Scaffolding research skills beyond the classroom

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Scaffolding research skills beyond the classroom
Eloise Bellard, Reference/Coordinator of Library
Instruction, Adelphi U. Lois ONeill,
Reference/Electronic Resources Librarian, Adelphi
U.
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Why we need to scaffold research skills?

• Information environment is complicated and
  continues to evolve. Students need to keep pace
  
• As lifelong learners they need to adapt to new
  environments
• Classroom instruction insufficient

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Limitations associated with classroom instruction

• Contact time Out of sight out of mind
• Coverage too much or too little redundant or
  new?

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Instructional pitfalls

• Emphasis on the mechanics
• Not all librarians are not trained teachers
• Cant reach everyone

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Obstacles associated with student learning

• Student perceptions
• Students Research behavior
• Competitive information landscape

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Difficulties associated with teaching the
Literature Review

• Structure is unique
• Multifaceted process
• Requires upper level critical thinking skills
  regarding sources, searching, and information
  retrieval

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ALL THESE OBSTACLES . WHAT TO DO?

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Eureka an online tutorial !!

• Interactive
• Supports different
• learning styles
• Self paced and asynchronous
• Supports remote users

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ACRL identifies some criteria for creating
successful online tutorials

• Student needs?
• Learning styles visual, auditory, kinesthetic,
  reading and writing, also blended
• Include goals and objectives
• Assessment reinforcement of concepts and
  immediate feedback
• What is available?

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Ta daaa !!!
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Pedagogical must haves

• Inclusive instruction for beginning to advanced
  learners
• Provides support without leaving the task
• Modular, self paced, non-sequential
• Self assessment exercises
• Accommodates multiple learning styles
• visual, audio, (blended,) kinesthetic, reading
  

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Technology applications that helped us realize
our Wish list

• Mouseovers
• Embedding examples that identify important
  features and organization of literature
• Online demonstration of methods of building
  searches from simple to sophisticated.
• Use of highlighting, voiceovers and captioning to
  analyze and evaluate search results

from Captain Zilog,www.computerhistory.org
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Software Used

• Storyboard PowerPoint
• Interactive portions Adobe Captivate 2
• HTML Javascript
• Audio Edirol Digital Recorder

from http//blogs.sun.com/MartinHardee/en
try/design_comics_templates_1_0
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Challenges

• Time and effort involved
• Amount of information
• Amount of text to include
• Placement of scaffolding
• Allotting the right amount of time for each frame
• Coordinating timing of audio and visual
  components

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Promoting the tutorial

• Introduced to the library community through
  listservs
• Introduced the tutorial to faculty through a
  liaison workshop
• Submission to PRIMO
• Requested student evaluation

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How we are using the tutorial

• Teaching faculty gave the tutorial as an
  assignment before coming to an instructional
  session
• To date its been used by teaching and library
  faculty on both undergraduate and graduate
  levels.
• List tutorial on handouts used in class for
  reinforcement
• Tutorial is available under our library
  tutorials

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Bibliography

• Gordon, Carol A. (2002). A Room with a view
  Looking at School Library Instruction from a
  Higher Education Perspective. Knowledge Quest
  30 (4)16-21.
• Halttunen Kai. (2003). Scaffolding Performance in
  IR Instruction Exploring Learning Experiences
  and Performance in Two Learning Environments
  Journal of Information Science 2003 29
  doi10.1177/01655515030295004
• Reece, G. (2007) Critical thinking and cognitive
  transfer Implications for the development of
  online information literacy tutorials. Research
  Strategies, 20 482-493.
• Rich, Mitoko. (February 15, 2009). The Future of
  Reading In Web Age Library Job Gets Update.
• Somoza-Fernandez, Marta. (2009). Analysis of
  web-based tutorials created by academic
  libraries. The Journal of Web Librarianship
  doi10.1016/j.acalib.2009.01.010
• Weber, J.H., Granor, T.E. (2004). Is the help
  helpful? how to create online help that meets
  your users' needs. Whitefish Bay, WI
  Hentzenwerke Pub
• Xie, Hong Iris. (2007). Help Features in Digital
  Libraries. Online Information Review.31(6),
  861-880.