Type
Presentation
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/qjzx-j107
Session Description
Online learning librarians and liaison librarians to online programs must constantly balance the competing demands of providing in-depth, individualized instruction to online learners and reaching a majority of online students with library instruction. Librarians embedded in online courses know how difficult it is to scale meaningful instruction, and may feel forced to choose between reaching a majority of online learners with some form of library instruction or reaching fewer online learners through more targeted outreach.
As a liaison to a predominantly-online graduate program in Education, I have worked through several iterations of instructional course support that have varied in their reach and personalization, including virtual consultations, asynchronous tutorials, course-based webinars and interactive online workshops. Through the action research cycle, I analyzed each new iteration to judge its relative success at balancing the competing demands of scale and personalization.
In this session, I will discuss the technology and tools used to implement each of the online instructional offerings, as well as additional low-cost technology options for librarians looking to implement these programs at their own institutions. I will describe the pros and cons of each option as well as potential learner groups who might benefit most from that offering. I will also detail how effective each method was with students in the online graduate Education program and reasons for its relative success or failure. Finally, I will discuss the relative reach and time investment of each method so attendees can evaluate which blend of instructional offerings might be the best fit for their own learners or programs.
By the end of this session, attendees will be able to...
-Describe multiple instructional methods for balancing scale and personalization
-Identify groups of learners at their own institutions who could benefit from each instructional method
-List the necessary tools and technologies for each instructional method
Type of Library
University Library
There and Back Again, or, The Never-Ending Quest to Balance the Personal and Scalable in Online Instruction
Online learning librarians and liaison librarians to online programs must constantly balance the competing demands of providing in-depth, individualized instruction to online learners and reaching a majority of online students with library instruction. Librarians embedded in online courses know how difficult it is to scale meaningful instruction, and may feel forced to choose between reaching a majority of online learners with some form of library instruction or reaching fewer online learners through more targeted outreach.
As a liaison to a predominantly-online graduate program in Education, I have worked through several iterations of instructional course support that have varied in their reach and personalization, including virtual consultations, asynchronous tutorials, course-based webinars and interactive online workshops. Through the action research cycle, I analyzed each new iteration to judge its relative success at balancing the competing demands of scale and personalization.
In this session, I will discuss the technology and tools used to implement each of the online instructional offerings, as well as additional low-cost technology options for librarians looking to implement these programs at their own institutions. I will describe the pros and cons of each option as well as potential learner groups who might benefit most from that offering. I will also detail how effective each method was with students in the online graduate Education program and reasons for its relative success or failure. Finally, I will discuss the relative reach and time investment of each method so attendees can evaluate which blend of instructional offerings might be the best fit for their own learners or programs.
By the end of this session, attendees will be able to...
-Describe multiple instructional methods for balancing scale and personalization
-Identify groups of learners at their own institutions who could benefit from each instructional method
-List the necessary tools and technologies for each instructional method
Comments
https://doi.org/10.7275/qjzx-j107