Teaching Primary Source Literacy in a blended learning environment - Evelyn Flanagan (University College Dublin)
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This document discusses a blended learning module on teaching primary source literacy at University College Dublin Library. The module involves 120 second year humanities students engaging with primary sources from UCD's special collections both in person and online. Students develop skills in identifying, selecting, interpreting, and using primary sources. They complete individual and group assignments assessing their breadth and depth of engagement with the materials. While lectures were recorded online during COVID, handling physical materials is considered fundamental to teaching primary source literacy and is now done in person.
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Teaching Primary Source Literacy in a blended learning environment - Evelyn Flanagan (University College Dublin)
- 1. Teaching Primary Source Literacy in a blended learning environment. • Evelyn Flanagan • Head of Special Collections, • University College Dublin Library • CONUL 2022
- 2. The Module • BA Humanities Core 2nd Year Module • 120 students per year • Hands-on experience of research in the humanities • Visits to the Special Collections Reading Room • Groupwork
- 3. Examples of the primary sources used
- 4. Covid – 2020-2021 • Groupwork skills • Primary Source Literacy • Knowledge of UCD’s Cultural Heritage collections • Asynchronous short lectures delivered via VLE • Workshop delivered live over zoom • Very comprehensive VLE support
- 5. Module Structure and Assessment Weeks 1-6 • Breadth: Identifying, selecting, interpreting, and using a range of primary sources • Glossary (20%) • Individual Report (20%) Weeks 7 - 12 • Depth: Engaging in in-depth research on specific materials from UCD Special Collections • Group Exhibition (40%) • Individual Critical Reflection (20%)
- 7. 2021-22 Hands-on work with primary sources • Week 1-6 • Breadth: Identifying, selecting, interpreting, and using a range of primary sources • Weeks 7-12 • Depth: Engaging in in-depth research on specific materials from UCD Special Collections English and Creative Writing tutorial in UCD Special Collections, Spring 2022
- 8. Blended learning - 2021-22 • Lectures delivered in person but always recorded and made available via the VLE • Structured intuitive layout to the VLE • Video support content created • Use of Google Docs live in class • Digital primary sources made available to reinforce experience of discovering and handling the physical materials • Materiality and handling material is a fundamental aspect of teaching primary source literacy that should happen in person
- 9. Materiality and handling material is a fundamental aspect of teaching primary source literacy that should happen in person
- 10. Thanks!! • If you would like any more information on this presentation, please email me at evelyn.flanagan@ucd.ie • This slide features a postcard from the Curran Laird collection which shows Dublin after the 1916 rising or the Sinn Fein rebellion as it was then called.
Editor's Notes
- Welcome to everyone. Thanks for the opportunity to speak at CONUL 2022 - . Today I’m going to speak about Teaching Primary Source Literacy in a blended learning environment., specifically about the UCD module HUM 2005, Primary Source Research in the Humanities: Exploring UCD Cultural Heritage Collections While the module has always had a blended learning element, COVID has had a profound impact on the degree of online v’s face to face instruction. This experience has influenced the blended approach we have taken in a world that allows face to face teaching again. So what is Primary Source Literacy? Primary source literacy is the combination of knowledge skills, and abilities necessary to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, and ethically use primary sources within specific disciplinary contexts, in order to create new knowledge or to revise existing understandings. This definition is from a document entitled Guidelines for primary source literacy developed by the Society of American archivists and the Association of College and Research Libraries in 2018. UCD Teaching and Learning describe blended learning as ‘a hybrid model that utilises the benefits of both face-to-face and online learning modes of delivery’.
- The BA Humanities programme, interdisciplinary, and multi-subject degree that offers a number of defined pathways or subject combinations such as English, Classics History, Classics Art History Archaeology, English Drama and Film for example. The first cohort of BA Humanities students started their 4 year degree in 2018. This 2nd year core module was developed through a collaboration between library and academic staff in UCD and in particular in partnership the module coordinator Prof Naomi McAreavy. It gives students an authentic, hands-on experience of research in the Arts and Humanities. There have been around 120 students taking the module each year. The module runs over both semesters having cohorts from different pathways in each semester. In terms of delivery, there is one lecture per week attended by students from all pathways and one tutorial per week which students take with their peers from their chosen pathway. As well as integration of SC resources into the curriculum, group work skills is the other fundamental tenant of this module.
