DePaul Librarians Jessica Alverson and Jennifer Schwartz’ s new article in College and Research Libraries News describes how DePaul’s research and instruction librarians engage with faculty and colleagues to improve student learning
In the fall of 2014, our team of instruction librarians began the long process of revising our teaching program, working in close collaboration with the faculty in the Writing Rhetoric, and Discourse (WRD) department. The library has worked with the WRD department for over 20 years to ensure undergraduate students receive foundational information literacy instruction in the required course Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse (WRD) 104.
Over 12 months, we tested, surveyed, workshopped, storyboarded, piloted, and finally rolled out our new curriculum. The result is an instruction program that develops students’ core critical thinking skills, including techniques for properly scoping a topic and strategies for evaluating information.
Some of the things we learned along the way:
- Sometimes we try to cover too much material in a single session. If we want students to retain what they learn, we need to identify and target only the essentials.
- Everyone wants more active learning in the classroom – faculty, librarians, and of course, our students.
- It’s important to make time to reflect on what we do in the classroom, revisiting our learning goals and teaching methods on a regular basis.
By Fall of 2015, we were able to launch our new instruction curriculum, and we’ve been up and running now for almost two full years.
Class time has become more interactive and collaborative. We don’t rely on one-sided presentations that simply show the library’s website and describe how to search for articles. Instead, students are directly engaged with difficult concepts and thoughtful discussions.
Read more about our work in the February 2017 issue of College and Research Libraries News : “Successfully collaborating to revamp first-year instruction: The case of DePaul University,” by Jessica Alverson (Assistant Coordinator for Instruction – E-Learning) and Jennifer Schwartz (Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian).