Course Synthesis - Final Project

IDEALA - Week 4 Activity

Environment

I am teaching a one-unit course, Library 1A: Introduction to Library Research (LIBR 1A) at a large community college.  Up to 30 students can enroll in a section.  I teach this course in a face-to-face format in our library classroom, which is equipped with desktop computers that have Internet access and word processing software.  At the instructor podium, the professor and the students can project presentations and demonstrations.

I have taught LIBR 1A as a standalone course and in learning communities with English and Speech courses.  Most recently, I have taught in links with English 1A (ENGL 1A) in a learning community called Pathways to Transfer.  In Pathways, we hope that students enroll in and succeed in English 67-68-1A-1C and, even better, transfer to a four-year university.  English 67 and 68 are pre-collegiate; English 1A is freshman composition; and English 1C is critical thinking.  LIBR 1A links with ENGL 1A because it has a research paper component.

All students in my current LIBR 1A section are enrolled in ENGL 1A. Thus, the assumption is that all of these students are capable of performing reading and writing at a college level.  They are fairly similar in terms of their abilities as students; however, they do have diverse personal backgrounds.  Some students are busy with school, family, and work responsibilities.  Other students are focused primarily on school.

Learning Outcomes

Overall Goal:

A year (or more) after this course is over, students will confidently and capably find and use a variety of sources of information in order to understand their research interests and provide answers and solutions to their research questions and problems.

Learning Objectives:

After completing LIBR 1A, students will be able to …

Identify research interests that are focused on a controversy or issue.

• Students will identify a main topic and sub-topics.
• Students will narrow this topic into a research question.

Find sources of information that are credible.

• Students will find at least five sources of information that help them answer their research question.
• Students will journal about their search attempts and document growth or weaknesses in their search skills.

Use sources of information to provide answers to problems.

• Students will give a classroom presentation about their problem and one potential solution to this problem.
• Students will create an annotated bibliography to summarize and evaluate their sources of information.

Formative and Summative Assessment

Final Project (Summative)

Students will create a public service announcement (PSA) poster and annotated bibliography.  The theme of their PSA will be related to Alcohol Awareness Month.  In order to build their knowledge on this issue, students will consult a variety of sources, including encyclopedias, books, videos, and articles.  In their annotations, students will summarize the sources, evaluate them, and reflect on their relevance.

• National Council onAlcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc.
• National Institute onAlcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Learning Activity (Formative):

First, students independently assess “good” and “bad” citations and annotations using the grading rubric for their final project.  As a large group, students will discuss their assessment.

Second, students will write their own citation and annotation for a short article. In small groups of 2-3 students, students will evaluate each other’s work according to the rubric.  Students discuss their results in these small groups.

Criteria & Standards:

Students will be evaluated on multiple criteria:

• finding sources that strongly connect to the research topic
• summarizing the source in complete sentences, noting the main points, sub points, and arguments
• evaluating the authority of the source, addressing the author’s background and any possible bias
• describing the relevance of the source, including how it helps and does not help answer the research question

Helpful Resources:

• Textbook:  Badke’s Research Strategies
• Videos:  TBD
• Databases:  Gale Virtual Reference Library; CQ Researcher; Academic Search Premier; JSTOR; Library Catalog (WorldCat Local); ProQuest Research Library
• Writing Center:  handouts, tutoring, workshops

Learning Theories

When looking at the learning theories of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism, different aspects of each theory appeal to me.  While I would apply all three theories to my teaching, I see constructivism as a learning theory to be implemented across the entire formation of my course.  Over the semester, I aim to develop a course that calls on students’ past experiences and challenges students to solve real world problems with evidence.  On a daily basis, I would implement aspects of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism because all offer good techniques for teaching and learning.  Below is a list of specific aspects that I will practice in my credit course.

