WILU 2014

Session Abstracts

Head over Heels: Approaches to Flipped Teaching

Carolyn Doi, Tasha Maddison - University of Saskatchewan

The teaching methodology of the flipped classroom is quickly growing in popularity within the education community and making its way into library instruction as well. This paper will introduce the concept of flipped teaching, identify its potential for integration into library instruction, and highlight two case studies of how this pedagogical approach was applied at the University of Saskatchewan Library.  This interactive session will keep you on your toes.  Expect homework in advance!

An Analysis of Individual Research Consultations Practices and Evaluations in Academic Libraries

Karine Fournier, Lindsey Sikora - University of Ottawa

Academic Librarians can spend many hours with individuals on their research projects. Research has examined the ways Information Literacy skills have been taught in the classroom; however, information on individual consultations is sparse. A closer examination of the practices and evaluation methods of individual consultations on IL skills is required.

This presentation will report on our preliminary findings, shaping the underpinnings of future research of individualized research consultations.

Inspiring Professional Development on a Shoestring: Facilitating Learning Opportunities for Information Literacy Instructors

Lisa Shamchuk - MacEwan University

How do you stay on top of evolving trends and changes to information literacy delivery? How do you cope with shrinking professional development allocations? Learn about various cost effective in-house professional development opportunities available to MacEwan University librarians. Walk away with low cost, practical ideas for jump starting your library's information literacy professional development offerings. Take-away ideas will include a variety of events and specific activities you could facilitate in your library tomorrow!

Take Your Phone off the Hook! Going Live With Online Library Instruction at the University of Toronto

Monique Flaccavento, Jenaya Webb - University of Toronto

This presentation examines the key outcomes of a 2013 pilot project that delivered online, synchronous IL sessions to new undergraduates across the University of Toronto. Unexpected outcomes emerged, suggesting gaps in our understanding of new undergraduates' expectations for online library instruction. We discuss the logistics of setting up an online course, address the successes and shortcomings of the project, and put forward next steps for exploring synchronous online IL initiatives.

Beyond the One-Minute Paper: Reflective Exercises in Library Instruction

Eveline Houtman, Christina Tooulias Santolin - University of Toronto

The one-minute paper, a brief reflective exercise, is a staple of library instruction. This session discusses the use of longer reflective exercises in library instruction at the University of Toronto. Why is reflection important to learning? To assessment? What does it look like in practice? We'll provide examples and give attendees the opportunity to engage with their own reflective exercise.

Teaching Visualization: Effective Communication in Visual Formats

Margot Hanson - California Maritime Academy

Students are constantly presented with visual content, but how do they learn to become responsible consumers and creators of information in visual formats? To address this question, instruction librarians at the California Maritime Academy incorporated elements of visual communication into classroom activities and assignments such as mapping, infographics, and comics.

Re-emagining Library Guides for Independent E-learning

Judith Arnold, Veronica Bielat - Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan

E-magine the learning possibilities in a library guide! Learning theory tells us that learners need more than one way of interacting with content. Potential lies in the multimedia and design capabilities available in the apps and platforms used to host library guides. This presentation will take a fresh approach to guide design that re-envisions the guide as an e-learning tool that enhances learning as it supports the goals of a specific assignment.

Beyond the database demo: Using discourse analysis to improve research and citation practices

Fiona Inglis - Seneca College

Citation errors and plagiarism are often caused, in part, by a fundamental lack of understanding of the research process. Using my background in applied linguistics, I encouraged my students to take a discourse analysis approach to their sources in order to deepen their understanding of research. In this session, I will give a brief overview of the theoretical background to my project, demonstrate some of the activities I developed, and discuss future research directions.

E-valuating the Impact of Face-to-Face and Online Information Literacy and Writing Skills Instruction Using a Mixed Methods Research Design

Karen Nicholson, Kim Garwood, Melanie Parlette-Stewart, Trent Tucker - University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario

This presentation will describe a mixed methods, collaborative action research project conducted as part of the ACRL's Assessment in Action (AiA) program to evaluate the impact of face-to-face, online, and blended approaches to information literacy and writing skill development in a large, first-year management course MGMT*1000. While our study did not yield the generalizable data that we had hoped, it did teach us some valuable lessons about the challenges and pitfalls of conducting mixed methods research that will be of use to those interested in gathering evidence to assess the Library's impact on student learning outcomes.

Developing Online Learning Tools: Strategies for Creating a Set of Best Practices for Your Library

Liz Johns - Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia

The opportunities for online learning tool creation are endless, but libraries encounter challenges when their online learning tools go out of date, become too numerous, and lack standardization and coordination. Creating a set of best practices and guidelines for your library can help ensure your learning tools stay relevant and meaningful to your users. This presentation will focus on researching, creating, implementing, and maintaining a set of best practices for your library.

Evaluating and Managing LibGuides: How Can we Better Reach our Users?

