To Hybrid or Not to Hybrid,That is the Question! Incorporating VoiceThread Technology into a Traditional Communication Course

Courses: This exercise can be applied to any course or discipline, particularly those that utilize public speaking techniques, interviewing skills, or media

Objectives: ? Students will identify key concepts from course readings and deliver verbal responses to the instructor's question, photo, and/or video example.

? Students will learn to effectively communicate and organize ideas around the course readings.

? Students will engage with technology that will enhance the in-class learning experience.

? Students will produce competent communication dialogue and discussion in an asynchronous online format.

     

The “Easter egg” syllabus: Using hidden content to engage online and blended classroom learners*

Course: Online or mediated communication courses.

Objectives: The purpose of this activity is to provide students with a more engaging way of immersing themselves in the course material through an interactive “Easter egg” syllabus. An Easter egg is an “undocumented function hidden in software?…?[they are] secret ‘goodies’?…?used in video games, movies, TV commercials, DVDs, CDs, CD-ROMs and every so often in hardware” (PC Magazine [n.d.]. Definition of Easter Egg. Retrieved from https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/42295/easter-egg). An Easter egg syllabus is guided by this mediated tradition through its inclusion of hidden embeddable audio and video clips to enhance student understanding of the structure of the class and its overall content, as well as adding a game-like component to student learning. By using the syllabus, students can take a more active role in their own learning and make connections between course concepts and the illustrations found in the Easter egg syllabus.     

À La Carte Learning

ABSTRACT

Orientation for distance students often does not equal the ideal teachable moment for learning about library resources and services. Seeking ways to provide learning objects for students to use at the point of need, academic health sciences librarians have created printable guides, Flash video demonstrations and simulations, and interactive tutorials. This electronic poster demonstrates how the learning objects were created, modified, and inserted into various delivery platforms, such as the library's web page, course management system, and CD-ROM.     

A Review of “Information Literacy Meets Library 2.0”

This study compared two common types of online information literacy tutorials: a streaming media tutorial using animation and narration and a text-based tutorial with static images. Nine sections of an undergraduate biology lab class (234 students total) were instructed by a librarian on how to use the BIOSIS Previews database. Three sections watched a brief video tutorial, three sections used an interactive HTML tutorial, and three sections received live instruction only. The content of instruction was the same across all nine sections. Immediately after instruction, each class was encouraged to complete a brief survey and quiz. One hundred and fifty-four students completed the survey and quiz. In all three conditions, students reported feeling more confident searching the BIOSIS Previews database after instruction. However, the increase in confidence was less for the HTML group. The students who watched the video tutorial scored higher on all five quiz questions than the other two groups. Comparing the HTML and video groups, the difference in scores was statistically significant (p < .05) for questions 1, 2, and 5. Students may learn more from video tutorials than tutorials that use static Web pages. Also, interactivity in tutorials may not necessarily enhance learning.     

Puzzled by communication? Playing with puzzle pieces to promote teamwork and theory understanding

Play provides an opportunity for students to learn information and concepts in an active format while facilitating different ways of learning. This puzzle activity is designed to increase student engagement, leverage different learning styles, help students make connections in communication theories, and enhance memory of important communication concepts. As an active learning exercise, play requires students to coordinate behaviors and participate in the learning process differently than through traditional lecture formats. Considering the information on active learning strategies, this activity involves using puzzle pieces labeled with theory components to help students learn each theory term and better understand how the terms work together to form the theory.

Courses: This single-class activity is appropriate for courses across the communication curriculum and is particularly well suited for classes with multi-part concepts and/or theories, including communication theory, organizational communication, interpersonal communication, persuasion, conflict communication, and the public-speaking/basic course, among others.

Objective: As a result of participating in this single-class activity, students will demonstrate understanding of key theoretical terms/concepts and how those concepts work together to inform communication theory. Further, students will work together in teams to bring in outside examples of the theory in action and practice explaining the concepts to their classmates to enhance learning and long-term memory of class concepts.     

