| Conference Registration WebCT Homepage | |
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| Thursday, July 13, 2006: 10:00 AM-10:45 AM | |||
| Mississippi Room (Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers) | |||
| G-11: Library On-Demand: Information Literacy Delivered to Your Desktop | |||
| Detailed Description: | Information literacy is necessary for the modern student, but sometimes professors lack the time to fully develop these skills. By leveraging WebCT, library instruction at Westminster College has become a self-paced, learner-centered activity. This session will demonstrate how the information literacy curriculum at Westminster was moved online and integrated into multiple disciplines, including business, nursing and biology. | ||
| Presentation Format: | Showcase | ||
| Topic: | Enabling learning: Effective instructional practices and student support models | ||
| Target Audience: | Course Designers, Faculty and Other Instructors, K-12 Educational Staff | ||
| Appropriate Audience Level: | Beginning or new users of WebCT, Experienced WebCT users | ||
| Abstract Text: | Information literacy is necessary for the modern student, but professors lack class time to fully develop these skills. By leveraging the WebCT environment, library instruction at Westminster College has become a self-paced, learner-centered activity. We'll demonstrate how information literacy curriculum at Westminster has moved online and has been integrated across multiple disciplines, including Business, Nursing and Biology. The cornerstone of this initiative is the use of WebCT and Macromedia technologies to develop a Library Instruction blended module required in all sections of first-year composition. The problem that most academic librarians know well is students want to know how to use the library when they need to use the library, and not before. Lower-division students who aren't performing research don't appreciate the value of library instruction while upper-division students who are researching have forgotten the skills they learned in first-year composition. By integrating WebCT modules into upper-division courses, the Library is able to custom-design web pages that specifically address the students' research needs for each specific assignment. The student links to the library instruction page directly from the course's WebCT site, and the information the student needs is delivered “just-in-time”, with links to appropriate resources, flash demos, and email help from a librarian. By moving upper-division, discipline-specific research needs out of introductory library instruction, the library instruction in first-year composition courses can now focus on topics that are specifically relevant to new students, such as introduction to databases, the differences between types of libraries, how the library can help them succeed, and formatting bibliographies. Because the instruction is delivered asynchronously, students are able to go at their own pace, reducing the frustration of faster, savvy students who already know something about library research, and enhancing the experience of students who need to move more slowly and seek extra assistance. | ||
| Session Leader: | Chuck Malenfant Giovale Library, Westminster College | ||
| Co-Presenter: | Meggan Levitt Faculty Technology Center, Westminster College | ||
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