More issues with online education

Or more specifically with the delivery of information using course management systems.  First caught my eye from The Kept-up Academic Librarian.

The report is on the “Effects of Information Distributions Strategies on Student Performance and Satisfaction in a Web-Based Course Management System.”

Direct link is to Campus Technology, which includes report and reaction from Scott Leslie at the Edtechpost blog. 

This will be some of my reading for the evening 

Literacy Assessment

From the January issue(vol 68, No.1) of College & Research Libraries News brief article on early results from ETS’s ICT Literacy Assessment.  The research was “gathered from 6,300 students who took the test.” Some of the results??

In evaluating web sites

• Only 52% judged the objectivity of the sites correctly
• 65% judged the authority correctly
• 72% judged the timeliness correctly
• Overall, only 49% of test-takers identified the web site that met all criteria 

The rest of the preliminary results can be reached here.  As the focus turns more to social software, we need to think and do a better job on how we can integrate information literacy skills when they are visiting/using library online services. Yes, we want them to tag the catalog, but will this make them more efficient users of the catalog? Yes, we want them to blog or wiki as they can add to the discussion/resources, but we also want them to at least strive for something better than just “good enough”.  Am I way off base here?  It just seems we have an opportunity and another outlet besides the curriculum to assist users in becoming life long learners(I usually hate that phrase, but it works)

Staying fresh

8 hours on the reference desk and maintaining a smile can be hard.  Actually, it is quite quiet tonight as there are no classes at the moment.  Tomorrow is the start of the Spring semester for the bulk of the university.  I say the bulk, as some of Grad Ed has already started.  As a matter of fact, I have already taught two BI’s.  One for a Second Language Acquisition class and the other for one of our learning communities that are about to start work on their capstones (masters theses).  Getting back into teaching mode was not as difficult this time around.  Students were pretty receptive, even though for most of them (being teachers) were at the end of a 14 hour day.  Not always the best time to discuss research strategies…. and in a dark computer lab no less.  I wonder if there is a perfect time for teaching? 

I am also staying fresh by going to the gym.  Part of this is because of the major knee surgery I had just over 3 years ago and the need to rebuild my leg mass.   The other part is due to how much sitting I do during the course of the day.  Probably my biggest perk working at a university is, is having access to a decent gym.  I also know that there are 4 librarians, including myself that take yoga once a week.  Healthy librarians are a good thing.   A couple more months and I will be back too biking to work!

What’s the point of all of this?  Well, I realize that with book orders, committee meetings, consortium meetings, learning technologies, developing tutorials, reading blogs, professional reading, 16 hours a week on the reference desk, BI’s, collection development, staff meetings, etc…it’s hard to keep up and keeping up at 100%.  Sometimes, I need somebody to come in and say “Put the mouse down and step away from the computer” The question is, can I keep from turning my computer on when I get home?  Wish me luck!

Quality in online education

A few blogs have been discussing the quality or lack there of when it comes to online education.  A few thoughts from Jennifer at Life As I Know It opened this can of worms.  Meredith continued on a theme at Information Wants to be Free.  I did leave a comment with some of my thoughts at the bottom of Meredith’s page.  AND to continue on a theme, the Chronicle of Higher Education recently had an article on What Web 2.0 Can Teach Us About Learning.(01.05.07) discussing the weaknesses of course management systems (cms) as

“the problem is that most course-management systems were developed at a time when the internet was seen primarily as a mechanism for information delivery. Course-management systems were not created to enhance learning, but to make it easier for a faculty member to deliver materials to students.”

Their recommendations? Georgetown’s The Digital Notebook project, which

…will be an online space for students to learn, create, collaborate and store the evidence of their work at the university.”

I wish I could see more details as it sounds like part portal, part efolio, part cms, part web 2.0.   I will continue to look.

Back into the BI grinder.

First BI for the new semester is tomorrow.  Getting those handouts ready and doing other prep work, like looking at the education databases again and looking for upgrades and other enhancements that seem to come underneath the radar.  The new and improved catalog (CLIC) will be the biggest change for me to teach.  I will be discussing for the first time social tools that the patron can use in the catalog: book ratings, etc..  The first session is always a little scattered in terms of flow, but after the first 45 minutes I do not  need to look “at the script” .  I think the only downside for tomorrow is that I had to schedule a room that has fewer computers than the actual class.  I hate this as it requires students to double up.  I have noticed that the average class sizes have grown from 5-10 more students in the last 6 years.   Might have to start splitting them up as I rarely like to teach more than 30 students in one sitting.