Behaviorism:

• Model use of databases:  to support students that need skills-based instruction
• Reinforce database search techniques:  to build in students a habit of searching databases for information
• Provide quizzes:  to test students’ use of database search skills in a fun way

Cognitivism:

• Break material into smaller parts:  to introduce and describe components of the research process
• Create visual aids:  to model for students a variety of ways to accomplish the components of the research process

Constructivism:

• Form small group activities and discussions:  to allow learning from peers
• Choose real word problems:  to make activities and assignments meaningful, applicable, and transferable to students

Educational Technology Tools

In class, I will utilize features of Moodlerooms in order to share information, such as grading rubrics and links to helpful resources.  Students will need to communicate with each other in class and outside of class.  For that purpose, Google+ or Moodlerooms can be used.  Finally, it is possible for students to create an infographic instead of poster board.  If so, then I will instruct them in the use of infographic tools, such as Easel.ly or Piktochart.

Reflection

Enrolling in Instructional Design Essentials has been incredibly helpful.  Overall, it taught me just how much time goes into creating a course, assignment or learning activity.  More specifically, I can immediately apply the practice of creating learning outcomes and creating activities and assignments that assess these learning outcomes.  I am glad to have been exposed to learning theories and motivation.  In particular I am curious about constructivism.  I would like to do further reading about constructivism and will hopefully find examples of how to practice it in my class.  I am slow to adopt technology, so it is not a big deal in my teaching.  However, a student recently thanked me for assigning a PowerPoint presentation to them.  It forced him to learn the technology and he believes it will be a useful skill in the future.  For this reason, in future classes, I will ask my students what technologies they would like to learn.

I enjoyed reading my classmates’ posts.  Early in this course, I was able to peek at many classmates’ blogs.  As time went on, though, I had to pick just a few.  My picks were random and that approach worked just fine.  Whether a librarian is teaching a one-shot, credit course, or online course, I was able to learn from all of the blogs that I visited.

Finally, I would like to thank our extraordinary instructors, Erica DeFrain and Nicole Pagowsky.  You challenged us quite a bit in these past few weeks, but I am grateful for this challenge and for your support along the way.

Technology in Instruction

IDEALA Week 4 Activity

I am having a hard time knowing whether I use ed tech tools in my teaching.  In my current credit courses, I typically give a brief presentation via PowerPoint, followed by practice with online or print resources.  Students document their work on handouts, on which they can hand write or type their responses.  I have used our student response system (aka clickers) with my instruction.  I like to use clickers because (a) students find them fun and (b) the anonymity makes it easier to for them to respond.

In other areas of my library work, I have used a couple of tools.  I am a liaison to a Physics class that uses Google+ to organize their work for small group presentations.  Also, I recently used Trello as part of a library website planning exercise.  I was okay with Trello because it seemed somewhat organized, but I have yet to use Google+ in a meaningful way.

My final course activity and assignment deal with writing citations and annotations in which they summarize, evaluate, and reflect on the relevance of five sources of information.  At the moment, I intended for students to write or type an annotation for review with classmates.  I believe the idea of using an online tool, such as Google Docs or Moodlerooms Discussion Forum, would be beneficial for the in class learning activity.

1. Consider: Will this application/tool enhance, improve instruction or motivate learners?

The use of Google Docs or Moodlerooms Discussion Forum could improve instruction in a few ways.  First, it will ease the small group discussion because students can easily review and comment on their classmates' work without having to crowd around one computer.  Second, having this material online will benefit students when they accomplish a similar task in their homework.  They will be able to access good examples of citations and annotations as often as necessary.

The use of Google Docs or Moodlerooms could improve student motivation.  Having their work posted online means all classmates can review and comment.  I am hopeful this form of peer review will encourage students to do their best work.

2. Review learning objectives for the lesson or module.

In my last post, I did not set learning objectives for this activity and assignment.  However, in my first post (date September 20) I did set some significant learning goals that would apply to this activity.  Using online tools could certainly support students' abilities to meet these goals:

• Then students would examine these sources of information based on criteria such as authority, accuracy, and purpose.
• Students can realize they are not alone in an academic environment. Professors, librarians, tutors, and peers are available and willing to help them succeed.
• When it is a more extensive project, students should understand how long it might take to accomplish this project and they should have willingness to take these steps.

Being hesitant about educational technology, I do not see a strong connection between my thoughts above and what I skimmed in the NMC Horizon Report > 2014 Higher Education Edition.  I believe there might be elements of cloud computing and collaborative learning.  Other than those possibilities, I am just fine if other emerging technologies are not a part of this lesson.

