Thea Evenstad LI837 Teaching in the Information Professions Lori Wamsley Emporia SLIM, Summer 2012 How to Use

the Librarys Resources to Save Time when Searching for Landscape Architecture Information: An Instruction Plan I developed this instruction plan as the culminating project in LI837 Teaching in the Information Professions. The plan consists of five elements: learning outcomes, curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and criteria. Additionally, my instruction plan documents the process that I used to make decisions about each of these elements. My instruction plan is the product of reflective teaching, as described by Char Booth in Reflective Teaching, Effective Learning (see references). The context for this instruction session is described below, in the section on learning outcomes. The context shaped each decision that I made when developing this instruction plan.

Learning Outcomes I selected learning outcomes based on the context within which this session takes place. The students are all first-year students at the University of Oregon who have signed up for a First-year Interest Group (FIG). FIG programs consist of two courses that meet general education requirements and a one credit College Connections course. FIGs foster community by placing first year students in a group of 25 students who are all taking three of the same classes. They are popular programs with high enrollment. Professors teaching classes in the FIG program

Searching for Landscape Architecture Information

Evenstad 2

often request that subject specialist librarians come teach their students during a course-integrated session designed to meet certain learning outcomes. I developed this session for a FIG called Urban Garden in which the students take these three courses: LA 260 Understanding Landscapes, GEOG 141 The Natural Environment, and LA 199 College Connections. This FIG is a real program happening during Fall term of 2012 at the University of Oregon; however, my internship as the Reference Intern at the University of Oregon will end in August. While I am unlikely to teach this session in the actual setting, I pretended that I were the Landscape Architecture subject specialist at the U of O and that I would be teaching this session in the fall. In my pretend scenario, the Landscape Architecture professor teaching LA 260 Understanding Landscapes has assigned students a final project in which they must build a model of their ideal garden and present it to the class. The professor requires that each student include the architects, movements, or places that inspired his or her ideal garden in his or her presentation. The professor also wants to see students create a brief reference list. Each student must include items on the reference list that he or she found about his or her influence (e g. Architect Antoni Gaud) in two different formats (e. g. book and photograph). Since this assignment requires a reference list, the professor requested that a librarian teach a session. He wanted the session to emphasize finding Landscape Architecture information in different formats. Together we developed a list of learning outcomes, using the Information Literacy Competency Standards developed by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL, 2000)

Searching for Landscape Architecture Information

Evenstad 3

These learning outcomes are taken directly from the Competency Standards. See Appendix A to for an excerpt from the Standards that demonstrates which standards and performance indicators relate to these outcomes. A student attending my instructional session will achieve these outcomes. The student: 1. Identifies the value and differences of potential resources in a variety of formats. 2. Investigates the scope, content, and organization of information retrieval systems. 3. Selects efficient and effective approaches for accessing the information needed from the information retrieval system. 4. Uses various search systems to retrieve information in a variety of formats.

Curriculum I developed the curriculum for the session as a Powerpoint presentation. The professor typically uses Powerpoint to deliver course content and I wanted to keep my presentation consistent. The professor will make the presentation available in Blackboard in the same place as all of the other course lectures so that students can refer back to it. Since the students need to be familiar with the diversity of formats that information may take, especially when working on projects in the Landscape Architecture discipline, the presentation begins with a small group activity designed to foster discussion about different formats that landscape architecture information

Searching for Landscape Architecture Information

Evenstad 4

may take. Students will compare and contrast them, deciding on advantages and disadvantages of various formats. They also discuss whether some formats are easier to find than others. I include examples of five different formats that they may use as part of their final project: photographs, websites, books, journal articles, and architectural drawings. I am teaching an instruction session integrated into a first-year program, therefore it is important that I focus on what resources the library has to offer. Students who are new to campus likely do not have much experience using the librarys resources to search for information. After the small group activity on formats, we narrow in on searching for images. Image searching can be easily conducted using tools like Google Image search, but searching this way does not always provide information that is relevant or that students can rely on. The second part of the presentation focuses on using one of the librarys resourcesthe Art & Architecture Image Collectionsto discover images that may be relevant for the final project. I include a screencast that highlights browse and search options in this digital collection. The screencast shows a search that begins in the AAI collections and uses this resource to find relevant images as well as determine search terms for use in other library resources, like the catalog. By demonstrating one search in one kind of interface, I hope to show students one example of a way to get started discovering relevant resources for use in their final project. A second group learning activity is designed to reinforce the content about the AAI as a retrieval system and the personal and iterative nature of searching. For an instruction session longer than 20 minutes, I would follow up on this activity and

Searching for Landscape Architecture Information

Evenstad 5

deliver curriculum that takes search terms that students found using the AAI collections and uses them for searches in the library catalog.

Pedagogy I incorporated two collaborative learning activities into the presentation on using the librarys resources to discover landscape architecture information. In one activity, students form small groups of two to three people and answer a list of questions about the formats that landscape architecture information can take. Students will compare and contrast them, deciding on advantages and disadvantages of various formats. They also discuss whether some formats are easier to find than others. This activity should appeal to a wide range of learning styles since it actively engages students in discussion that requires them to build on their prior knowledge. Then, as a larger group, we discuss some of their responses to these questions. I based this activity on the collaborative learning technique described by Barkely, Cross, and Major as Buzz Groups in Collaborative Learning Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty (see references). After a few slides about various information formats and the screencast that demonstrates how to use the AAI collections to search for images, students will again form groups of two to three people. This time, however, they will be given a list of possible elements of the research process for their final project in their Landscape Architecture class that will include items like Go to the library and browse shelves for books and Browse images in the AAI by culture or city. These small groups will select and organize elements from the list into a sequence of

