The document discusses strategies for building effective assignments in virtual classroom environments, highlighting the perspectives of both students and librarians. It emphasizes the need for clear, consistent assignment design and collaboration with librarians to enhance research skills and resource accessibility. Additionally, it offers recommendations for utilizing open educational resources and embedding librarians in the online learning process.

1. Building Effective Assignments in
Virtual Classroom Environments
March 3, 2012
CTU faculty :
CTU Librarian:
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Jeannie Antes
Kelley Emmett
Olga Koz
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2. AGENDA
• Students’ perspectives
• Librarian’s perspectives
• How a librarian can help
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3. Students want:
• Consistency in assignments’ design across
all courses
• Clear, unambiguous, descriptive directions
• Know the purpose
• Know about format & genre and see a
sample of the paper or other work
• Know about performance criteria
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4. A Librarian or a Tutor wants:
The same as what a student wants and…
• The assignment indicates the kinds of
materials that will be acceptable
• Assignment that helps to develop critical
thinking, research and problem solving
skills
• Integrated assignments
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5. Librarian recommends
• Include sources that students can mine for
relevant information
• Name type of resources you don’t want
students to use
• Name type of resources that you want
students to use (Scholarly or Educational)
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6. Why collaborate with a librarian?
1. A Librarian can assist with resources for an
assignment
2. A Librarian is knowledgeable about copyright,
open access and preventing plagiarism
3. Very often a Librarian is a tutor and a research
assistant and can share his/her observation of
students works on assignments
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7. Resources for assignments
Textbooks online companions
Cengage Brain
McGraw-Hill and Glencoe
 Pearson
CourseSmart
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8. Academic Web
Library and open source
academic resources for
faculty
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9. Open Educational Resources (OER)
Types of OERs
•
•
Open courseware (MOOC)
Open textbooks
AcademicPub (http://www.academicpub.sharedbook.com/)
Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources
(http://oerconsortium.org/)
•
Open software, games and apps
Popular web sites:
OEC http://www.oercommons.org/
Merlot http://www.merlot.org/
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10. CTU Library guide for Faculty
URL:
http://careered.libguides.com/ctu/faculty_center
Faculty Center has aTemplates assignments
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11. Embedding library resources into the classroom
portal
URL:
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http://careered.libguides.com/ctu/integrating_portal
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12. Ask a librarian to create a guide to the research assignment
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13. Ask a librarian to be a classroom research assistant
• Librarians could be embedded
inside the online classroom
• Invite a librarian to be a part of the
Online Discussion Board or a
Forum, conduct a Chat session
about using library for a specific
assignment
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14. Ask a librarian to be a class co-instructor
Some Librarians are
instructors and teach
Information Literacy or
Research Skills classes
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15. References
Starr H., (2011) Embedded academic
librarian experiences in online courses:
Roles, faculty collaboration, and opinion,
Library Management, 32 (6/7), 444 - 456
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16. Additional Resources
• ERIC (Education Resources Information Center – touted as ‘world’s
largest digital library of education literature): http://www.eric.ed.gov/
• Faculty Center http://careered.libguides.com/ctu/faculty_center
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