Motivation in Instruction

IDEALA Week 3 Activity - Part 2

Motivating students is a huge challenge for me.  These days it feels like we have to entertain students in order to motivate them.  I often hear “boring” in reference to education and it frustrates me that a whole world of students thinks that everything has to be fun or exciting or adventurous.  I also believe that articles, including the Small article make motivation seem easier to achieve than it truly is.  Finally, I am intrinsically motivated – I love to learn new things – so I lack understanding for students that appear to lack motivation.  Clearly, I need to work on my attitude and teaching techniques regarding motivating students.

 

My Library 1A course is linked with English 1A (freshman composition).  If students pass both of these classes, they get automatic enrollment in English 1C (critical thinking).  Often these students want to transfer to a four-year university.  I believe students taking Library 1A could experience intrinsic motivation, if they want to learn about academic research in order to be capable and confident students.  Sadly, though, I believe many of these students experience extrinsic motivation.  They simply want to earn a good enough grade in Library 1A in order to claim their spot in English 1C.

While I believe the ability to motivate is simplified in the Small article, the section on the ARCS model was helpful to me, particularly in reading the examples aligned with the components and subcomponents.  Below is a list of some ways that I aim to motivate students in my credit course.  It was easier to see how I work toward Attention and Relevance.  Because Small, Dodge, and Jiang (1996) noted high value in these two components, I feel better about my current approach to motivating students.

Attention

Perceptual Arousal:  I use current or quirky or useful examples in database search lessons.  I struggle to know what appeals to 20-year-old students, but they often seem to like things that my 9- and 12-year-old boys like.

Variability:  I mix in a variety of learning activities, including independent, small group, and large group activities.

Relevance

Goal Orientation:  I have shared rubrics and samples with students to demonstrate what is expected to meet the assignment.  I point out where certain resources are required and/or respected by their English professors.

Familiarity:  I compare and contrast database searches to searches that students might attempt on Amazon or iTunes.

Confidence

Success Opportunities:  I ask students to present their new knowledge via posters, PowerPoint, Prezi, etc. in addition to submitting a bibliography.

Satisfaction

Extrinsic Rewards:  In an orientation and tour, I provided “super student” awards to a small group that performed the best on the closing quiz.  

Note:  I did this "super student" award in an orientation session for new nursing students. They were thrilled by the very small certificate.  Despite seeing their enjoyment of the award, I have yet to try this with my credit course students.

Learning Theories and Learning Activity

IDEALA Week 3 Activity - Part 1

Applying Learning Theories to my Instruction

When looking at the learning theories of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism, different aspects of each theory appeal to me.  I believe that I practice aspects of these learning theories in my current credit course activities and assignments, but I am still learning how to successfully apply these learning theories.  While I would apply all theories to my teaching, I see constructivism as a learning theory to be implemented across the entire formation of my course.  Over the semester, I aim to develop a course that calls on students’ past experiences and challenges students to solve real world problems with evidence.  On a daily basis, I would implement aspects of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism because all offer good techniques for teaching and learning.  Below is a list of specific aspects that I practice, or attempt to practice, in my current credit course.

Behaviorism

• Model use of databases:  to support students that need skills-based instruction
• Reinforce database search techniques:  to build in students a habit of searching databases for information
• Provide quizzes:  to test students’ use of database search skills in a fun way

Cognitivism

• Break material into smaller parts:  to introduce and describe components of the research process
• Create visual aids:  to model for students a variety of ways to accomplish the components of the research process

Constructivism

• Form small group activities and discussions:  to allow learning from peers
• Choose real word problems:  to make activities and assignments meaningful, applicable, and transferable to students

Applying Learning Theories to an Activity and Assignment

Activity

In order to complete their final course project, students must be able to write annotations, in which they summarize, evaluate, and reflect on the relevance of various sources of information.  Additionally, they must be able to write citations for these sources according to the MLA citation style.

Class activities and assignments have required students to find and cite sources throughout the semester.  A recent class activity introduced students to the required components of the annotations – summary, evaluation, and reflection.  In this activity students will have an additional day of practice in citing sources and writing annotations.

