Friday 17 June 2011

What would good online LIS education look like?

This movie is my post to the Australian Library and Information Association's Sydney blog for 17 June 2011.

I talk about what I think online learning would look like if the Spirit of Ranganathan waved his magic wand and made it work. I start with what I think we aim to do when we teach information professionals at university, and then look at what online learning could do to reach those goals. What would good online LIS education look like?


On my wishlist is:
  • teachers using online video
  • easy to use self-managed online content management systems for those who know how
  • more remote involvement by people with international and professional expertise
  • more self-marking exercises
  • better peer-marking systems
  • easier ways for students to share their discoveries with each other
  • automatic assessment metrics (like Google analytics for course material usage).
I also wish for more opportunities for face to face contact among online students in ways that promote genuine social learning, rather than fake conversations for assessment purposes.

During the movie, I mention some specific resources.
  1. Chris Anderson talking about the revolution in communications brought on by video: http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_anderson_how_web_video_powers_global_innovation.html
  2. Kate Davis using Wordpress in LIS education: http://virtuallyalibrarian.com/2011/06/09/the-social-classroom-presentation-on-teaching-in-social-media-spaces/
  3. Michael Stephens and Kenley Neufeld using Wordpress in LIS education: http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2011/05/buddypress-libraries-and-higher-education-an-interview-with-kenley-neufeld-and-michael-
  4. Australian Teaching and Learning Council "Re-conceptualising and re-positioning Australian library and information science education for the twenty-first century" project site: http://www.liseducation.org.au/
- Kathryn Greenhill

3 comments:

  1. Hi Kathryn

    Wow, I wish I was in your classes! I've been a distance/online student and found it a little less than satisfactory. Forums and powerpoint presentations don't really make up for an actual lecture with a real live person. Any questions about assignments took ages to find answers, and setting up a dialogue was impossible. Fellow students often got the wrong end of the stick on the forums and would spiral into confirming one another's falsities - and tutors weren't around to get them back on track.

    I admire your wishlist. There are so many tools that teachers could be using to make online learning unique. Instead, so many are just casting their face to face learning into an online space - download these sources, listen to the podcast of the lecture, you'll be fine.

    I'm so glad that someone is out there developing a better practice!

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  2. This is right that teachers are using online video.
    Online Education

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