Presented at LILAC 2015

1. Critical Friends: Bringing Teaching and Learning
Support Teams Together to Define the University
Academic Development Strategy
LILAC
9 April 2015
Elizabeth Newall
Senior Librarian, Teaching and Learning Support
Libraries, Research and Learning Resources
Ruth Allen
Academic Development Adviser
Teaching and Learning Directorate

2. Background
Libraries, Research & Learning Resources
•Transformation with new structure in place on 1st
August 2014
•Dedicated Teaching and Learning Support Team
•First priority to review of information skills offering
for taught course students
Teaching & Learning Directorate
•Expanding team with new post of Academic
Development Adviser [Nov 2013]
•Teaching Transformation Programme
•Academic Development one of several key
strands ‘Students at the heart’

3. Information skills legacy
The legacy information skills offering
had evolved over time, as a result the
experience offered to students had
been inconsistent.
Future provision needed to be
targeted at key transitions:
school to university to employment

4. Review of information skills offering
1. Review at point of delivery* to address:
• Reach
• Content
• Timing
• Profile
• Mode of delivery
• Assessment
• Evaluation
• Team resource
2. Critical friend… WANTED!
• non-library/librarian perspective
• broader academic development context
• strategically placed for leverage
* To deliver the same induction and information skills sessions in
Semester 1 as at the same time in the preceding year

5. So what does a critical friend do?

6. • Teaching observation
• A ‘student journey approach’ was an obvious choice for the Info Skills
Review
• Lock down (replicating school approach)
• Mapping the info skills journey to understand transitions
• Traffic-light system for reviewing current provision
• Defined guiding principles for future provision
• Took a Learning Outcomes methodology to mapping the new
provision
• In-line with school practices for maximum buy-in
• Easy-to-use for building a coherent offering
So what does a critical friend do?

7. University buy-in
• Invited to present paper at University Teaching &
Learning Board (January)
• joint approach
• NSS and student achievement
• naming but not shaming
• endorsement of recommendations
• Academic consultation through School Directors
of Teaching (March/April)
• new suite of UG information interventions
• consultation brief
• Strategic direction for co-ordination and
prioritisation
• Student focus groups (March)

8. Recommendations of review
1. Redesign library induction
• Repackage existing content
• Refocus: to inspire discovery of library collections (how will the
library underpin the student’s university journey?)
2. University-wide uptake of information skills teaching within the
curriculum
• New suite of UG information skills interventions designed to have
greatest impact at key points in UG student lifecycle
3. Packages of teaching materials to support each intervention
• If we cannot meet demand, academics can be offered materials in
order to teach the sessions themselves
4. A NOOC (Nottingham Open Online Course) for taught postgraduate
students
• Different approach required due to shortened length of study
• Anticipated growth in distance learning for PGTs

9. Developing the UG suite
The suite of information skills interventions for undergraduates is as follows:
1.Engaging with Scholarship: Introducing your University Libraries
2.Resource Discovery: Using Library Collections for your First Assignment
3.Critical Approaches to Sourcing Information on the Web
4.Undertaking Independent Research: Extending Use of Library Resources
5.Applying Critical Appraisal to Information and its Sources
6.Why Reference?
7.Referencing: Using Bibliographic Management Software (BMS)
8.Researching Employers
9.Taking Information Skills into Professional Practice (vocational courses)

10. No. 2
Title Resource Discovery: Using Library Collections for your First Assignment
Who UG1
When Semester 1 (Week 3 onwards)
Format Lecture / Workshop
Room Lecture Theatre (BYOD) / Computer Teaching Room
Duration 1 – 2 hours (depending on requirements)
Session
Overview
Aimed at first year undergraduates, this session will support students in their transition to university by
introducing a wide range of physical and digital academic resources within their subject discipline. Students will
also explore literature searching techniques as they prepare to write their first assignment. This will encourage
the development of independence in literature searching and allow participants to move beyond any given
reading list.
In this practical session, students will use NUsearch (UoN resource discovery tool), reading lists, and relevant
databases as appropriate, to access different types of scholarly literature. A guided discussion will enable
students to explore the scholarly purpose of journal publications and how these too can be accessed via
NUsearch.
Learning
Outcomes
By the end of the session, students should be able to:
Knowledge and Understanding
(B) recognise that a community of scholars may use a range of vocabulary / terminology to describe a specific
area of research within a given discipline;
(C) develop knowledge of different types of literature and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses for
different academic purposes;
Intellectual Skills
(C) determine the scope of the question or task required to meet their information needs (ACRL);
Professional Practical Skills
(C) employ an effective search to identify relevant literature on a given subject;
(C) apply functionality within at least one key subject database to a search;
(C) identify key UoN resources to find relevant information;
(C) learn how to locate and access material and facilities at UoN libraries;
(C) access and manage reading lists to extract pertinent information to support academic learning;
(C) match information needs and search strategies to appropriate search tools (ACRL); and
(C) apply different types of searching language (e.g. controlled vocabulary, keywords, natural language)
appropriately (ACRL).

11. Being part of the skills review has:
•Helped me get a clearer picture of school activity in
this area
•Given me a clearer picture of the issues schools
and ‘support’ units experience in this area of work.
•Provided a model for successful collaboration
•Reinvigorated and redefined a new role for
‘centralised’ provision in a decentralised university
setting.
•Raised profile of information skills as a significant
component of AD; strategic leverage through the
Teaching Transformation Programme
•Helped embed information skills into teaching and
learning practice across all schools
Academic Development Strategy

12. For further information…
Elizabeth Newall
Senior Librarian, Teaching and Learning Support
Libraries, Research and Learning Resources
elizabeth.newall@nottingham.ac.uk
Ruth Allen
Academic Development Adviser
Teaching and Learning Directorate
ruth.allen@nottingham.ac.uk