Week 1: Instructional Design Essentials

Instructional Design Essentials

Instructional Design Essentials is a 4-week, asynchronous course focusing on instructional design in the library setting.  The course is taught by Erica DeFrain and Nicole Pagowsky.  This blog will contain course assignments, as well as discussion and comments from classmates and instructors.  Through these discussions, I hope to think more critically about my teaching and develop my typical one-shot sessions into learning encounters that will have greater impact on students and the curriculum. I have been teaching in libraries for more than a decade and hope to radically change the way I think about, plan for and conduct my classroom encounters.

I am currently a librarian at a small liberal arts college outside the United States.  We are a start-up library (and institution), with some support from the large university with which we are associated.  As a start-up, each of the library's staff wear many hats.  I have liaison responsibilities for the sciences, but work closely with faculty and students across all disciplines.  I coordinate the library's research, instruction and outreach activities - but also find myself leading efforts in areas such as e-reserves, interlibrary loan, collection development and website content creation.  My grand aspirations for creating a comprehensive, curriculum-integrated instruction program were put on hold during the last academic year as we set up day to day workflows and simply got books on the shelves.  This academic year, I am hopeful that I can collaborate with the writing center on campus, individual faculty and the curriculum committee to begin thoughtful integration of research skills into the curriculum.

Assignment 1: 

A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Course for Significant Learning

L. Dee Fink

Situational Factors to Consider

1. Specific context of the teaching/learning situation;

For this course, I am going to focus on my most common teaching encounter: the all-too-common one-shot session.  At my institution, class size averages 18-20 students.  All the students are quite young, either first year or second year students (we have no upperclassmen).  Usually, I would only get to meet with a class one time during the semester, for approximately 1 hour.  The class is live, in-person and in a classroom.  Often times, the seating is fixed, which prevents fluid movement or small group work.  Students bring their own computers (or not).

2. General context of the learning situation: 

At this point, the learning expectations are set by me and the professor.  I learn about the assignment, what the prof has covered in the course already and the future assignments throughout the semester.  Faculty usually let me decide what to teach since they just wanted their students to learn 'how to do research.'  They become really excited by tailored subject guides which help their students identify appropriate resources for a given discipline.

3. Nature of the subject: 

Although library instruction is very practical and skills-based, I try to bring in a bigger picture view of research that includes some theory.  I want them to learn about how information is organized and created.  Sometimes these basic concepts are lost on students, so they have no idea what to look for or what they are finding. I want students to know that they can bring their own creativity to the search process.  No one does research the same way - and that's okay!  Both convergent and divergent thinking are required, if I understand the definitions correctly.  There definitely are logical steps to take when searching, for instance.  But how you search (keyword choices, search strategies, resource choice, etc.) all have an element of creativity based on the user's choices and actions.

4. Characteristics of the learners:

All of the students are between ages 18 and 23. Most are exceptionally intelligent.  Many have done research projects before primarily using the discovery layer on the libraries' website or the internet.  Most have used JSTOR.  Few have had formal research training.  Their primary learning goal is to be successful with their assignment.  My interaction with them will help them be successful, although I am not sure they have those expectations or know what my role is.  Regarding learning styles, lectures tend to bore these students (as evidenced by half closed eyes if I talk too long!)  They all, however, come alive when I require discussion in small groups.  I think a balance is needed. I love this article - which suggests an activity after each 10 minutes of talking.  I try to stick to that.

5. Characteristics of the teacher:

I have been teaching students how to do research for more than a decade. I care passionately about the interactions I have in the classroom, the library and during individual consultations.  I know that a good impression in the classroom can have a huge impact on each student and their future interactions and perceptions about the library. My strengths are subject and resource authority, as well as an ability to break down the research process into pieces students can understand.  I am affirming, approachable and always try to make a class as useful as possible.  I often experiment with different ways to engage the class, and I'm not afraid to try new things.  I do fall into a trap, however, of wanting to give them ALL the information, as I fear I may never get to work with those students directly again.  

My weaknesses include not always taking the time to get to know the class beforehand, and getting too busy to follow up afterwards.  I have never been particularly good at creating meaningful assessment activities that allow me to know how effective a session was. 

Questions for Formulating Significant Learning Goals

I have a hard time determining what students know already - and what needs to be taught or reintroduced. I tend to have far too many goals for a short one-hour session.  Because there are a lot of things to touch on, I often run out of time to effectively assess the students' learning (while also making time for incorporating active learning exercises).  I am well aware that you can't teach students how to do research in one class period - yet I think I still try each and every time.  I am hoping to move toward 'less is more' and am really eager to see how I can change the structure of my classes to include a more discrete set of learning goals that I can assess effectively. 

A year or more after this course is over, I want and hope that students will: 

carefully consider and identify the information they need, search the internet or research databases thoughtfully, evaluate the information they find based on specific criteria related to their needs, and know where to get help if they cannot find the information they need.

Foundational knowledge

• Be able to differentiate among various types of information sources: books, magazines, journal articles, news resources, popular, scholarly, online, print, etc.
• Be able to read a citation.
• Know how to navigate the libraries' website and understand the types of resources, databases, guides and search engines available.
• Know why you would choose to search the libraries' catalogue versus an article database.

Application goals

• Generate appropriate, creative keywords and search terms after basic background research on a topic.
• Choose appropriate resources to explore (e.g. internet, databases, library catalogue, etc.), and be able to identify the best resources after searching.
• Critically evaluate information in a way that allows the student to know they've found the right resource, and recognize when they should to keep searching for better information.
• Understand the connection between information sources, and how to use one good source to find other useful information.

Integration goals

• Understand how to think about a topic critically from different angles, when to think more broadly and more narrowly, and how to identify resources for these different needs.
• Understand that research skills used for one course or assignment can be transferred and developed in the next course or for the next assignment.

Human dimensions goals

• Have confidence in their ability to break down a topic to research discrete concepts.
• Understand that they will become the expert on their topic if they put their mind to it.
• Know that seeking help with research or writing is not a failure, and that it's okay to learn throughout their journey as a student.

Caring goals

• Feel excited about tackling a particularly difficult topic, figuring out the best place to find information and finding those perfect information sources.
• Be confident with their understanding of a topic and how to transition from basic research to more in-depth searching.

Learning-How-to-Learn Goals

• Be critical thinkers about their research question and the type of information they should seek when researching.
• Understand that they may need to read 50 papers, but will likely only use 10 of them.
• Be able to identify information in an information source that requires following or investigating further.