Foundational Learners Group Introduction

The group tasked to dive into our relationships with Foundational Learners consists of Amanda Clossen, Glenn Masuchika, Rebecca Peterson, Rebecca Waltz, and Amy White. This group is working to explore our department’s relationship with foundational learners, both currently and in the future.

Our goals for this group are as follows:

  • Assess the needs of our foundational user groups.
  • Review the strengths and weaknesses of current and past approaches to foundational instructions.
  • Complete an analysis of teaching models.
  • Articulate a scaled way forward for foundational instruction.

To that end, the group’s first task is to create an inventory of all instructional situations Library Learning Services engages in. We are exploring not just the numbers of instructional interactions, but our relationships with course coordinators and comparing commonalities in syllabi for the courses that we have both interacted with in the past as well as those we hope to interact with in the future.

We also have plans to meet with Assessment to discuss the possibility of focus groups of both foundational students as well as instructors. Through this sort of investigation, we hope to gain a better picture of what our students need and our instructors want.

Any questions about this group can be sent to Amanda Clossen at asc17@psu.edu.

 

Distinctive Populations Team Introduction

One of the strategic areas for the Library Learning Services instruction reboot is assessing opportunities for working with distinctive populations. The team charged with this task has begun work on evaluating our current landscape for instructional initiatives with these student populations. Team members are Dawn Amsberry, Anne Behler, Hailley Fargo, Megan Gilpin, and Amy White.

Our goals for the semester include:

  • Examine our current instructional landscape and identify existing partnerships and activities with distinctive populations.
  • Identify and contact new potential instructional partnerships.
  • Prioritize existing and potential instructional activities.
  • Develop plans for an integration into a program or class for one or more distinctive population groups by Fall 2019.

Our first step was to identify specific target populations, including first-generation college students, adult learners and veterans, change of campus and transfer students, international students, and multicultural students. To accomplish our first goal, we’ve begun work on mapping our existing partnerships, activities, and contacts with these groups. We already have strong relationships with many relevant groups on campus, and will be looking at the potential for expanding those partnerships into more formalized instructional activities.

We’ve also begun to delve into the research on distinctive populations in libraries and higher education. The existing research will inform our work as we move forward, and give us insight into best practices for working with the student populations we have identified.

Questions and comments about our group’s work are welcome and can be sent to Dawn Amsberry at dua4@psu.edu.