In my request for travel support to attend the Association of College & Research Libraries Immersion ’12 Teacher Track Program, I pledged to blog about my participation in Immersion. To read more about my Immersion experience, check out my posts tagged immersion or my Immersion tweets.
Before the Immersion program begins, participants select an instructional scenario to use as a focus throughout the program, write a 2-3 page description of the scenario, and share it with our cohort members and faculty advisor via Moodle. I’ll give a presentation on my scenario during Immersion and will modify it throughout the week as I attend sessions on techniques, learning theory, assessment, etc..
When I applied to Immersion, I thought that, if accepted, I’d select an EN102 “one-shot” session for my scenario. Participants are asked to select an actual scenario, and, at the time, First Year Writing Program sessions comprised the bulk of my teaching load. In my request for travel support to attend the program, I did propose to work with my department head (an Immersion alum) “to develop and conduct a series of learning opportunities for the Libraries’ instruction librarians.” Even then, I had the First Year Writing Program in mind, as most of the librarians in my department tend to do more FYWP instruction than upper-level subject-specific instruction.
My job changed after I submitted my application, though, and I knew that, to fully benefit from Immersion, I’d need to select a scenario in which my colleagues, not students, are receiving the instruction. Around the same time my scenario was due, the Libraries’ newly-approved LibGuides Guidelines and Best Practices were announced. As the LibGuides administrator, I’m tasked with developing an instructional strategy to familiarize guide authors with the new requirements and provide them with the skills and knowledge they need to create usable, useful LibGuides. This instructional strategy will incorporate both face-to-face instruction sessions and online instructional materials, but, for the purposes of the assignment, I decided to focus on part of that strategy- the UA LibGuides Author Guide- during Immersion.
I’m a bit unsure of how my choice of a LibGuide will play out; while our assignment instructions gave us the okay to choose a tutorial, a workbook, etc., it looks like most of my cohort members selected classroom sessions. I think my choice makes sense, though, since it involves my primary job responsibilities: providing staff training and working with others to develop effective LibGuides and tutorials. The timing is right, too, as I need to have the revised author guide ready by the end of August.
These are the initial learning outcomes for the guide (likely to change during Immersion).
As as a result of the instruction:
- LibGuides authors will apply the Best Practices and Guidelines in order to pass review and provide useful, usable resources for their intended audiences.
- LibGuide authors will identify repositories of reusable content and differentiate between linking and copying in order to “wheel reinvention syndrome” and ensure consistency and accuracy across all guides.
- LibGuides authors will locate resources in order to create and maintain guides in keeping with the Best Practices and Guidelines.
We’ll see how it goes!
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