Assessing Learning 2.0 in an Academic Library

Assessing Learning 2.0 in an Academic Library

Assessing Learning 2.0 in an Academic Library • CARL Conference Presentation, April 2008 • Susan Chesley Perry, Digital Initiatives Librarian • Kerry Scott, Collection Planning Librarian • University of California, Santa Cruz • http://assessinglearning2.blogspot.com/ • http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dfrszbrb_103qs8kctd9

What is Library 2.0? Concepts: • Constant change, permanent beta • Feedback & user participation • Be where the user is

The UCSC Learning 2.0 Program OR, “23 Things” • Based on Helene Blowers' Learning 2.0 Program, first implemented at the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County in North Carolina.http://plcmcl2-about.blogspot.com/ • http://ucsclearning2.blogspot.com/

The UCSC Learning 2.023 Things Program The Vision: • University Librarian Ginny Steel's Vision: Externally, strengthen the UCSC Library's relationship with the Santa Cruz Public Library Internally, inspire a culture of learning and encourage guilt-free play

UCSC’s 23 Things Program The team: • Ann Hubble, Electronic Resources Librarian • Ken Lyons, Reference Librarian • Danielle Kane, Library Instruction Coordinator • Sue Perry, Digital Initiatives Librarian • Kerry Scott, Collection Planning Librarian

A Few of the 23 Things

The Incentive $50 gift certificate to the campus bookstore

The Timing • Participants were given 13 weeks to complete the exercises • 6 week extension • Weekly drop-in sessions (Office hours with the team for help)

Participation Statistics In the summer of 2007, UCSC Library employed 27 full-time librarians and 73 staff. 21 librarians and 39 staff signed up and created a blog:

By the end of the program: • More than half of the 60 participants had stopped blogging • Most of those participants stopped before thing 5 (RSS feeds)

Final Numbers 30 people completed the program • 8 librarians • 22 staff

Feedback: What did you like? • Positive whole library experience, everyone learned at the same time yet it was self-paced • “I got to work with people I’ve never worked with before [in drop-in sessions]” • Learned the 2.0 vocabulary, felt better informed in discussions with colleagues • Google docs, Del.ici.ous, LibraryThing, mentioned specifically as "things" people liked most Full list of questions and responses available on the blog: http://assessinglearning2.blogspot.com

What didn’t you like? • Spent too much time creating accounts • Too many passwords to remember • Discomfort with the public nature of the blogs and assignments • The exercises took too long

Why didn’t you finish? • Lack of time • Technical requirements were too difficult, overwhelming • Too much time spent exploring, not enough blogging

What should the team have done differently? • Reorder the things, start with easier things and move up to more complicated items (RSS and Flickr specifically) • Present smaller sets of things at a time • Make the drop-in sessions more like instruction sessions, more formal help with the things • Immediate implementation of services after the program was done, when the momentum was high

Did you have enough time to finish? Suggestions: • Give people a better sense of how long each thing would take to do or learn about. • Announce extensions in advance.

How is UCSC using the “things” now? • Wiki for research-intensive course • Blogs as subject guides • IM for internal communication (desk to desk, desk to supervisor) • Google calendar for desk scheduling • LibX Firefox extension • Examples of 2.0 in practice at UCSC

Future Plans? • Blog for student communication in circulation, reserves, and ILL • Wiki for student manual • Del.ici.ous for ready reference links? • Instant Messaging reference assistance in the Information Commons

Lessons Learned • Consider the order of the things (start with easier items) • Consider the time needed to complete things & share estimates with participants

Fewer things/Learning styles • Consider releasing the things in smaller chunks, to encourage completion (2 to 3 things over a select period of time) • Consider learning styles and serve as many as you can

Expert(s)/Relevant/Feedback • Establish the expertise of the team before you begin (point person/point blog) • Make it (clearly) relevant (to the work of the participants) • Give participants feedback, often (harder than you think)

Collaborate/Reward/Choose • Make the program truly collaborative (group/team blogs) • Offer an incentive to complete the program (it works) • If technologies are similar, pick one and explain why you chose it over the other OR explain the key differences between the two

Drop-ins/Range of Options • Provide workshops or drop-in sessions to help explain the things and their applications. • Provide easy and more complex exercises and allow the participants to select which exercise they want to tackle

Technical note • Make sure exercises open in a new tab or window so participants can toggle back and forth between explanation of thing and exercise

Stats/Expectations/Flexibility • Put a statistics counter on your blog (Google Analytics) • Set expectations for participants about what to include in their blog posts. Set guidelines for proper communication and blog style - i.e. no flaming. • Be reasonably flexible with your deadline or cut-off date

Momentum • Involve your IT staff throughout and beyond the program - be poised to implement • Act immediately after the program ends - pick some easy/quick things and do them fast • Consider keeping the program going, one new thing a month or a quarter/semester

Important URLs • UCSC Learning 2.0 Blog http://ucsclearning2.blogspot.com/ • Blog for Assessing the Program (this presentation)http://assessinglearning2.blogspot.com/ • The slides for this presentation: http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dfrszbrb_103qs8kctd9 • Quick Start Guide is available on Google Docs

Next Things? • Twitter • Doodle • Jott • Zotero/Endnote Web

Conclusions

Questions?

Assessing Learning 2.0 in an Academic Library