeable are you about information literacy?

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

Very knowledgeable

Quite knowledgeable

Not really knowledgeable

Not at all knowledgeable

How knowledgeable after

How knowledgeable before

What have you found most interesting about Lollipop?

Search terms Opinions of colleagues

Boolean operators Sconul

E-journals Critical evaluation

Authentication Primary/Secondary sources

Web sites Attitudes of curriculum

Plagiarism Gateways

Copyright Intellectual property

How much use do you make of the VLE?

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Every day

Most days

Now and again

Never

How often after

How often before

How did you find the Lollipop materials and VLE functions?

Lollipop Content – 90%

Blog – 68%

Discussion – 77%

How familiar are you with the VLE functions?

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

Very familiar

Quite familiar

Not really familiar

Not at all familiar

How familiar after

How familiar before

Overall success

Would you recommend Lollipop for curriculum staff? 77%

Would you recommend Lollipop for students? 68%

What worked particularly well?Discussion forums, Different VLE tools,

Tests at the end of each section, Group participation

Conclusions

GeneralisationsLollipop increases perception of information literacy as

‘important’ to learning

Lollipop familiarises staff with information literacy

Lollipop increases staff knowledge about information literacy

Lollipop is an effective way of delivering information literacy content

Lollipop can be used effectively as a staff development tool

Lollipop can be used to increase awareness and familiarisation of institutional VLE functionality