EDUC 765
Trends and Issues in Instructional Design
The questions a librarian answers during a reference consultation range from very basic to very specific. The later are best answered with the help of a librarian, and the former are question that require little guidance and, more frequently, make up the bulk of the questions a librarian answers. Similarly, library instruction, which is intended to nurture a student’s critical thinking skills, is often used to introduce material or lessons that could be substituted with videos or tutorials. In other words, time that could have been spent on more meaningful interactions and teaching moments is being taken up by instruction that favors a banking model of education and does little to foster critical thinking. Libraries are already doing some of this work and moving to provide a better learning environment for their students, but such efforts are too often buried underneath—what students identify as—a cluttered website that is difficult to navigate.
Considering how confusing and overloaded library pages can be for students, this project intends to be a one-stop place where simple research and library related question can be answered through videos, presentations, and/or guided tutorials. In short, this project will:
Create an organized, concise, and informative online platform where students can independently answer simple research and library related questions and learn about the research process and the many library services available to them.
The primary audience and user of this service will be college students; in particular, first year college students who have not used an academic library before and are just starting to learn about the research process. Additionally, any person that uses the library will be able to use this resource since the guidance provided by this tool will not be limited to library research. However, more attention will be given to the primary audience to aid in the information literacy mission of the library.
The first instance of the project will be a static web app that will run on HTML and JavaScript. However, future development will integrate the service into a Content Management System to allow other libraries or librarians to implement their own instance and, in turn, add content that appropriately meets the needs of their students and their community.
Users will be able to access this project through a desktop computer or a mobile device; particular attention will be given to mobile devices in order to improve ease of use. This method of delivery was chosen to favor accessibility and convenience by taking into account how students, and the population in general, use their mobile devices.
The following represents how the service is expected to be used: Upon arriving on the homepage, the user will be able to choose a general area that best fits his/her information need. From here, the user is taken to another page that presents a series of questions chosen by librarians to represent the most common student needs in the selected area. After choosing the question that best fits his/her need, the user will be taken to one last page where a short description and solution to the need is given. Additionally and depending on the type of need, a short, guided tutorial or instructional video will be provided. If the tool is not able to answer the user’s question, the option to contact a librarian will always be available through the links on the fixed navigation bar.
Project Information Literacy (PIL) conducted a series of studies to investigate how college students find, evaluate, and use information for their course work. The following illustrates some of their findings (Head, 2013):
Similarly in 2014, EBSCO surveyed students about their information seeking behaviors. These are some of their findings (2015):
Based on these studies, there is a clear indication that librarians aren’t fully meeting the needs of their students through instruction and reference consultations. First, students aren’t always coming to librarians when they need to do research, and second, even if they are trying to use library services, those services are too complicated and they might not be available during the times students need them the most. In order to address these concerns, this project will attempt to meet students’ information needs in a manner that allows for continual assistance whether or not librarians are available while using existing library services.
Primary Audience:
Secondary Audience:
General Learner Characteristics:
Entry Characteristics:
Orienting Context:
Considering that use of this resource is not a requirement but being developed to cover the gaps that library instruction and reference might leave open, additional efforts will be given to promote its benefits and advantages. Particular attention will be given to instructors and librarians who interact with students daily; in addition, reference librarians will be encouraged to introduce the resource those students they help.
As the resource is being promoted, special consideration should be given to how this resource is different to other services the library offers so that any previous assumptions about library services are clarified. Lastly, instructors and librarians will need to go to great lengths to establish this resource, not as a panacea, but as a resource intended to be used in conjunction with library instruction and reference.
Instructional Context:
Content delivery will take place online and, depending on how it is used, without much guidance from an instructor. Therefore, attempts will be made to provide the most appropriate and concise guidance while still encouraging critical thinking. Particular attention and testing will be needed for the mobile version to ensure users know how to use it as intended.
Technology Inventory:
In order to access this resource, user will need an internet-connected device or computer. If a user does not have access to either of these, the user will be able to access the resource through a computer at the library or a computer lab.
Transfer Context:
The instruction provided by this resource is aimed at improving the academic performance of those who use it. The skills and knowledge students obtain through this resources will be useful beyond FYE programs and into their academic careers.
The primary learning theories behind this project are the constructivist and motivational theories. According to constructivist thinking, learning takes places when the learner constructs new ideas or concepts from their current knowledge. This way of thinking will guide the way information is displayed in the tutorials provided as attempts are made to create an interface that is simple, easy to use, and visually appealing. Similarly, content provided in tutorials will be as concise as possible to provide some level of motivation. More about motivational theory can be found on the next section.
Part of the appeal that this resource has will come from the content it presents. By providing only the most essential information needed to address a learner’s need, we are only introducing “chunks” of information that can be easily retained and reduplicated, and which reflect some of the ideas in Miller’s Information Processing Theory. Likewise, by providing more than just textual tutorials and information, we are acknowledging that not all learners approach learning the same way and they need different stimuli and materials to help them learn.
While we would expect students to be motivated intrinsically to use this resource, it will not always be that way; in fact, students are more likely to be extrinsically motivated. This project is largely being developed to address that concern, and by taking students’ extrinsic motivators as a start, we are providing content that, first, fulfills those needs, but also presents a model of instruction and content that stimulate interest while creating relevance. In doing so, we a putting together a service that provides some level of individualization, as users will have control of where, when, and how their learning takes places.
Higher education institutions across the country make an effort to recruit talent from different countries in order to bring different ideas and talent to their campuses. However, just like students from this country, not all these students come with the same knowledge and experiences. This project is trying to address that gap in knowledge so that any student has a baseline understanding of the research process in an academic environment.
In developing content, particular attention will be given to the possibility that some users have not used a library before or, if they have, their library did not provide the same services. To accommodate for this, a “First Time in the Library” page will be created to explain the services a library offers and what each can do for them.
In order to address differences in learning styles, the resources will try to provide, in addition to text-based instructions, as many pictorial references to facilitate those who favor visuals. In addition, videos, presentation, and guided tutorials will be provided whenever a topic allows.
ACRL. (2015). Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Retrieved February 6, 2016, from Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education: http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework
EBSCO. (2015, December 11). Do Your Students Speak Library-ese? Retrieved January 23, 2016, from EBSCOpost: https://www.ebsco.com/blog/article/do-your-students-speak-library-ese
Head, A. J. (2013). Project information literacy: what can be learned about the information-seeking behavior of today's college students? ACRL 2013 Conference, (pp. 472-482).