A presentation at the KCPDC conference on Enhancing Learning and Teaching, Kansas City, March 3, 2012

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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