“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:  Applying a Rubric to Citations and Annotations”

Desired Activities:

Step 1:  Students independently assess “good” and “bad” citations and annotations using the grading rubric for their final project.  As a large group, students discuss their assessment.

Step 2:  Students write their own citation and annotation for a short article.  In small groups of 2-3 students, students evaluate each other’s work according to the rubric.  Students discuss their results in these small groups.

Needed Materials:

• Sample citations and annotations ("good" and "bad" examples)
• Grading rubric for annotated bibliography assignment
• Short article for practice of citation and annotation

Assignment

Overall Goal:

With our final project, you will take action on an issue that interests you. To take action, you must develop an informed opinion of this issue by reading outside sources of information.  Document the five most credible and relevant sources in an annotated bibliography according to MLA style.

Bibliography:

Cite your sources according to MLA citation style.  Include all of the following sources in your bibliography.

• 1 entry from a specialized encyclopedia
• 1 academic book
• 1 article from a newspaper or magazine
• 1 article from a scholarly journal
• 1 reliable and relevant source from the list above (your choice)

Annotations:

Write your annotations using at least 6 sentences per annotation.  Include the following information in each annotation.

• Summarize the main points, sub points, and argument of this source.
• Evaluate the source by discussing the author’s credentials.  Use at least two additional criteria from the CRAAP evaluation guidelines.
• Reflect on how the source helps you (or does not help you) answer your research question.

Active Learning

IDEALA Week 2 Activity - Part 2

Teaching / Learning Activities

Information & Ideas

• Textbook - Badke, Research Strategies
• Videos - to be determined
• Websites - to be determined
• Samples of Assignments (from Professor and previous students)

Experience

• Exploring topics with concept maps
• Observing teacher and classmates as they search databases
• Searching databases - reference works, articles, books, images
• Presenting their new knowledge

Reflective Dialogue

• Minute paper - What made sense in today's lesson? What made sense in the class overall?
• Muddiest point - What is still unclear?
• Rubrics - Do I know what to do for this assignment? Did I meet the standards?
• Journals about learning - What databases help? What search techniques work or do not work?
• Annotations about sources - What did I learn about my research topic?

Integration of Steps 1 - 4

1.  Situational Factors

I believe the main learning goal for my course is reflected in the assessment and teaching-learning activities.  Students should have much practice in finding and using sources of information.  

I see a potential conflict due to being in a linked course.  I struggle to develop rich learning experiences because I am still uncertain about whether to simply guide students toward completion of their English essays or develop an assessment tool that students may not directly connect to their English paper assignment.

2.  Learning Goals and Feedback & Assessment

The main assessment tools are the creation of a presentation and annotated bibliography.  A journal allows students to reflect on their learning in the course, while an annotated bibliography requires students to reflect on the content of the course.

3.  Learning Goals and Teaching/Learning Activities

The intent of many learning activities is to directly support the development of the class presentation and annotated bibliography.  Past experience tells me that I do not develop enough teaching/learning activities to meet the large assessment goal.  Perhaps my expectations are too high for a one-unit class? Perhaps I need to improve my classroom management skills so that students stay on task?

4.  Teaching/Learning Activities and Feedback & Assessment

In part 1 of this week's activity, I suggested that students could evaluate each other's work on the in class activities.  Additionally, rubrics could be developed, shared, and discussed with students.  I imagine believe students could use these rubrics to evaluate my lesson (Did I teach them enough to perform well?) and to evaluate their own work (Did I do what the professor asked?).  Any kind of feedback from students assumes they are fully participating in classroom and homework assignments.  Also, students must be willing to honestly assess themselves and their classmates.

Worksheet for Designing a Course

From this broad goal:

"A year (or more) after this course is over, I want and hope that students will confidently and capably find and use a variety of sources of information in order to understand their research interests and provide answers and solutions to their research questions and problems."

