Faculty Talking Circle - Library Last Thursday and Friday, Sarah, Joan and I hosted Faculty Talking Circles on “How might we get the most out of our Library”. The circles were small but rich. I really appreciated many of the points raised by faculty, faculty support, and especially by our guest librarians, Leah Townsend and Sheena Sereda. In the past year, and especially the past six months, the library has made a significant effort to connect with the students, staff and faculty at NorQuest. As Sheena put it: “Some students see us as a first stop, others as a last stop, still others as only and after-thought and then there’s one group that never considers the library or its services.” In the face of this challenge, library staff have:
Have you thought of inviting one of the library staff to your classroom? Do you reach out to them in your course planning and educational research? Did you know that the library block in your Moodle courses can be adapted to suit your students’ needs? For a significant part of the faculty circle we discussed some of the challenges that faculty and library staff still face. Instructors mentioned that students often resort only to Google and don’t know how to conduct reliable searches. While many instructors feel that they are giving the right links and information in their course descriptions, Moodle shells and assignment descriptions, the students still seem to have a phobia about using the databases and can be intimidated any time APA is mentioned. As the discussion continued, we agreed that many of the issues could be addressed through modeling and scaffolding. We often make the assumption that our students have the digital skills and the critical thinking skills to access resources, process them, recognize quality, and properly catalogue. It may not be so. Instructors need to model the use of the library by showing students how to access it and by using it themselves. Taking time in class to walk the students through an assignment and the steps in research, giving them a flow-chart or graphic organizer that might assist a search, and then setting up low-stakes assignments early in the term can build confidence and competence (I do, we do you do!). We also might need to look more closely at the scope and sequence or our course and our program. Are the essential skills of research, data gathering, discernment, organization, presentation and formatting taught early on in our program? Or do we just assume that the students come with those skills? Thank you to all who came to the circle! Our next circle will probably wait until late November/early December. The next three weeks seem to be packed with demands for faculty input!
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AuthorJeff Kuntz Ph.D. ImagesExcept where indicated, images used in the blog posts are personal photos, images from NorQuest College or images from Pixabay. Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images, videos and music. https://pixabay.com/ Archives
March 2024
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