Storified: Heritage Roundtable on Library & Archives Canada, 2013/05/07 http://sfy.co/fJsu #lacpanel #cdnpoli #saveLAC

The brouhaha in the US over the MOOC’ification of university courses has now taken a turn into a critical post-excitement debate about how best to receive a proper university education these days. To be certain, the discourse takes us way beyond discussions of flexible learning (although that’s certainly a part of it).

What I find extraordinary are the many universities rushing into MOOCs spending precious dollars (and political capital) on relatively unproven, untested teaching platforms (and pedagogies). It’s happening in Canada as well but American faculty members are now asking their administrator overlords (and university presidents) to take a step back and (re)consider in an age of deep fiscal restraint.

Below is a snapshot of my Twitter feed today re: MOOCs (live links are provided below). Even if you find the whole issue a real bore you’ll find some aspects interesting such as the renaming of MOOCS as “Massively Obfuscated Opportunities for Cash”. The second link and the talk about DRM (and alliances being forged between private companies and publisher) is especially salient. Librarians (and academics) should take note. This MOOCification thing will be a controversial but necessary part of our work in the years ahead…

Dean Giustini, UBC biomedical branch librarian

• San Jose State University announces “moratorium on MOOCs.” | http://bit.ly/12Z8hCK
• Audrey Watters’ coverage of the Coursera and Chegg deal (Cengage Learning, Macmillan Higher Education, Oxford University Press, SAGE, and Wiley will offer versions of their textbooks via an e-reader provided by Chegg.)
• Redefining MOOC: Massively Obfuscated Opportunities for Cash. http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/2846 
• #Moocs completion rates ‘below 7%’ http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/mooc-completion-rates-below-7/2003710.article … (via @timeshighered)
• Let’s Talk about MOOC (online) Education–And Also About Massively Outdated Traditional Education (MOTEs) | HASTAC
• MOOCs Fail Students With Dark Age Methods
  The sudden rise of the MOOC has been a shock for many….
• A list of MOOCs currently available http://bit.ly/13DsDnR

In preparation for our annual continuing education day, as CE Director, I devised (with Dr. Penny Brasher) a survey about skill levels of our members. Enjoy the results all. In doing this research, I compiled these pathfinders:Statistics for academic librarians & Finding medical / health care statistics online.

A new dimension of health care: systematic review of the uses, benefits and limitations of social media for health communication
S Anne Moorhead1,; Diane E Hazlett1,; Laura Harrison1; Jennifer K Carroll2; Anthea Irwin1; Ciska Hoving3 School of Communication, University of Ulster, Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom 2Family Medicine Research Programs, Department of Family Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, United States 3CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care, Department of Health Promotion, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands

 Journal of Medical Internet Research 2013;15(4):e85) doi:10.2196/jmir.1933 http://bit.ly/10YHJqA

Background: There is a lack of information about uses, benefits and limitations of social media in health communication among the public, patients and health professionals

Objective:
To review the current published literature to identify the uses, benefits, and limitations of social media for health communication among the general public, patients, and health professionals, and identify current gaps in the literature to provide recommendations for future health communication research.

Methods: This paper is a review using a systematic approach. A systematic search of the literature was conducted using nine electronic databases and manual searches to locate peer-reviewed studies published between January 2002 and February 2012.

Results: The search identified 98 original research studies that included the uses, benefits, and/or limitations of social media for health communication among the general public, patients, and health professionals. The methodological quality of the studies assessed using the Downs and Black instrument was low; this was mainly due to the fact that the vast majority of the studies in this review included limited methodologies and was mainly exploratory and descriptive in nature. Seven main uses of social media for health communication were identified, including focusing on increasing interactions with others, and facilitating, sharing, and obtaining health messages.

Conclusions:
Social media brings a new dimension to health care as it offers a medium to be used by the public, patients, and health professionals to communicate about health issues with the possibility of potentially improving health outcomes.

Social media is a powerful tool, which offers collaboration between users and is a social interaction mechanism for a range of individuals. Although there are several benefits to the use of social media for health communication, the information exchanged needs to be monitored for quality and reliability, and the users’ confidentiality and privacy need to be maintained.

Eight gaps and key recommendations for health communication research are provided. Examples of these recommendations include the need to determine the relative effectiveness of different types of social media for health communication using randomized control trials and to explore potential mechanisms for monitoring and enhancing the quality and reliability of health communication using social media. Further robust and comprehensive evaluation and review, using a range of methodologies, are required to establish whether social media improves health communication practice both in the short and long terms.

