Steal this idea: how we redesigned our instruction program by adapting others' ideas [Panel]
Started off the day with this session sharing tips from conferences that the presenters, all from the Univ. of West Georgia, attended within the past year. Conferences included Educause Learning Initiatives, LOEX, and the Library Assessment conference, among others.
Some of the ideas that we might consider:
1. Start instruction sessions with an icebreaker related to the topic at hand, encouraging them to work together to find answers. (The grab-bag addition to our EDU1010 orientation is right on track with this.)
2. Parking Lot Test - a theory proposed by Tom Angelo (Educause) that students will forget material covered in class as soon as they set foot into the parking lot because they are not being "shut down" properly. One way to ease this issue is to solidify the most important points in the last 60-90 seconds of class. Ask students two questions at the end of class:
- One thing you learned?
- How will you use something you learned today in another class?
Then, have them either turn to their neighbor to share, or to the whole class, and each person must have a different response. The presenters added the second q because they found while students seemingly understood the material presented (answered the first q easily) but asked for help with the same topic applied to another assignment.
We tested out this practice at the end of the conference session, forming groups to discuss one thing we would take away from the presentation and apply to our library, and then present it to the rest of the attendees. And, it really did work - I remember several ideas that were covered much better than without this interactive, personalizing component.
3. Problem-based/challenge-based learning: a concept that is increasingly gaining ground lately in the IL literature, defined as helping students build on what they already know. The goal is to focus students on an area relevant to them. See http://www.challengebasedlearning.org for more.
I found this point to be very relevant to us in discussing the research process with students (and the step that I discussed with my group in #2 above). We can have them start with a big idea (e.g. climate change or homelessness) and the narrow it down to a challenge question, something that really interests them. Even if they are not allowed to choose their topic, they can hone it into something that they really care about - some question that really needs to be asked or some problem that they see. In effect, they are more invested in the issue and want to research to fill in the missing pieces.
4. In the area of assessment, the presenters recently put together a 1-page "visual identity" with key stats from their longer annual report (e.g. how many students they serve weekly or monthly, number of instruction sessions per year). They've found it esp. useful to have on hand when their dean asks to documentation to show the administration how the library contributes to campus learning outcomes and justify funding/new positions.
The idea of a 1-page visually-appealing summary struck a chord with me as a way to show off our stats beyond our lovely 1 1/2" binders. I don't have an exact purpose in mind (would the deans be interested in it?) but Chef Osborne asked for a similar one-page "what the library does for the culinard program) recently and would be nice to present as "updates" to the library committee. I'd imagine that if we had something like this on hand, opportunities where we could put it to use would present themselves and perhaps save us from turning away from other projects to come up with a sudden request. I wish that the presenters had shown their "visual identity" to help us generate ideas for our own.
5. One of the attendees proposed an interesting idea to drive home the idea of plagiarism: have students write down their greatest accomplishment on an index card; then collect the index cards, redistribute them randomly, and have the students present the accomplishment as their own. Definitely gets the point across, but maybe too heavy-handed. Think this would work for us?
Started off the day with this session sharing tips from conferences that the presenters, all from the Univ. of West Georgia, attended within the past year. Conferences included Educause Learning Initiatives, LOEX, and the Library Assessment conference, among others.
Some of the ideas that we might consider:
1. Start instruction sessions with an icebreaker related to the topic at hand, encouraging them to work together to find answers. (The grab-bag addition to our EDU1010 orientation is right on track with this.)
2. Parking Lot Test - a theory proposed by Tom Angelo (Educause) that students will forget material covered in class as soon as they set foot into the parking lot because they are not being "shut down" properly. One way to ease this issue is to solidify the most important points in the last 60-90 seconds of class. Ask students two questions at the end of class:
- One thing you learned?
- How will you use something you learned today in another class?
Then, have them either turn to their neighbor to share, or to the whole class, and each person must have a different response. The presenters added the second q because they found while students seemingly understood the material presented (answered the first q easily) but asked for help with the same topic applied to another assignment.
We tested out this practice at the end of the conference session, forming groups to discuss one thing we would take away from the presentation and apply to our library, and then present it to the rest of the attendees. And, it really did work - I remember several ideas that were covered much better than without this interactive, personalizing component.
3. Problem-based/challenge-based learning: a concept that is increasingly gaining ground lately in the IL literature, defined as helping students build on what they already know. The goal is to focus students on an area relevant to them. See http://www.challengebasedlearning.org for more.
I found this point to be very relevant to us in discussing the research process with students (and the step that I discussed with my group in #2 above). We can have them start with a big idea (e.g. climate change or homelessness) and the narrow it down to a challenge question, something that really interests them. Even if they are not allowed to choose their topic, they can hone it into something that they really care about - some question that really needs to be asked or some problem that they see. In effect, they are more invested in the issue and want to research to fill in the missing pieces.
4. In the area of assessment, the presenters recently put together a 1-page "visual identity" with key stats from their longer annual report (e.g. how many students they serve weekly or monthly, number of instruction sessions per year). They've found it esp. useful to have on hand when their dean asks to documentation to show the administration how the library contributes to campus learning outcomes and justify funding/new positions.
The idea of a 1-page visually-appealing summary struck a chord with me as a way to show off our stats beyond our lovely 1 1/2" binders. I don't have an exact purpose in mind (would the deans be interested in it?) but Chef Osborne asked for a similar one-page "what the library does for the culinard program) recently and would be nice to present as "updates" to the library committee. I'd imagine that if we had something like this on hand, opportunities where we could put it to use would present themselves and perhaps save us from turning away from other projects to come up with a sudden request. I wish that the presenters had shown their "visual identity" to help us generate ideas for our own.
5. One of the attendees proposed an interesting idea to drive home the idea of plagiarism: have students write down their greatest accomplishment on an index card; then collect the index cards, redistribute them randomly, and have the students present the accomplishment as their own. Definitely gets the point across, but maybe too heavy-handed. Think this would work for us?
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