Brave new world : venturing beyond the library walls into the frontier of blended learning in theological education
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Presentation by Anna Lagos and Lyndelle Gunton, Learning and Teaching Librarians at Trinity Theological Library in Brisbane, to the 2015 Australian and New Zealand Theological Libraries Association (ANZTLA) Conference in Auckland, New Zealand on July 16, 2015.
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Brave new world : venturing beyond the library walls into the frontier of blended learning in theological education
- 4. • Needed to replace a Library Technician • Wanted to establish some online courses • Needed to improve the IT support of the library • Needed to increase library usage • Limited budget
- 5. Develop a strategy to intentionally engage with existing and potential clients in innovative and meaningful ways to better serve the information needs of Trinity College Queensland students and staff, and the wider community of the Uniting Church in Queensland.
- 6. • Move towards blended learning model • Engage people any way possible o Face to face o Print o Online Always with the intention of increasing client’s awareness & usage of the library and college offerings
- 7. • Using Moodle we’ve built an online learning platform > we call it OLÉ • 18 courses to date • Using all the functions of OLÉ from a repository to self-paced learning through interactive content and student engagement • Synchronous and asynchronous learning options
- 8. • Assisting the teachers with new ways to develop and present information • Administrative tasks – enrolling students etc • Advising on copyright permissions • Tech support for online learners • Current awareness about Moodle and teaching and learning research & trends
- 9. • Information literacy support • Developed an Introduction to Online Learning Course • Self-paced reading for CEM course • Live-streamed guest lectures on YouTube • Reviewing and providing feedback on course materials developed
- 10. • Created videos using Camtasia & Tellgamis • Hosted how-to videos on You Tube • Use free online tools such as PicMonkey or PiktoChart to create graphics
- 12. Engagement with the wider church and student body • Face to face • Online • Print
- 13. • Get people into the library • Make sure people know where you are • Be present outside the library • Show & Tell to stakeholders
- 17. • The digital library – YouTube channel, how-to clips, Tellagami promo clips, ebooks, website, storify newsletters • Beyond the library – recording and broadcasting educational events on YouTube, social media presence, Introduction to OLÉ course, IL support for online course design and delivery
- 18. • You don’t need to be an IT expert or a graphic designer
- 19. • Ads in Queensland church magazine • Library Survival Guide • Infographics
- 21. • Great uptake of some online courses, significant growth from 2012 • Discussion forum are being utilised • Growing confidence in teaching staff and students in using technology • Development in educators use of new technologies • Planning for moving sections into online space • Marketing engagements has improved
- 22. • Increased membership from church community • Increased number of active borrowers • Increased number of student enrolments (online) • Increased requests for information/reference support • Increased requests for librarian/library presence at educational events • Greater collaboration in planning for educational activities • Increased library participation in wider church activities
- 23. • Participants’ computer skills – how do you give personal attention to everyone? • Balancing library tasks with Trinity OLÉ issues • Trying to do everything at once • Staff support • Aligning our vision for the future with stakeholders
- 24. • Continue to evaluate current courses by gathering and analysing feedback from participants • Strategic planning for prioritising projects with TCQ staff and the wider Qld Synod of the UCA. • Training staff to identify, select and use a range of teaching tools across the blended learning continuum • Extending our service offerings to a wider audience
- 25. • Develop blended learning skills by enrolling in a MOOC. • Develop an in depth understanding of your clients and how they prefer to learn. Meet them in their spaces and connect with them using the tools they prefer to use. • Offer training for online content developers about incorporating IL principles into design and delivery • Use an existing OL platform to deliver IL training or other skill development • Consider using free tools to deliver information about library products & services in different formats
Editor's Notes
- ANNA Introduction Lyndelle and I are the Learning & Teaching Librarians at Trinity Theological Library. It’s 1 full time position, so we job share. Our role challenges the traditional notion of the librarian in the library, 0.5 of our role is outside the library working with staff and in the classroom (or digital classroom). In today’s presentation we want to challenge you, as we have been challenged in our role, to think outside the box with your library services. But first a bit of background about our library – Trinity College is part of the UCA in QLD. Our library serves students of the college, but also congregation member, uniting church staff and ministry agents. We have 2 full time staff (us & Alethea). Our library has a physical and digital collection. Historically we’ve been primarily academically focussed but we have a growing lay collection.
- ANNA Connect the dots by drawing four straight, continuous lines that pass through each of the nine dots, and never lifting the pencil from the paper Think outside the box Was anyone able to solve it?
- ANNA It’s easy to confine your thinking within the boundaries, but sometimes those boundaries are only our perception and we need to push ourselves to look outside it.
- LYNDELLE If we consider the idea of boundaries in the context of library and information services, there are many we face when challenged to think outside the box. budget, trying to do more with less. Keeping up to date with technology, increasing need from clients for IT support Learning support needs for demographic Our problem was one that is shared by many library and information services. Management decided the answer was in the form of L&T librarian. 1.0 FTE Based half in library, half outside the library to support development of online learning program
- LYNDELLE Our PD offered a broad scope. Support the products and services of the library. Market those products and services Support teaching and learning activities of the College. We needed to develop a strategy from which to work
- ANNA Adopt a blended learning philosophy in and beyond the library The blended learning environment allows us the potential to engage with the wide variety of learners across Queensland and beyond. In addition to increasing our flexibility in terms of learning styles, the blended learning approach also allows us to support people as they engage in a lifelong learning or who sense a call to ministry but face limitations in terms of access to Brisbane, access in business hours. By adopting a blended learning approach to education, we are aiming to ensure the accessibility to learning for all those interested in participating.
