1. Supporting students: raising the profile of IL
Maria Bell, London School of Economics and Political Science, m.bell@lse.ac.uk
The presentation will outline the ways in which the LSE Library is delivering
information literacy support using Moodle to reach more students.
The Library has provided information literacy content within the VLE of the London
School of Economics (LSE) since 2003 first using WebCT and then Moodle. There is
an online information skills module within a compulsory first year course; customised
‘library resources blocks’ which appear in all LSE Moodle courses and four ‘Library
Companions’ for Students, Researchers, Data Users and Legal Researchers within
Moodle. The aim of the Companions is to provide information literacy support for
students to access at the point of need. The majority of LSE courses are supported
by Moodle course components and it was important for the Library to have a
presence in the same environment.
With the LSE’s migration to Moodle 2 in 2012, the Library took the opportunity to
review the content and design of the Library Companion for Students. The
Companion presented materials in sections about resources, e.g. books, journals,
internet. Student focus groups revealed that many students were not aware of the
Companions. Once demonstrated students expressed how useful the resource would
have been. However, students also said that there was a lot of material which made
it difficult to identify where to start and what was most important.
The revised Companion is designed to follow a students’ approach in terms of
finding, using, evaluating and managing information. New content is designed to be
more visually engaging and to encourage greater interaction. The learning resources
developed for the Companions are aimed to be flexible so that teaching staff can
embed them in their own teaching courses at relevant points in the course, thus
putting information literacy learning in context with their academic studies.
The presentation aims to highlight the lessons learned for example in planning; in
content re-design; and in maintaining the student centred approach. The intended
outcome of the work is to offer consistent and timely learning support to more
students.