Searching for Landscape Architecture Information

Evenstad 6

events that will constitute their version of the research process. Each group may come up with something differentit will be important to emphasize that the research process can be very individualized and even members within a group will have slightly different ways of approaching it. Each student should write down his or her own research process on a piece of paper that can be brought home and help remind the student of potential steps in the process. This activity is adapted from the collaborative learning technique Sequence Chains described by Barkely, Cross, and Major as Buzz Groups in Collaborative Learning Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty (see references). After completing the second activity, I will show a slide that writes out the sequence of steps of the research process demonstrated in the screencast. Then, the group can come together as a large group and start the research process together as a whole group, following some of the steps in the process and exploring the use of the AAI collections and the UO catalog. This will be a good time for questions, further exploration, and discussion of the research process for the final project in the Landscape Architecture class. In my instructional design, I try to appeal to many different learning styles. The visual presentation, screencast, and sequence chain activity appeal to visual learners. Auditory learners will enjoy the buzz group discussion, large group discussions, and the content that I will share by explaining my slides and screencast aloud during my presentation. Tactile learners will be best served by interactive activities, like drawing out the research sequence in the sequence chain activity.

Searching for Landscape Architecture Information Assessment

Evenstad 7

Students will demonstrate learning by answering a pair of questions at the end of the instruction session (possibly more, if time allows). I will use Poll Everywhere, an online tool that allows for real-time responses to assessment questions. Students can respond to Poll Anywhere questions by responding with their cell phones by SMS text. In this way, there will be a visual and anonymous way to assess what students learned during the session and see how comfortable they feel using some of the information that we covered during the session once they start their research on their own. This part of the teaching session can easily segue into more time for questions/answers or students scheduling one-on-one research consultations. An additional way to assess student learning will be to assess the students ability to successfully find information and incorporate it into their final projects in the Landscape Architecture course. The professor will assess these projects; however, one part of that assessment will be to evaluate the project using a rubric that I develop that focuses on the learning outcomes addressed by the session. The student will be able to see this rubric before the presentation and prepare to incorporate elements of their learning into their final project presentation. The professor will share a copy of this completed rubric for each of the students projects and presentations with me. I will be able to learn some of the ways in which my session may improve based on students ability to succeed in the achieving the learning outcomes as demonstrated in their final project work.

Searching for Landscape Architecture Information

Evenstad 8

Alternatively, the professor could have the students write a narrative that describes their research process and their references for the final project and have the students turn that in to me. This could be a participation grade; however, it will provide me with some insight into how successful students were in achieving the learning outcomes and finding relevant information sources for their final projects.

Criteria The criteria that demonstrate the students ability to achieve the learning outcomes addressed in this instruction session are these: 1) The student can explain why it is important to seek out different formats for information and can compare and contrast resources in different formats. 2) The student is able to find resources using both the AAI digital collections and the librarys catalog. The student knows what types of materials are found in each. 3) The student is able to find and select materials to use from each system using effective and efficient search strategies. The student has relevant results from his or her searches. 4) The student retrieves and uses information in at least two formats during the research process for his or her final project. The student can defend his or her choice to include them on his or her reference list.

Searching for Landscape Architecture Information Reflecting on the Microteaching Session

Evenstad 9

In planning this instructional scenario, I thought it would be easier to keep to my planned time for each part of the session. I find it very difficult to stop students while they are in the midst of a collaborative learning activity. I think it would be better in the future to plan to devote more of my time to collaborative activities and not have so much of the time rigidly devoted to my planned curriculum. I also would like to devote more of my time to assessment and Q/A. I am disappointed that I ran out of time to do my assessment activity. I am afraid that I am in the habit of thinking of assessment as extra instead of essential and I would like to change that. I think in-session assessment can help to guide the session and make sure it is most useful. I also would like to investigate some of the ways in which follow up assessment is done to see how much of the information students have retained after the session is over. I believe that making library instruction session outcomes integrated into a graded assignment would be a good way to do this, but I need to learn more about it. I enjoyed creating the teaching session and seeing how it worked in the classroom. I would love to be able to assess its impact on actual first-year university students in this actual context. I think library science graduate students are a knowledgeable and receptive audience and I look forward to challenging myself to teach in a different environment. I definitely still want to teach and I am grateful for the opportunity I had to give it a try in this course.

Searching for Landscape Architecture Information References

Evenstad 10

Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). (2000). Information literacy competency standards for higher education. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency on July 12, 2012. Booth, C. (2011). Reflective teaching, effective learning: Instructional literacy for library educators. Chicago, IL: American Library Association. Barkley, E. F., Cross, K. P., & Major, C. H. (2005). Collaborative learning techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Searching for Landscape Architecture Information Appendix A

Evenstad 11

Standard One: The information literate student determines the nature and extent of the information needed. Performance Indicator Two: The information literate student identifies a variety of types and formats of potential sources for information. Outcome (c): Identifies the value and differences of potential resources in a variety of formats (e.g., multimedia, database, website, data set, audio/visual, book) Standard Two: The information literate student accesses needed information effectively and efficiently. Performance Indicator One: The information literate student selects the most appropriate investigative methods or information retrieval systems for accessing the needed information. Outcome (c): Investigates the scope, content, and organization of information retrieval systems Outcome (d): Selects efficient and effective approaches for accessing the information needed from the investigative method or information retrieval system Performance Indicator Three: The information literate student retrieves information online or in person using a variety of methods. Outcome (a): Uses various search systems to retrieve information in a variety of formats