互联网思维下的在线课堂设计要素分析——以“数据分析”课程为例

[目的/意义] 旨在探究能够契合"网络一代"自主探究学习模式的在线课堂教学及课程设计方式。[方法/过程] 以"数据分析"课程为例,选取TED-Ed和中国大学视频公开课这两类具有代表性的在线课堂进行对比分析,调查发现互联网思维对于在线课堂的影响是深刻的。[结果/结论] 在面向"网络一代"的在线课堂设计中应以学生的需求为中心,以学生的学习为主体,围绕知识单元和主题,以扁平化方式组织教学资源,创建互动在线学习环境及符合其学习需要的课程内容和课程结构。     

Increasing student engagement using an Amazing Race–style competition

Background:Game-based learning is a successful strategy for teaching various concepts to students, from general orientations to more in-depth material. Pharmacy students in a first-year lab course were introduced to library and drug information resources through a lecture-style class in their first week of school, which was ineffective in terms of engagement. To combat this issue, the pharmacy liaison librarian advocated for moving this class session later in the semester and proposed a game-based activity to replace the lecture.Case Presentation:“The Amazing Race: Drug Information Edition” was inspired by a well-known TV competition that involves completing several stages (called “legs”) of challenges to finish the race. The librarian developed questions designed to make students use various parts of the library website as well as two drug information databases. Students competed in teams, and the first three teams to complete the race were awarded small prizes. The race was first implemented in 2018, and modifications were made to the 2019 iteration based on student feedback.Conclusions:Despite several challenges, the race was well received by both the students and the course instructors and increased engagement with introductory library and drug information material. The activity has enhanced the librarian''s relationship and collaboration with the course faculty and made a positive impression on the students.     

An In-Depth Look at RACE: Creating a Public Relations Plan

Course: Introduction to Communication

Objectives: To provide students with a fun and interactive way to practice and observe communication concepts discussed in class. Students will (1) be able to identify nonverbal behaviors, (2) practice the stages of group development, (3) understand how important listening is in solving a murder mystery, and (4) gain an understanding of how perceptions are formed.     

Playing to Their Passion: A Legal Research Course that Resonates with Law Students

The first year of law school is chock-full of new experiences. Students can become overwhelmed in the face of so much change that they forget why they chose law school as a career path. They often lose sight of their end goal and need a touchstone to ground them back to their initial interests. Legal Research is the ideal first-year class to connect the acquisition of legal skills with interesting topics in a way that encourages students’ engagement in their present and future learning. By adding a student-selected subject context to their class, Legal Research instructors can incorporate contextualized learning and active learning techniques that improve student engagement and student learning. This article discusses the transformation of a generic, required, first-year legal research course into one that divides into four small (18–20 students) classes, each with one of four topics: patent, trademark and copyright, traditional practice, and social justice. In addition, it envisions future innovations to improve student engagement and student learning.     

Distance Learners' Self-efficacy and Information Literacy Skills

This study investigates distance learners' information literacy skills in using digital library resources and the factors (online learning and information manipulation) that correlate with learners' information seeking self-efficacy. In addition, distance learners' preferences with regard to digital resources selection and interests of developing information seeking skills were examined. 3517 students enrolled in one or more distance education courses were invited to participate in the online survey; 219 students completed the survey, for a response rate of 6.2%. The results revealed that distance learners who have higher self-efficacy for information seeking and proficiency in information manipulation exhibited higher self-efficacy for online learning. Moreover, students with high self-efficacy demonstrated superior knowledge of digital resources selection. Students who have low self-efficacy with regard to information seeking were more likely to express interest in learning how to use the library resources, although learning techniques for database searching was the exception.     

Combined Use of Online Tutorials and Hands-On Group Exercises in Bibliographic Instruction for Pharmacy Students

This study describes the new blended learning methodology implemented in a Drug Literature Evaluation course for pharmacy students that involves combined use of online tutorials and in-class group exercises. Assignment grades earned by 909 students enrolled in the course before and after the new methods were implemented (2008–2010) were studied to measure student performance. Course evaluations were analyzed in order to ascertain students’ perceptions. The hybrid approach used to deliver the course content allowed students to perform at the same level as traditional didactic teaching. Students’ evaluations reported a positive educational experience and favorable perceptions of the new course design.     

Advancing nursing students' transition to scholarship: embedding a librarian into the Advanced Nursing Research course

Background:Nursing students often prioritize learning clinical skills rather than research skills, possibly inhibiting their growth as scholars. Supporting nursing students'' learning of information literacy skills has been shown to impact nurses'' involvement with research after graduation. This suggests a need for developing innovative information literacy teaching strategies that can enable nursing students to better understand the process of research and how to apply research to practice.Case Presentation:This article describes the implementation of the embedded librarian project at the course level at the University of Memphis. A librarian was integrated into the Advanced Nursing Research course, a semester-long course for graduate nursing students, for the fall 2020 semester. This case shares the embedded librarian project''s implementation and evaluation strategies.Conclusions:The embedded librarian project aided students'' acquisition of information literacy skills at the University of Memphis. Students reported that the embedded librarian project helped them complete assignments for their research course. Using an embedded librarian service within the graduate nursing curricula model may enhance scholarship among future nurses.     

