Integrating information literacy into a team based learning course - Candice Benjes-Small
1. INTEGRATING
INFORMATION LITERACY
INTO A TEAM-BASED
LEARNING COURSE
Candice Benjes-Small
Head, Information Literacy & Outreach
Radford University, Radford, Virginia
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6. Applicable Course Objective
• Students should be able to critically read and evaluate a
research article in order to judge whether a modality is
appropriate for his/her patient.
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10. Team-Based Learning (TBL)
• Permanent teams
• Content provided outside of class
• Individual readiness assurance test (IRAT)
• Team readiness assurance test (TRAT)
• Team application activity (4 S’s)
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12. Library Version
• Pre-class videos
• IRAT on the learning management system
• TRAT at start of library workshop
• Team activity
• Remainder of time to find own articles
15. Backwards course design
• What do students need to understand in order to
complete those objectives?
16. IRAT/TRAT Objectives
• Design a search strategy
• Assess appropriateness of results
• Identify a research article
• Find full text
• Use interlibrary loan
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20. Team Activity 2015
• Your patient is suffering from Triceps Surae tendon pain.
Will ultrasound therapy help? Using the skills you learned
in the IRAT/TRAT, find two research articles for your
question.
This is Dr. Angela Mickle. She is the Director of the Athletic Training program at Radford University. One class that she teaches is Athletic Training 420: Modalities.
Modalities: an intervention used to heal someone. All athletic trainers use therapeutic modalities to treat patients. Angela assigns each student a particular modality to investigate:
Does cryotherapy and ultrasound help ankle injuires?
Does mirror therapy help patients who have had a stroke?
Each student would be assigned a research question and then search the literature for an answer. At the end of the semester, they present their findings at a poster session.
Before 2014, very traditional library workshop of 1.5 hours. I would teach students the basics of searching appropriate databases. Students needed to find research articles they could use for their topic.
Challenge #1: Although I design my workshops to be as hands-on as possible, some of the students would not pay attention. They tend to be very physically active students and are super-fidgety. I would use the “I do” “we do” “you do” method, but most jumped right to you do and were lost.
Very important to Dr. Mickle that the students find their articles during the library workshop. The instruciton usually took 45 minutes and many of the students really struggled to find two appopriate articles in the remaining time.
This is done at the start of each module. Usually, a module will last about two weeks.
IRAT and TRAT were part of the project grade.
Start with the team application activity: what do you want the students to be able to do? Ask audience.
Students really need to mix up their terminology- ice therapy should be cryotherapy, for example. They often have to be creative in their search process, and they often have to use ill.
Created a Libguide with text and videos for the “pre-reading”
Questions covered identifying research articles, characteristics of good search strategies; identifying whether particular articles needed to be ILL’ed; using a reference list to find similar articles; and finding the full text of articles. Almost all focused on application rather than concept. Average individual score was 84%, ranging from 50% to 100%. Students are NOT told their IRAT scores before the TRAT.
These are IF-AT forms. They cost about $50 for 500. All teams got 100% on TRAT
Good: It was a solid research question, needed to find the subject heading. Bad: Too long! Students don’t know how to skim results. Emphasis was on the result rather than the process. Ddin’t give students enough time to find their articles.
Refocused on what students needed to to do and brought back the 4 S’s (with a little variation). Def gave them more time.
Students were much more engaged. As soon as they’re seated, they are in working on TRAT. Already comfortable with group work so no shyness factor.
Had more time. The TBL stuff took about 30 minutes, and students had done the lecture portion and been quizzed on it twice. More time to process the material and apply it.
Some students still just type in a regular query and limit to full text, despite all warnings to the contrary. They don’t really believe their usual way of searchign is wrong. Angela and I hhave been talking about how to get students to a faiulre point so they will then listen. But I think that’s a challenge all around, not just with TBL.
Takeaway #1: Find a professor you have a good working relationship with. Angela and I started at RU together in 2001 and have worked closely on numerous committees together. I actually introduced the idea of TBL to her when she was concerned about lecturing too much.
Takeaway #2: Being able to mimic the usual classroom saved me so much time. They had their groups, they were used to their groups, they were used to working in groups.
Plan ahead! TBL is very regimented and you need to have the IRAT/TRAT done way ahead of time, meaning your videos need to be done ahead of time. Also, it was a great benefit to have this be part of their grade. Some profs use points rather than percentages and they can’t just add a quiz or two after the first day of class.
Validation: Made the library workshop a part of their regular curriculum. I was using the same lesson plan style as Angela, so it felt less like I was a guest speaker. Students responded well.