Moving to online-only IL instruction for first year
1. Moving to online-only IL instruction
for first year business
undergraduates
Jack Hyland, Dublin City University
Library
BLA conference 2015, Liverpool
2. First year UG training: Before
• Fragmented, with gaps in coverage:
– Face-to-face for lots of smaller programmes
– Blended for about 250 students* in Skills for
Success module
• Lecture - 30 minutes
• Staggered 20 min. workshops in library training rooms
• Online quiz assessment (5% of host module)
* Meehan, David (2009) Optimising information literacy delivery to large classes: the contact or the online approach? In: AISHE International
Conference Series 2009: Valuing Complexity: Celebrating Diverse Approaches to Teaching & Learning, 27-28 August 2009, NUI Maynooth, Co.
Kildare, Ireland.
3. Then
• Changes to Skills for Success led to further
fragmentation and gaps
• Struggle to find training opportunities:
– Core and optional modules
– Overlaps between programmes, schools and years
of study
4. Does online instruction work?
• I was convinced by improvements in:
– Tech
– “E-pedagogy” (my own and community’s)
– Best practice
5. Benefits of online instruction
• For lecturer:
– Outside of class time
• For student:
– Can control of pace of learning
– Available at time of need
– Immediate feedback
• For librarian:
– Scalable
– Flexibility of teaching formats: text, video, activities
etc.
– New gadgets to play with
6. 2014-2015
• Strong support from School’s Associate Dean
for T&L for embedded online instruction
• Embedded with to Introduction to Marketing
core module (5% of marks)
• Online-only training for nearly all first year
business students in Dublin (500) and 150
students in Riyadh
7. The plan
• ~2 hour asynchronous tutorial:
– Finding books, journals
– Business info. sources
– Searching databases
– Evaluating sources
– Plagiarism
• ~40 minute assessment quiz
• Students given two weeks to complete it
15. Feedback
• Positive (but limited) feedback immediately
after tutorial and assessment:
– “I really loved the tutorial, it is so useful and I
gained a lot of important information that are very
helpful to me as a student. The tutorial is so clear
and gave me an overview about everything I
need to know.”
16. Grades
Online - 2014 Blended – 2013
Total students 658 194
Total completed assessment 601 187
% completed assessment 91% 96%
Avg. mark 85% 72%
• Good demonstration of understanding key
concepts
• No evidence of “gaming” quiz
17. End of year survey
Responses from 102 students
19. Improvements needed
• Avoid tech glitches
• More quizzing and activities
• Need to know more on UX (surveying? focus
group?)
• Further demonstration of impact?
20. 2015-2016
• Common basic library skills for all first year
business students (moving to Intro to
Economics module)
• 700-800 DCU students, 150 Riyadh