Improving Distance Education for Students with Special Needs: A Qualitative Study of Students’ Experiences with an Online Library Research Course

This article describes a study in which seven students with diverse disabilities participated in a one-credit online library research course which had been adapted to be accessible using the best practices literature on distance education for students with special needs. Students provided feedback on the design of the course and participated in in-depth interviews. Results of this study suggest any given class may have students with different types of disabilities, with different paths toward learning. Using the principles of universal design for learning can improve distance education not only for students with special needs, but for all types of learners.     

Using Electronic Course Reserves to Promote Information Literacy of First-Year Students in a University Writing Program

Abstract

The University of Florida is a large research institution with a freshman class of more than seven thousand students out of a total enrollment of about fifty thousand.Although a partnership with the University Writing Program has allowed the Libraries to reach almost four thousand students this past academic year, certain barriers still exist. There are just too many students to reach and the content is too vast to cover in only a single fifty-minute class period.Furthermore, problems encountered while working with students, as well as with their graduate writing instructors who run the classes, have reduced the effectiveness of the current library sessions.To solve these problems, our instruction team created targeted information literacy activities online, so writing instructors could have students complete them outside of class. This article covers some of the challenges in coordinating a first-year information literacyprogram in a large university setting and how electronic course reserves can be used creatively to deliver the desired content.     

Concerns about crime and local television news

This project reports on a two‐part investigation into students' perceptions of behaviors constituting active participation in a college course. Seven factors emerged: Working Hard, Outside Contact, (Refraining from) Negative Behavior, Group Citizenship, Positivity, Attendance, and Class Discussion. Interestingly, students rated the Group Citizenship factor as the most representative of participation. High and low communication apprehensives differed on their ratings of the centrality of some of these factors to participation. The results of this study suggest that students have an expansive notion of what it means to participate in their classes, better characterized as “course involvement,” than is captured by conventional definitions of “class participation.”     

Service learning in the library and information science curriculum: The perspectives and experiences of one Multimedia/User Education class

This article provides a case study of a class project in Multimedia/User Education in the Library and Information Science program at the University of Iowa. The goals of the class were to develop multimedia skills, develop conceptual models for implementing multimedia in libraries, and develop a culture of collaborative teaching and learning within the group of students who were enrolled. The course used service learning pedagogy to achieve these ends. Students developed web sites for public libraries in Iowa that, in many cases, are used in those libraries. In this article, the instructor of the course describes the design of the class, and the students contribute their observations about the service learning experience.     

Implementing a Synthesis Tutorial to Improve Student Literature Reviews

ABSTRACT

While undergraduate students may be able to find appropriate scholarly sources, they often struggle to use those sources when writing. This study aimed to improve students’ writing by targeting one specific skill: synthesis, or the ability to integrate multiple sources. Students in a psychology course viewed a video tutorial prior to writing an introductory literature review. Those who viewed the tutorial were more likely to cite two or more sources per paragraph compared to those who did not view it. Students’ survey responses also indicated that they found the tutorial helpful, suggesting it has promise as an instructional tool.     

Secretly Recording the Police: The Confluence of Communication,Culture, and Technology in the Public Sphere

Courses: Human Communication and Culture; Communication Law; Argumentation and Debate; Intercultural Communication

Objectives: Students will understand the intricate and mutually influential relationship between communication, culture, and technology by role playing popular news stories about citizens who record public arrests. Through this structured role play, students improve their argumentation skills by learning to craft concise arguments in the face of opposition.     

Exploring the Difference Between “Concrete” and “Abstract”

Abstract

This article discusses the results of a study concerning the interactive effects of learning style and computer competency on student satisfaction in library and information science (LIS) distance learning courses. “Concrete” and “abstract” learners react differently to online courses given different technology backgrounds. This study finds a statistically significant relationship between student satisfaction with Web-based courses, the grouping differences of learning style preferences (converging, diverging, assimilating, accommodating), and computer competency (high level and low level). The study concludes that, when students differ with regard to computer competency, there is a difference among learning styles with respect to student satisfaction level.