Library Learning Services (LLS) is very excited to announce that the Spring 2019 semester will be dedicated to a Library Instruction Reboot for the department. In the spirit of the Penn State Strategic Plan, Transforming Education, the Reboot is an opportunity for the LLS team to align the teaching that we do with the university’s goals. Specifically, we are well-positioned to “advance the frontiers of knowledge,” “foster a curriculum that integrates multiple modes of delivery,” and “prepare our students for success in their careers and in life.” (see http://strategicplan.psu.edu/thematic-priorities/transforming-education/) During the Reboot, LLS will take stock of our full complement of employees, resources, and target populations.
The University Libraries Strategic Plan calls us to “expand our role as a partner in online and resident education, increasing our capacity to develop and support engaged, critical, and informed learners through multiple forms of instruction.” The Reboot will enable us to respond directly to this call.
Goals
We are as excited to reach the new level of teaching excellence our Reboot will enable. Our goals are to emerge from the experience with:
- an articulated teaching program
- a defined scope for our curriculum
- new teaching activities for in-person, online, and hybrid scenarios
- identified curricular partners and goals/strategies for engaging with them
- plans for effective assessment of our teaching integrations
Plan
In order to make the time and space for this to happen, LLS librarians will pare back face-to-face teaching during the re-boot. Learning Services will draw upon its robust portfolio of teaching options to meet their collaborators’ needs. The CAS 100 and ENGL 15 classes at University Park will have the opportunity to experience new modes of information literacy instruction:
- We have coordinated with ENGL 15 and CAS 100 departments to provide alternative instructional engagement for Spring 2019;
- Amy White, liaison to ENGL 15, will equip the course instructors to teach students about beginning library research, as well as providing them with DIY source evaluation activities for their students to complete
- We will provide our same level of support for research consultation services.
Select English 15 classes may also serve as experimentation grounds for testing out new instruction techniques and learning activities, including a trial of our highly successful digital badge program. Gregg Rogers, Associate Director for the Program in Writing and Rhetoric, is enthusiastic about the opportunities afforded by the Reboot. “The Library Instruction Reboot proves a promising opportunity to assess how the library’s instruction programs have evolved over the last several years and serves as an important moment to consider how our wonderful librarians might best aid English instructors in the constantly evolving state of secondary education,” noted Rogers. CAS 100 classes will have the same opportunities.
Why reduce face-to-face teaching for a semester?
Currently English 15 and CAS 100 classes account for 75% of the LLS teaching load and over 150 hours of preparatory and instructional time each semester. The hours gained during the Reboot will be used to assess our program, identify opportunities related to the populations we serve and the way that we teach, evaluate effectiveness and implementation of our many teaching modes (including our nationally noted digital badge program, Credo modules, faculty/instructor collaborations, and learning activities), and develop a holistic teaching and assessment strategy for the foundational informational literacy teaching that is at the heart of Library Learning Services’ mission and portfolio.
Student learning and research needs will drive this work, and will remain the number one value that shapes ALL of the work that LLS does, during and after the Reboot. Even as we work to reshape our program, we will be available to provide student and instructor support through consultation, Ask-a-Librarian, and the many outreach programs that the LLS team takes leadership on. LLS will continue to teach face-to-face for ESL and ENGL/CAS 137H. All current digital badge programs will also continue.
Communication
We in Library Learning Services are committed to accountability and transparency throughout the Reboot process. We acknowledge that LLS is a good testing ground for teaching innovations. Many of these innovations will also be applicable to our colleagues teaching in other areas of the Penn State University Libraries. We will keep you all (and the rest of libraryland) posted on our blog at https://sites.psu.edu/libraryinstructionreboot/ We are excited to share our process with you.
We are excited to embark on this adventure, and we welcome your support and questions. If you have questions about this project, please don’t hesitate to reach out to any of the LLS team. We are happy to chat with you!
The Library Learning Services Team
Dawn Amsberry • Anne Behler • Amanda Clossen • Hailley Fargo • Megan Gilpin •Amanda Larson • Glenn Masuchika • Rebecca Miller • Rebecca Peterson • Torrie Raish • Emily Rimland • Amy White