Lisa Campbell - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

When Springshare announced the "next generation" of LibGuides, the University of Michigan Library inventoried 976 guides in their system, reviewed a year's worth of statistics, and charged a group of content coordinators with developing a user-centered content strategy. This presentation will report on the initial results of this work and suggest criteria to consider when implementing LibGuides 2.  By reviewing findings on user and author behavior, attendees will learn strategies for managing and assessing their LibGuides systems.

Infographics: E-volving Instruction for Visual Literacy

Melanie Parlette-Stewart, Lindsey Robinson - University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario

Infographics involve the bringing together of information, data, and design. There is increasing need to be visually literate, as is highlighted in the ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. This session presents the ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards and the application of these to an introductory infographics instruction session. This session will highlight the active learning approach used to allow students to engage with and create infographics at an introductory level.

E-magine a New Way of Thinking: Design Thinking for Student-Centered Instructional Design

Rebeca Peacock, Jill Wurm - Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan

Whether you are an experienced or new librarian, this workshop will demonstrate how Design Thinking can help improve your instructional design process in order to create learner-centered instruction sessions. Get ready for an active, creative, hands-on session that will challenge your thinking and leave you with a renewed sense of empowerment over the design process for the Fall semester!

Bite-Sized Assessment for the Library One Shot

Mary Snyder Broussard - Lycoming College, Williamsport, Pennsylvania

Classroom-based assessment does not have to be scary, nor does it have to take away from invaluable instruction time. Formative assessments are "bite-sized" assessments that help the librarian see how students are meeting a single learning target. These mini assessments are usually learning tools themselves and can be assessed quickly enough that the librarian can adjust his or her teaching on the spot to meet best students' immediate learning needs.

Digital Love: Collaboration with Colleagues Creating Interactive Online IL Instruction

Jorden Smith, Debbie Feisst, Denis Lacroix, Paul Neff, Sarah Polkinghorne, Anwen Burke - University of Alberta

In this presentation, we tell the story of a recent online information literacy tutorial project at the University of Alberta Libraries (UAL). Although our end product was a high-tech supplement for IL instruction, the keys to our success were low-tech: the preliminary planning, a solid anchoring in student context and learning outcomes, and the collaborative effort throughout. Our story emphasizes the importance of adaptability and collaboration in the future of IL instruction.

E-volving Information Literacy Tutorials With E-maginative and E-ngaging Design

Jill Wurm - Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan

As technology and higher education evolve, so does information literacy instruction. Words such as MOOC, BOOC, and "gamification" have become part of the developing vocabulary of those who seek to teach information literacy online. With the help of an instructional designer, graphic designer, web designer, and project manager/editor, an appealing new way of delivering an "online information literacy tutorial" was created to cater to the increased number of online courses the Communications Librarian found.

Good Things Come in Small Packages: Reimagining IL Instruction in the First Year Seminar

Lindsay McNiff - Dalhousie University

This presentation will explore the literature on librarian roles and embeddedness in first year seminars. Two of Dalhousie's first year humanities seminars will be used as case studies to demonstrate the innovative integration and expanded meaning of information literacy instruction as it applies to very small discussion-based courses. Attendees will learn about the value of first year seminars and how librarians can contribute to a small classroom setting in inventive ways.

Open Library Community: Research Support Services in a Digital Age

Erin Fields - University of British Columbia

Libraries have expanded the definition of "community" with the growth of services that fulfill an identified obligation to external local communities.  These services have included the development of digital collections for the provision of instruction.  However, expanding the definition of "community" to include a MOOC student body broadens the mandate of librarians in developing information literate students.  This discussion will examine the public service identity struggle librarianship is facing with open education communities.

Choose Your Own Adventure: Best Practices for Developing an Information Literacy Video Game

Jessica Critten, Dean Sullivan - University of West Georgia

In this session, we'll discuss the steps we took (and the challenges we faced) in developing a video game for our credit-bearing information literacy class, and present preliminary findings about its success. In keeping with the interactive ethos of the video game, we'll also have a dialogue with session participants to develop a list of best practices that they can use to create an educational video game that meets their institution's needs.

Beef up Your Backchat: Using Audience Response Systems to Assess Student Learning

Elizabeth Yates - Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario

Electronic/Online tools such as clickers, Twitter, and audience-response systems are widely used in higher education. Learn how librarians can conduct formative assessment with free software such as Poll Everywhere or partner with faculty members by using the same platforms (e.g. TopHat) professors use in class. Based on a review of the literature and on the presenter's teaching experiences, this session will highlight the benefits and drawbacks of audience response systems and provide best-practice guidelines.

What Do You See? Image Searching for Research Topic Selection and Development

Beth Fuchs - University of Kentucky

Research tells us that students struggle most when they are starting their research projects and are trying to define research questions. Encouraging students to start with an image search helps them visualize the context of their topics and provides a rich environment for brainstorming keywords to begin an academic exploration. Find out how this technique for visual information-gathering can transform students' approaches to research, and learn how to integrate it into your classes.