- The process around the selection of the resources was very important from a Special Collections point of view. The material chosen was a mix of books, pamphlets, ephemera and archival material. I think it might be useful here to give you a sample of some of the items which were selected An annotated draft of the short story Tom from the Mary Lavin archive An image form the Edna O’Brien archives at UCD An engraving of the Roman baths of Caracalla from Giuseppe Vasi’s Delle magnificenze di Roma antica e moderna 1747 A leaflet relating to the burning of the four courts during the Irish civil war You can see that this is a quite diverse range of material in terms of format, time period and subject matter.
- During the initial lockdown, the tutorials were held live and were moved online to zoom and the remaining lectures were delivered asynchronously via videos on our Virtual Learning Environment Brightspace. The students continued their groupwork online and produced their presentations collaboratively despite the lockdown. In designing the 2020-21 version of the module Naomi and I stripped back our learning objectives to three core objectives- Development of Groupwork skills, Understanding of the type of material that is held in UCD Cultural Heritage Collections, - Development of Primary Source Literacy The module was completely online, taught through one lecture delivered asynchronously and one workshop per week delivered live over zoom. We did however have to change the focus of some of the lecturers and the format to better fit the resources that the students would be working. There was an extra focus on the workshops though as this was the only time that the students are meeting each other and their teachers in real time.
- Moving the module fully online and then to a blended learning environment really focused our minds on minds on the structure and assessment of the module as well as the layout and presentation of the module on the VLE (Brightspace). During the first 6 weeks, one of the students’ tasks was to look at the Kevin Barry papers on the UCD Digital Library and consider the process of creating an exhibition. Students were asked to write a group glossary and an individual report on an item from the UCD digital library during this time. For the group exhibition project we examined the various collections that had been digitized and made available via the UCD Digital Library and discussed which collection would best illustrate the key concepts of primary source literacy, something that would form the basis of the presentation and something that would be suitable to look at as part as a group .
- We had a good selection of periodicals available on the Digital Library and they all covered a particular period which was the late 19th and early 20th century. These were Pat, Shan Van Vocht, St Stephens and Hermes. We felt that these periodicals would allow students coming from a variety of disciplines within the humanities to find content of interest. I also produced a video of the periodicals for the students which I filmed in the Special Collections Reading room. The students worked on their research projects in groups and uploaded their presentations to Brightspace for assessment. The standard of the presentations delivered in both semesters of 2020-21 were very good. Naomi reported that the students were overwhelmingly positive about what they got out of the module and many of them were really thoughtful about what they had achieved in terms of group work, primary source literacy, and even personal development. These students however, did not have the opportunity to view and interact with the physical material or to become comfortable working in the Special Collections and archives reading room environment.
- We learned a great deal from the 2021-22 experience and while aspects of the online delivery worked very well and could be carried forward, both Naomi and I felt that a very important aspect of primary source literacy is an understanding of Special collections and archives spaces and becoming comfortable handling the physical objects. This year, we kept the structure of the module which we had developed in the 2020-21. In the first six week the students were exposed to a range of different types of primary sources during their tutorials in the Special Collections reading room. They were given a worksheet which asked questions like: Provide the full title of the primary source, explain what kind of source it is, what year was it created etc. They were also asked to write a short description of the primary source, including a brief overview of its physical appearance and its content. During week 7-12, the student groups were assigned a specific item and again we held two of the tutorials in SC so that the students could ‘meet’ the item and discuss it in a group. These tutorials in Special Collections were very valuable experiences for staff and students.
- I’ve described how we have adjusted our modes of delivery as COVID 19 circumstances changed across the 3 previous years. Moving the module online very much influenced the revised structure of the module as well as the assessment and forced us to prioritise our learning outcomes. This had a long term positive impact on the module. This year, all of the lectures were delivered in person but always recorded and made available via the VLE. In addition, our digital primary sources were made available on the VLE to reinforce and complement experience of discovering and handling the physical materials and video support content was created (including this handling early printed books video which I produced with our media editor and cameral man Brian Kelly). On one occasion, when Naomi was unable to attend the tutorials which was held in SC she kept an eye on the worksheets that the students were completing by asking them to fill these out into a google doc which she was able to read and comment on in real time live from home. This worked really well and is something we might do again.
- Materiality and handling material is a fundamental aspect of teaching primary source literacy that should happen in person . This here is a digital image of the manuscript of Thomas Hardy’s return of the native held in UCD Special Collections. It is in hand. A few years ago, a Hardy scholar who visited to consult the manuscript told us that all Hardy manuscripts had a very slight whiff of cigars, which this one indeed does. This aspect of the materiality of the object is not something that can be experienced online…
- This slide features a postcard from the Curran Laird collection which shows Dublin after the 1916 rising or the Sinn Fein rebellion as it was then called.