Cloning Ourselves:
One Librarian’s Experience
Judith A. Downie
California State University San Marcos
LOEX, San Diego, CA May 4, 2007
Instruction Trends
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Library instruction pedagogy has moved from library skills to courseintegrated and information-literate focus
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12-16% growth in academic enrollment between 1997-2009 (Gerald
& Hussar, 2000)
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Instruction requests have increased
Scheduling conflicts
0% growth in Academic Librarian positions between 1998-2008
(OOQ, Winter 2000-01, pg. 9)
Access issues
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Many more sources, methods and tools are being taught
Supports student retention, especially in the first year
Distance education
Our users want anytime/anywhere
Equitable technologies
“Victims of our own success”
Options?
Too much
instruction?
Turn down
requests
Redistribute or
reschedule requests
STOP
Too many
other duties?
Hire more
Librarians
Give up
other tasks
My trial solutions
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Asked myself, what do students want/need?
I considered
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Shortening the one-shot—two visits in one class
period relying on comprehensive web page
‘Teaching the teacher’
I trialed
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Combined course sections
Help from colleagues
Cloning myself
Possible cloning options
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Tutorials
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Webinars
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Text based, some screen shots
Real time interactive (may be archived for future
use)
Webcast
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One-way presentation that can be archived for
referral
Cloning with Mediasite
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Web video presentation tool (webcast)
Multiple modalities
Free access for end user
On demand--anytime, anywhere
There are alternatives…
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Low cost (Powerpoint with voiceover)
Fee-based (commercial providers)
Why Mediasite?
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Campus choice
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Asynchronous distance learning in traditional
teaching arrangement
Provider reputation for reliability
Low labor costs for post-production
No cost to library as a campus-wide purchase
Opportunity for collaboration
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Faculty/faculty
Faculty/librarians
Librarians/IT staff
CSUSM’s Mediasite space
Mediasite at CSUSM
Mediasite elements
Positives
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Available to the end user without additional software
Aids in learning retention
Easy to learn and manipulate
Modular segments to mix and match
Can be set up in classrooms or dedicated studio
IITS support
Embraced by many classroom faculty
Burn to a CD or load the audio to an I-Pod
Issues for librarians
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Dependent on others for certain services
Scheduling space and personnel
Limited interactivity
How to measure effectiveness?
Availability through web can be a doubleedged sword
Functional limitations
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‘Real Estate’
Editing
Preparation time
Connection speed for user
Unable to measure use
Access and use without creator’s knowledge
Some features are not intuitive nor readily
visible
Assessment
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Assessment of learning OR evaluation of
instruction?
Integrated into the CSUSM IL Program from the
beginning
Promoted by WASC and other accrediting bodies
Limited ability through Mediasite’s poll function
Use a separate survey tool
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Self-created survey
Commercial tool
Mediasite Poll
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Questions are T/F, Y/N, or multiple choice
Must take poll in order to view results
Simple-to-read results
Viewing poll results
Survey Monkey
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Purchased by the library
Professional research as well as student
assessment
Anonymous and automatic data collection
Web-based, anytime, anywhere
Create a URL to link to your survey
Easy to learn
Download and manipulate data using Excel
SurveyMonkey
My results to date
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Minus
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Room for refinement of presentation
Some segments are too long
High-speed connection a must
Low use of evaluation tool
Plus
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Meets faculty need for instruction
Appeals to students
Re-usable
Saves time later
Tips
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Design
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Recording
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Keep date-free
KISS and TEST!
Design short segments
Practice and time yourself
Prepared screen shots
Incorporate interactivity
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Pose questions to promote attention
Use the poll feature
Guided notes or fill-in worksheet to accompany
My conclusions
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Successful
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Student outreach
Faculty and IITS collaboration
Not for every instructional situation
Has been a time-saver
Include and promote assessment tool
Work with classroom faculty to assess
learning
Future considerations
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User
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Back-end
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ADA compliance
Faculty and student acceptance
Compare effectiveness with first-years to upper-division or
discipline-based vs. general
Copyright
Classroom Management Systems
Impact of upgrades or new versions
Tools
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Podcasting
Additional tools
Thank you!
Enjoy the conference…
and any future cloning
Judith A. Downie
[email protected]
CSUSM Mediasite: http://prawn.csusm.edu
Bibliography of resources:
http://library.csusm.edu/about/people/judith.asp