Integrating Technology into Your Instruction with TPACK

Benjamin Oberdick - Michigan State University

Integrating technology into your instruction in a pedagogically appropriate and efficient manner can be a challenge for any teacher; time is short and often it's too easy to treat technology as an add-on to what you're already doing. The TPACK framework can help change this by highlighting the importance and intersections of different forms of teacher knowledge (content, pedagogy, technology) that when understood, will help you to incorporate technology effectively into your teaching situation.

ACE in the Hole: Linking Information Literacy and Practice in a Service Learning-Based Context

Michael Courtney - Indiana University - Bloomington

Service learning can dramatically increase opportunities for librarian and teaching faculty collaboration, positioning the library as a dynamic partner in civic education. This session will discuss the collaboration between the Indiana University Libraries and the ACE (Advocates for Community Engagement) Program, focusing on several innovative approaches used in strengthening information literacy within a service learning context, as well as methods for creating and collaborating with campus and community partners in an academic library context.

Library on Demand: Now Delivering Fresh Services to Your Online Course!

Debbie Feisst, Kim Frail - University of Alberta

Working in conjunction with other key campus stakeholders, the University of Alberta Libraries has developed a customizable Library Resources Widget that allows students to access library resources and services directly within their online course management system (CMS). This seamless integration of library resources and services into online courses represents a time-saving enhancement for faculty and students as well as a springboard to information literacy learning within the virtual classroom environment.

Digging Deeper: The Role of an Information Literacy Award as Part of an Undergraduate Research Fair to Profile and E-valuate Students' Information Literacy Skills at York University

Dana Craig, Sophie Bury, Sarah Shujah - York University, Toronto, Ontario

This presentation describes the development of the Undergraduate Research Fair at York University as the broader context to York's first Information Literacy Award. We devote special attention to describing the application process, questions asked, criteria applied, and the adjudication process. We discuss how this award, as part of a grander multidisciplinary Fair, provides students with the opportunity to showcase their research, and it provides librarians insight into students' literacy skills.

How Information Literate Are You? A Self-Assessment by MBA-MSIS Dual Degree Students Enrolled in a CI Elective

Barbie Keiser - Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University

Graduate students taking Competitive Intelligence (CI) were asked to assess their information behaviors. The skillset self-evaluation consisted of 11 behavioral statements regarding efficiencies and knowledge of best practices for information-seeking behaviors and analysis. This presentation compares how students assessed their own information literacy skills prior to the course and afterwards, providing insights into the student self-evaluations and presenting a roadmap for ensuring that what was learned here is applied elsewhere.

Video Tutorial Reboot: Reimagining the library workshop for 21st century students

Colleen MacKinnon, Monica Rettig, Denise Smith - Brock University

We already know it: the one-shot library workshop isn't enough. Growing class sizes, diverse learning styles and technology have impacted how we meet our students' need for research and writing skills. Advantage Plus is an online interactive program that combines concept-driven instruction with formative assessment pieces. Built with Camtasia and SoftChalk Cloud, A+ was launched in 2013, embedded in 42 courses and completed by 1600+ students. Hear us share our findings, challenges, and lessons learned.

GeoWeb Tools for Library Instruction

Eva Dodsworth, Andrew Nicholson - University of Waterloo and University of Toronto-Mississauga, Ontario

Researchers, teachers and scholars are using Geoweb tools to learn, discover, manage and share information about the world around them, allowing academic communities to come together; content providers to host collections; and researchers to discover new revelations. From history to the languages, to planning, and anthropology, the presenters will discuss the information literacy model that they are using to assist not only in teaching courses and creating assignments, but also in generating interest among students for geographic information technology.

The Proof is in the Pudding: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Assessing Instructional Design and Planning

Steven Hoover - Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York

Attempts to assess student learning with regard to information literacy are legion, but less attention has focused on assessing the quality of the instructional design and planning work that facilitates such learning.  This presentation will outline several strategies that have been employed to assess instructional design artifacts and improve local practice.  Additionally, participants will have opportunities to apply some of the tools and to discuss the pros and cons of the approaches described.

Steacie Library Dungeon Hackfest: E-volving Information Literacy in a Collaborative Learning Environment at York University

Sarah Shujah - York University, Toronto, Ontario

As discovered through the Steacie Library Dungeon Hackfest at York University, a hackfest provides the science librarian the opportunity for information literacy by assisting students with researching and critically thinking about software, resources found in the library catalogue, business models, and publishing code in an open access platform. The presentation hopes to inspire other academic librarians to organize hackfests that utilize information literacy to support student research, open access, and collaboration. The presentation will describe the steps necessary to organize a library hackfest with a particular focus on information literacy. Thus, traditional methods of information literacy have e-volved through hackfests.