I have identified some specific learning goals for the course:

Learning Goals for the Course:  Students will be able to…	Ways of Assessing this Kind of Learning	Actual Teaching-Learning Activities	Helpful Resources
Identify research interests	1. Students will identify a main topic and sub-topics. 2. Students will narrow this topic into a research question.	Develop concept map Search reference databases Develop research questions Write citations for reference works	Textbook: -      Badke’s Research Strategies Videos -    TBD Databases: -      Gale Virtual Reference Library -      CQ Researcher
Find sources of information	1. Students will find at least five sources of information that help them answer their research question. 2. Students will journal about their search attempts and document growth or weaknesses in their search skills.	Search databases Evaluate and select articles and books Critically read articles and books Write citations for articles and books	Textbook Videos Databases: -      Academic Search Premier -      JSTOR -      Library Catalog (WorldCat Local) -      ProQuest Research Library
Use sources of information to provide answers to problems	1. Students will give a classroom presentation about their problem and one potential solution to this problem. 2. Students will create an annotated bibliography to summarize and evaluate their sources of information.	Write outlines Create presentations, such as poster boards, Prezi, or    PowerPoint Write annotations Write citations in MLA format	Textbook Videos Writing Center -      Handouts -      Tutoring -      Workshops Speech & Sign Success Center

  

Procedures for Educative Assessment

IDEALA - Week 2 Activity - Part 1

In week 1, I established learning goals for my credit course, Library 1A: Introduction to Library Research.  As a reminder, my main learning goal is:

"A year (or more) after this course is over, I want and hope that students will confidently and capably find and use a variety of sources of information in order to understand their research interests and provide answers and solutions to their research questions and problems."

1.  Forward-Looking Assessment

Option 1:

Imagine that you are enrolled in a college course, in which the professor requires you to engage in a debate about a problem that impacts college students, such as exploitation of college athletes.  To win the debate, you must convince your audience (professors and classmates) that your understanding of the problem is strong and your potential solution is realistic.  Your description of the problem and solution must be based on scholarly sources of information.

Option 2:

Imagine that a good friend regularly drinks excessive amounts of alcohol.  Unfortunately, she has not listened to you when you suggest that she needs help.  Write a letter to your friend about the problem of alcoholism among college students.  In order to gain her attention, be sure to identify current research studies on this problem.  Summarize what you read, identify the authority of the sources, and explain how they relate to her problem.  End your letter with suggestions for where your friend can get help for her problem.

2.  Criteria & Standards

Finds Scholarly Source:

• Acceptable: Finds a journal article; Weakly connects source to research topic
• Exceptional: Finds a journal article; Strongly connects source to research topic

Summarizes Source:

• Acceptable: Summarizes the source in complete sentences; identifies the main point
• Exceptional: Summarizes the source in complete sentences; identifies the main point and sub-points; identifies argument found in the source

Evaluates Authority of Source:

• Acceptable: Identifies the authors' background and credentials; Connects authors' credentials to the research topic
• Exceptional: Identifies the authors' background and credentials; Connects authors' credentials to the research topic; Identifies possible bias based on the authors' credentials or vocabulary

Describes Relevance of Source:

• Acceptable: Indicates the source is relevant to research question; Identifies how the source helps answer question
• Exceptional: Indicates the source is relevant to research question; Identifies how the source helps answer question; Identifies gaps that are not answered by this source

3.  Self-Assessment

Group Assessment:
In class, students can work in groups of 2-3 to identify strengths and weaknesses in each others' work.

Individual Assessment:
Students apply the professor's standards and criteria to their own work.  If they rate their performance low in any criteria, they should reflect on what aspects of the standards are unclear to them.

4.  "FIDeLity" Feedback

Frequent:

• Give individual and group work in class.
• Assign similar work as homework.

Immediate:

• Grade and return work promptly (by the next class period).

Discriminating:

• Develop rubrics for standards and criteria for homework. 
• Discuss the assignment, standards, and criteria with students.  
• Provide examples of tasks in class and post examples online for students to review at home as needed.

Loving:

• Identify strengths in my students' work.  
• Focus grading on one standard, rather than on all standards, so that students can develop at least one standard well. 

Designing Courses that Promote ...

IDEALA - Week 1 Activity

In addition to reading the pages of Fink, I also reviewed the articles by Booth, Davis, and Turnbow.  In addition to her USER method, I appreciate Booth's four-part instructional literacy framework: reflective practice, educational theory, teaching technologies, and instructional design.  Turnbow's article is helping me learn more about goals and outcomes, as well as assessment and activities that could integrate with these learning outcomes.  Below is my response to the questions posed on the Fink worksheets.

