lauren's library blog

Today was the final day of the semester long teaching class I’ve been working on. Together, with Roz Tedford, we’ve held what boils down to a one credit course (without the credit) for any library staff member at Wake Forest University who is interested in instruction. We had great attendance. 22 people attended at one point or another, and most days we had over 15 participants.

We covered a lot of ground, too! We talked about what Instructional Design is, and the different models of ID that are practiced. We talked about taxonomies of teaching, educational psychology, multiple intelligences/learning styles, teaching styles, learning theory, problem based learning, active learning, classroom management, assessment, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

The entire class took place in the classroom for the fourteen scheduled hours. That being the case, most of the class was very active and we covered a lot of ground together. I opted out of assignments and assessments though a few indicated they might like them. Knowing how the semester goes, I didn’t want to create an atmosphere of anxiety, so I focused on doing what we could in the classroom and avoiding out-of-class temptations. I knew that as the semester progressed, and as people got busy, they would stop doing any assignments, feel guilty, and stop coming to class.

And that wouldn’t have worked, because I wanted a full classroom. I know I have something to bring to the table on issues of instructional design and pedagogy. But I also know my colleagues are great teachers and have loads of experience and different types of training in educational concepts. So, though I led most of the sessions, I tried very hard to create an atmosphere in which everyone could contribute from their perspective.

One of the things we discussed in class is how much retention is realistic to expect. Since I knew we weren’t doing homework and I wasn’t going to be giving tests, I knew I was especially limited in what I could expect people to retain, so I boiled it down to a few main ideas:

• Confidence
  • In the teaching we’re already doing.
  • For publishing in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
• Some basic theory
  • Enough for participants to be able to know why things the thing they’re already doing work (or don’t).
• New tools
  • New strategies and ideas
  • Sharing information from different courses taught by participants
• To let people know I’m here to help!
  • When I do my library instruction session, this is the main goal I have for the students. I want my students (whether they’re literally students or colleagues) to know that if they need help after the fact, I am totally here for them I’ll meet with you one-on-one, or create workshops and sessions around your area of interest. So this was the recurring theme.

I’ve already seen some practical examples of some of these goals being achieved. A few people have talked to me about publishing about their teaching, a few have modified their courses in light of ideas they’ve gotten from others in our class discussions, and I’ve had one (and another scheduled) consultation session on class planning.

So, anyway, I just wanted to share in case anyone else is thinking about doing something like this in their library. It was a great experience, and I really think we’ll see some impact from what we were able to accomplish throughout the semester. Though I was worried about the commitment, particularly during an unusually committee filled semester, I was really motivated to plan (without feeling too much of a burden) because everyone who participated was so enthusiastic and engaged. It was an awesome time, and I’m so glad to be at a place where we were able to do something like this.

If you’re interested in seeing what we did, you can check out our course blog.

Related posts:

1. A Presentation on Teaching Teaching
2. teaching millennials
3. Teaching Teaching
4. computers in the classroom
5. be it resolved: info lit is a fad and a waste of librarians’ time and talent