- ANNA 18 courses with a wide scope including courses for those studying for ministry, people wanting to learn more about the bible and deepen their faith, people who want to become leaders and lay preachers in their local church to professional development course for employees of the uniting church or its agencies and PD for ministry agents. Synchronus (through webinars and face to face classroom ) and asynchronous learning options. We aim to remove any barriers to learning such as location, family care situations, current work situations To deliver theological education to people ANYWHERE they are, ANY TIME they wish to study, with materials ALWAYS AVAILABLE. i.e. remove as many barriers to study
- LYNDELLE Assisting teachers to consider and apply new ways of developing and presenting content Administrative tasks, e.g. enrolling students Advising on copyright issues relating to LMS Providing tech support for online learners Maintaining current awareness about Moodle functionality Maintainging current awareness about research and trends in teaching and learning Liaison with IT support Liaison with legal and financial advisors for licensing agreements and contracts for use of our programs e.g. UC induction program for employees
- LYNDELLE We’ve been able to support blended learning Increased IL support Intro to OL course Self-paced reading for CEM course Live-streamed guest lectures on YouTube to allowe for a wider audience to access our resources. Reviewing and providing feedback on online course materials and the way they are presented, keeping in mind the variety of learning styles that people prefer. Ensuring we don’t simply provide scrolling pages of text, but visual and audio forms of content to maintain engagement with content and confirm learning.
- ANNA Some of the ways we’ve worked to make the content more interesting but on a tight budget.
- ANNA Show a Tellagami
- ANNA Putting the blended learning philosophy into practice outside the classroom! We’ve got all this great stuff organised, but how do we get people to use it? We are still working on this, but making some progress Take any opportunity to get people aware, have an opportunity to talk Get people engaged in the library, make sure they are aware of our online course offerings, aware that we are removing the barriers to learning Marketing is also part of our job description
- LYNDELLE Our marketing strategy is to engage with current and potential library clients in physical and online spaces. We have sought to meet them where they are – in the workplace, in the learning environment, in social media spaces to learn more about their information needs and share information to help them use our products and services better. Our aim is to get more people into our physical and digital library spaces. Make sure clients know where we are, physically and digitally Be present beyond the walls of the library Do more than talk – show our products and listen to our clients.
- LYNDELLE Attended a state-wide church conference with library information packs but tried to make our booth fun and useful – photobooth and yoyos We’ve kept the charging station going in the library to encourage people visiting head office to come in Library bags Signage inside and outside the library
- Lunch box sessions – cost us nothing Topic of importance to wider church community – reconciliation issues, ethical trade, wrap up from UnitingWomen conference Cost us nothing and opportunity to show library resources and get people into the library
- Host a church wide activity > this event, along with info about the library went into the state-wide church magazine, email news, local church newsletters. Where we can be, we have a presence at off-site local educational events – POP UP libraries!
- ANNA In the online space we are the ‘go to’ people to go for support Uniting news contributions and green news letter, book submissions.
- ANNA You can make a pic for your website of facebook using PicMonkey in a couple of minutes
- LYNDELLE We also make use of print tools to promote library products and services. We share a advertisement spot in the monthly issue of Journey, the UC magazine in Queensland We produced a Library Survival Guide booklet Posters with infographics describing the blended learning philosophy
- LYNDELLE These have provided visual ways of helping stakeholders and clients to become aware of our resources.
- ANNA Discussions forums are being utilised although we continue to work on getting further engagement on this
- ANNA
- ANNA Not everything we’ve done has been a roaring success story, we’ve started small and slow with a number of things. But it’s important to remember that we don’t’ have to succeed on the first try. Failure is ok if we learn from it and it improves our services going forward. The problem with computer skills has been greatly improved by the Intro to Online Learning Course And it may be unique but job-sharing has worked really well for us > mixture of skills We’ve had a challenge convincing some staff of the benefits of the blended learning model, this mainly translates to a slower take up for those staff members and their teaching areas. Budget pressures on the college means there’s pressure on the library and the online learning space – we continue to advocate for these but the online learning platform is a cost to the college and as its early days in the online space for us, we are not cost neutral yet, therefore it is under threat.
- LYNDELLE Like everyone, budget decisions mean we need to work harder to provide evidence to the wider organisation that this journey is worth continuing. What we do know is that without making any changes over the past 12 months, we would have less convincing argument to remain operational. Potential for bringing in revenue to independently fund the online program is what we’re working towards. Numerous collaborations in the works to develop content and bring enrolments based on our in-house IT support
- LYNDELLE Part of our purpose in this presentation is to encourage you to consider new ways of being library. Put people into a state of discomfort – not just library staff, but clients and colleagues, particularly when doing something new means stopping doing other things. You may not be thanked on the first try; you may be criticised or your efforts may go unnoticed. If evidence supports your new strategy going forward, persistence is required. It might not work until the 4th try.
- ANNA Don’t be afraid of failure, celebrate them and your successes. This kid is so excited by the fact that he only fails 3 times – “It worked on the 4th try!!!!!”