Further reading: Emerging evidence in web 2.0 medical literature | Evidence-based health care | Health 2.0 | Medicine 2.0 | Using web 2.0 tools in health research at UBC

1. Aboriginal health‏‎ (59,695 views)
2. Point of care decision-making tools – Overview‏‎ (53,352 views)
3. Google scholar bibliography‏‎ (35,938 views)
4. Evidence-based health care‏‎ (33,549 views)
5. H1N1 (Human Swine Flu) in Canada‏‎ (32,693 views)
6. Apple iPhone4 for physicians‏‎ (29,638 views)
7. Social cataloguing‏‎ (29,390 views)
8. Systematic review searching‏‎ (28,968 views)
9. Blogs‏‎ (28,173 views)
10. Social media glossary‏‎ (27,697 views)
11. Social media policies‏‎ (26,274 views)
12. Evidence-based web 2.0‏‎ (25,997 views)
13. Aboriginal health search filter‏‎ (25,857 views)
14. Consumer health information‏‎ (25,397 views)
15. Grey literature‏‎ (24,974 views)
16. Getting started‏‎ (24,183 views)
17. Google scholar‏‎ (22,734 views)
18. Medical podcasts & videocasts‏‎ (22,473 views)
19. Twitter‏‎ (22,256 views)
20. Academic libraries 2.0‏‎ (22,172 views)
21. Medical sites for mobiles‏‎ (21,728 views)
22. History of surgery in British Columbia‏‎ (21,475 views)
23. Apple iPad for physicians‏‎ (20,935 views)
24. Author impact metrics‏‎ (19,621 views)
25. Semantic web‏‎ (19,579 views)

Recently, the American Library Association published a new report entitled Intersections of Scholarly Communication and Information Literacy which discusses the overlapping roles for academic librarians in an age of multiple literacies. These multiple literacies run the gamut from data literacy, media literacy and even transliteracy.

It must be said that there are inherent tensions between the openness of much scholarship today and the business models that sustain scholarly publishing. With universities making much of their scholarly output (e.g., from faculty, staff and students) open and freely-accessible in so-called “gift economies” it will be important for academic librarians to develop new criteria for the assessment of information and scholarship, and to form new collaborations across disciplines and faculties in the changing academic environment.

With respect to librarian roles in this new digital environment, the report discusses initiatives librarians are involved in such as online learning, embedding librarians in courses, “flipped” classrooms, assessment, emerging literacies and deeper involvement in supporting courses. Notable initiatives for scholarly communication are open access, digital repositories, copyright education and support, and library publishing programs.

Further reading

• A New Curriculum for Information Literacy (ANCIL): transitional, transferable, transformational was published in 2012 and defines information literacy as a “…continuum of skills, behaviours, approaches and values that [are] so deeply entwined with the uses of information as to be a fundamental element of learning, scholarship and research…[information literacy] is the defining characteristic of the discerning scholar, the informed and judicious citizen, and the autonomous learner…”
• Wheeler S. Digital literacies for engagement in emerging online cultures. eLearn Center Research Paper Series. 2012:5.

See also Digital classroom | Information technology topics | Research Portal for Academic Librarians‎ | Social media landscape | Teaching library users | Transliteracy for librarians

Top Ten (10) Social Media Competencies for Information Professionals (2013)

1. Understand, explain and teach others about the principles and trends of social media, web 2.0 (and library 2.0 / archives 2.0)
2. List major tools, categories and affordances of social media
3. Apply social media to solve information problems, and communicate digitally with users
4. Use social networking sites for promotional, reference and instructional services in libraries
5. Navigate, evaluate and create content on social networking sites
6. Follow netiquette, conform to ethical standards and interact appropriately with others online
7. Explain copyright, security and privacy issues on social media to colleagues and user communities
8. Understand the importance of digital identity and reputation management in a social media age
9. Explain related terminology such as collaboration 2.0, remix and open source
10. Renew social media competencies, advocate for institutional strategies and policies and build evidence base in social media

See also Digital liaison | Emerging technology librarian | Information literacy | Social media evaluation | Media literacy | Transliteracy for librarians

Two avatars interacting within Kitely

The 2013 iteration of LIBR559M is wrapping up, and on reflection it’s been the best offering of the class since I started to teach it in 2008. A lot went well this term, and overall I’m happy about student engagement and the quality of their discussions on Connect.

In the sixth and final module on Immersion, I’ve asked SLAIS and WISE students to explore a virtual world. I’ve been (re)exploring several myself, trying to keep an open mind about what they might offer to information professionals and trying to determine where immersive platforms are headed for the future. Just when I think information professionals are finally moving out of Second Life, I get this invitation:

• Virtual World Meditation: Are you Ready? http://uwavalumni.wordpress.com/

My other eureka moment this week has been the realization about how difficult it is to immerse yourself in new virtual worlds without good directions. In other words, despite new research by Mon (2012) and Hill (2013) what information professionals (e.g., librarians, archivists and museum curators) really lack are directions about where virtual worlds are going and where they should visit inworld to get a hang of things. For example, the Wikipedia page is out of date and not extremely helpful:

• Libraries in Second Life http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libraries_in_Second_Life

My page for museums and archives is marginally better:

• Museums and archives in Second Life

For those of you keen to consider other forms of “reality”, perhaps you will find these entries in the wiki useful:

• Augmented reality | Machinima

The challenge in this whole virtual continuum is assessing whether any of these trends are worth our time and intellectual energies. If you have the answer, please let me know.

References

• Hill V, Meister M. Virtual worlds and libraries: gridhopping to new worlds. Coll Res Libr News. 2013;74(1):43-47.

• Mon LM. Professional avatars: librarians and educators in virtual worlds. J Documentation. 2012;68(3):318-329.

• Kitely rolls out Vivox voice – Hypergrid Business

• Wired. Virtual Worlds – Kitely is a Keen Replacement For Second Life http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2013/03/virtual-worlds-kitely-is-keen/