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Learning Commons
Learning Commons
Learning Commons
Your Librarian provides customized, assignment-specific instruction incorporating information literacy skills for your class in your classroom, in a computer lab, or in the library. Your Librarian is an expert in identifying resources to support your curriculum.
Information literate students are able to find, evaluate, synthesize, create, and communicate information in all its forms. The skills they acquire seamlessly transfer from one program and situation to another and create a foundation for life-long learning.
Outcomes include the ability to understand, find, evaluate, ethically use, and create information efficiently and effectively to solve an information problem.
All sessions are at the request of core subject faculty and assessed informally or formally, per workshop, or pre- and post-assessment using the ILAAP assessment tool.
Your Librarian offers several models of instruction, such as but not limited to:
Single-Concept Class – Bring your students to the library computer lab for one class where your librarian will facilitate an active and engaging session to work on one or two specific learning objectives (e.g. Participants find scholarly articles using licensed database (Greenfile, Medline, Business Source Complete, etc.; Participants understand the differences between scholarly and popular journals) or to provide a general overview of information literacy skills required for their coursework.
Multi-Pack Classes – Bring your students for two or three classes during a term where your librarian will facilitate active and engaging sessions encompassing one or two specific learning objectives in more depth (e.g. Students understand how to avoid plagiarism; Participants format reference correctly).
Integrated Sessions – Involve your librarian in your course to provide students more focused instruction and feedback on an assignment or concept (e.g. research unit for an annotated bibliography, research strategies and keyword searching in one or two database interfaces). Ideally, Integrated Sessions are aligned with course outline and delivered multiple times per term in shorter sessions.
The integrated instruction model allows for multi-faceted and dynamic customization.
Subject faculty and your Librarian work together with a variety of instructional strategies and methods to provide students with greater opportunities for feedback and instruction on their developing information literacy skills. Subject faculty and your Instructional and Research Librarian work together to create and/or modify assignments with assessment rubrics that provide rich feedback for students.
Some examples of embedded instruction include:
Anthropology 110
The assignment: In-Class Group Presentation
Library faculty involvement: A Librarian instructs 2-4 in-class sessions, meets with student groups outside of class time, reviews students' research logs, and provides citation and referencing assistance.
Business: Sustainability 365
The assignment: Research Paper
Library faculty involvement: Your Librarian instructs the research unit along with the course instructor. Topics covered include: determining what resources to use (books, journal articles, primary or secondary sources, newspapers, media, etc.), evaluating sources, avoiding plagiarism, creating accurate citations, and refining Internet searches.