Choose your own adventure style learning
Presenter(s) – Russ Algar, UBC; Maggie Faber, UBC; Ian Fraser, University of Winnipeg; Katherine Miller, UBC
Flipped classrooms, asynchronous learning, gamification, and multimodality are—by now—familiar concepts in education. Choose Your Own Adventure-style instruction brings together and builds on these ideas by allowing the student to direct their own path through more traditional learning materials. Developing and assessing nonlinear content poses some significant challenges to librarians and instructors, but also significant opportunities to reinforce learning objectives, model behavior, and increase student engagement. We propose a panel presentation of different libraries, departments, and schools who are all using “Choose Your Own Adventure”-style instruction to reach their students, and invite the following participants to speak to the challenges and opportunities that these kinds of instructional materials present:
- Ian Fraser, Head of Instruction at University of Winnipeg, offers A Day in the City, a library orientation that allows users to dynamically explore the value of information through the metaphor of exploring a new city.
- Russ Algar, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at University of British Columbia, developed Alchemy, a choose your own chemistry analysis tutorial program, in conjunction with Computer Science students at UBC.
- Maggie Faber and Katherine Miller, as part of their TLEF work for the University of British Columbia, developed an asynchronous learning module, Choose Your Own Research Adventure, as part of an information literacy tutorial for students.
In the 80s, Choose Your Own Adventure books were experiments in storytelling that put the power to direct the narrative into the hands of the reader. This style of content is now being adapted for instructional purposes, allowing students to direct their own learning and flexibly encounter more traditional material. Choose Your Own Adventure-style content offers an intersection between different approaches to education and an intersection of different departments, schools, and libraries in the application of this content.
Beyond searching for sources: Using research data to explore the intersections between information literacy and composition instruction
Presenter(s) – Glenda Insua; Annie Armstrong; Catherine Lantz, University of Illinois Chicago
Our four-librarian research team embarked on a multi-pronged assessment project to study the behaviors of first-year students completing an in-depth research paper for an English composition course. By collecting student bibliography assignments at multiple stages of the course, assigning online research journals at four strategic points, and conducting open-ended interviews at the end of the semester, we sought to gain a holistic and nuanced understanding of how students pursue the research process. Our data analysis revealed several intersections between what is traditionally seen as the librarian’s instructional sphere and what is considered the domain of the composition instructor. While students seemed proficient in finding scholarly sources, they often struggled to evaluate, interpret, and integrate these sources into their research papers. Students’ persistent struggles to utilize sources prompted librarians to consider deficits of the current instructional model and consider the costs of a bifurcated approach in which librarians primarily focus on finding sources and composition instructors emphasize how to integrate sources into research papers. Would increased collaboration and overlap in content coverage strengthen student understanding of key research concepts related to both information seeking and synthesis of sources? Could a more blended approach in which there is less delineation between finding sources and incorporating them into products of scholarship (aka research papers) lead to greater student success? In this presentation, we will discuss our findings, engage participants in an active discussion focused on exploring and challenging traditional instructional domains, and demonstrate how librarians can leverage the results of research studies to initiate meaningful conversations and collaborations between librarians and faculty.
Empowering learners in the library and beyond: Using feminist pedagogy to facilitate inquiry
Presenter(s) – Sharon Ladenson, Michigan State University Libraries
How can we use feminist pedagogy to facilitate inquiry in a one-shot information literacy session? What are strategies for shaping the process of raising substantive questions across various interdisciplinary areas? What are benefits and challenges of using such methods and strategies? How can feminist pedagogy support the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education? This interactive session will explore feminist pedagogy in theory and practice, and will focus on the process of teaching students to raise critical questions as an integral part of the one-shot information literacy class. The session will also explore how feminist pedagogy supports the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, particularly with the emphasis on research as inquiry. Examples of feminist teaching exercises will be shared from information literacy sessions for classes in various areas, such as first-year writing, literature, and communication studies. Participants will collectively share their ideas about feminist teaching methods, and leave the session with techniques for facilitating the process of raising critical questions in the information literacy classroom.
Do online learning modules have a role in information literacy instruction?
Presenter(s) – Henri Mondschein, California Lutheran University
This presentation will highlight the preliminary results of a study conducted as part of the ACRL Assessment in Action program in 2014 and emphasize practical ways librarians can use online tutorials to augment instruction during the 50-minute session. This presentation will review findings of the mixed-methods study and how tutorials focusing on evaluating information and using information responsibly are being used at California Lutheran University to augment instruction and engage students. Practical applications will be stressed including options for using tutorials to sequence information literacy instruction with first-year, sophomore/junior and capstone classes; flipped classroom sessions, and how the embedded quizzes can be used for assessment. The presenter will demonstrate key features of the sequenced tutorials and share practical approaches for creating tutorials that address specific information learning outcomes and how tutorials can be created to address first-year, sophomore/junior and senior/capstone level learners and classes.The project also emphasized the importance of active learning as a pedagogical method that must be woven into the fabric of today’s undergraduate curriculum. Emphasis will also be placed on how tutorials can be designed to address the new ACRL framework and Threshold Concepts. The presenter will share how the project contributed to the construction of the university’s first active learning classroom in the library which features modular work spaces, white boards, and technology to support problem-based learning, small group work and similar forms of inquiry-based teaching and learning. The presenter will also describe how the first-year tutorial became integrated into first-year experience courses by some faculty members and will highlight tangible campus outcomes resulted from the work, including information literacy assessment data.
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