Step 1.  Situational Factors

Specific Context of the Teaching/Learning Situation

For this IDEALA course, I will focus on my teaching of Library 1A: Introduction to Library Research (LIBR 1A).  LIBR 1A is a one-unit course taught at a large community college.  Up to 30 students enroll in a section.  The current section is taught in an accelerated eight-week lesson, so students attend class two hours per week.  So far I teach in a face-to-face format in our library classroom.  This classroom is equipped with desktop computers that have Internet access and word processing software.  At the instructor podium, the professor and the students can project presentations and demonstrations.

General Context of the Learning Situation

I have taught LIBR 1A as a standalone course and in learning communities with English and Speech courses.  Most recently, I have taught in links with English 1A (ENGL 1A) in a learning community called Pathways to Transfer.  In Pathways, we hope that students enroll in and succeed in English 67-68-1A-1C and, even better, transfer to a four-year university.  English 67 and 68 are pre-collegiate; English 1A is freshman composition; and English 1C is critical thinking.  LIBR 1A links with ENGL 1A because it has a research paper component.

Nature of the Subject

Although I would like students to learn and remember some concepts about academic libraries and information competence, the ultimate goal of LIBR 1A is that students would practice what they are learning in class and to continue to apply research skills and utilize critical thinking in future coursework.  There are some elements of convergent thinking, like what a database includes, but open-minded (divergent) thinking is very helpful to the research process.

Characteristics of the Learners

All students in my current LIBR 1A section are enrolled in ENGL 1A. Thus, the assumption is that all of these students are capable of performing reading and writing at a college level.  They are fairly similar in terms of their abilities as students; however, they do have diverse personal backgrounds.  Some students are busy with school, family, and work responsibilities.  Other students are focused primarily on school.

Characteristics of the Teacher

I aim to build lessons that include active learning and critical thinking.  I am open to new pedagogy and curriculum.  I enjoy working with a semester-long credit class, because it is rewarding to get to know students on a deeper level than is possible in a workshop.  I struggle to engage students and I also wish to see more genuine participation from students in terms of classroom activities and homework assignments.

Step 2.  Significant Learning Goals

A year (or more) after this course is over, I want and hope that students will confidently and capably find and use a variety of sources of information in order to understand their research interests and provide answers and solutions to their research questions and problems.

Foundational Knowledge

I want students to know that they can access a variety of information sources by using catalogs, databases, and search engines.  I want students to know that all information sources are not created equal, so they must think critically about the context surrounding their chosen information sources.

Application Goals

Students should be able to use databases to find sources of information. With a broad goal of using databases, I envision that students would develop a list of useful keywords and subject headings, enter search statements, and set limits as needed.  Students should also understand how to open, save, and email documents.

Student should also be able to evaluate sources of information.  More specifically, students should be able to read and view the sources of information.  Then students would examine these sources of information based on criteria such as authority, accuracy, and purpose.

Integration Goals

I want students to realize that "basic" search skills can be applied across many databases.  I also want them to realize that critical thinking, especially evaluating the source of information, is important in all aspects of their lives. There may be multiple answers or solutions to the same problem, so it is okay to challenge a source.

Human Dimension Goals

I want students to enjoy learning about their research interests.  I want them to be able to decide where they stand on certain issues.  Ideally, students would base their stance on evidence that they reviewed and appraised.

Students can realize they are not alone in an academic environment. Professors, librarians, tutors, and peers are available and willing to help them succeed.

Caring Goals

I want students to value information and to realize that they can contribute their ideas to this world of information.  I want them to value libraries and think that libraries contribute positively to our world.

"Learning-How-to-Learn" Goals

What students learn in LIBR 1A will help them be "good" students in other courses at my institution and at their future institutions.  From this course, they should be able to use academic libraries in a range of ways, from finding and borrowing a book to planning and implementing multiple stages of the research process.  When it is a more extensive project, students should understand how long it might take to accomplish this project and they should have willingness to take these steps.