RUSA MERS forum midwinter 2015

Editor's Notes

1. In Tumbleson and Burke‘s 2013 book, Embedding librarianship in learning management systems: a how-to-do-it manual for librarians , this quote strikes home: “...LMS embedded librarianship is becoming the primary and most productive method for connecting with college and university students, who are increasingly mobile and concerned with course materials and requirements delivered in the LMS.” [Tumbleson, B. E., & Burke, J. (2013). Embedding librarianship in learning management systems: a how-to-do-it manual for librarians / Beth E. Tumbleson and John J. Burke. Chicago: Neal-Schuman, an imprint of the American Library Association, 2013. ● The authors look at collaborating with faculty and engaging with students in their learning management system (LMS) classroom. ● Chapter titles describe book’s content, such as “A survey of LMS embedded librarians; LMS embedded librarianship makes information literacy accessible”, “Feature Capabilities”, “Marketing”, and “Assessing the Impact of Embedded Librarians”]
2. U of Alberta is a large research university… Library block is opt-in. It’s a hard-coded block that is included on a list of many different types of blocks that instructors can include on their Moodle pages. Instructors need to know that it exists and take the time to add it to their courses. We are still lobbying for it to be included by default in all courses, giving instructors the option to remove it: opt-out if they don’t want there. -- Improvement in uptake over time -- 190 cof 2200 unique classes included the block when we first asked for stats in 2013, but it’s up to 598 classes as of this month
3. Throughout this process, we surveyed students who had the library block included in their courses. Their responses varied, but were fairly consistent on what elements they used the most often: 1. The search box 2. A library course guide (we use Libguides to create subject and course guides -- providing customized selections of resources and contextual information for students and researchers) 3. Our online reference tools These responses give us useful information as we now consider updates to the Library Block.
4. The Moodle developers hard-coded this version of the block, based on planning conversations with us. We wanted the basic block to be small and concise, based on the elements that the students reported using most [CLICK FOR RED OUTLINE]. When we proposed the campus-wide Library Block to the Centre for Teaching and Learning, we knew the service had to be scalable. We wanted it to link in to our existing public services infrastructure. The part outlined in red is the default content, and these links in the yellow bubble at the top link directly to our reference staff (including our chat reference service), who are already scheduled and prepared to respond to questions. Customization is possible, but we’re no longer just talking about individual librarians working alone -- it’s not possible for them to be embedded in every single class. CTL was eager to create a customizable section for us, so that individual librarians and instructors would have the option to customize the block for their courses [CLICK FOR CIRCLE AROUND COURSE RESOURCES].
5. When an instructor chooses to include the library block and customize it, the Moodle course looks like this, with library resources embedded at point of need [CLICK FOR CIRCLE]
6. Even though we’re comparing different response rates (105 students responded to the General Survey and 25 to the History Survey), you can see that use of the Moodle block more than doubles based on the responses of those whose class included a library instruction session where the Moodle block was introduced and used in the class.
7. We see a similar difference when comparing whether students thought it would be useful to see the Moodle block in their other course. 50% said yes in the General Survey, compared to 95% in the History survey. This fall, I became the liaison to the Philosophy department. One of the Philosophy 101 profs added the block to Moodle, so I surveyed those students. Even though they didn’t have to do a research assignment, almost 25% of the respondents used the block, and more than 50% of them agreed with the General Survey results from 2013: they would find it useful to have a Library Resources Block in their other courses – so, a year later, we see the same numbers for a class that wasn’t visited by a librarian. These comparisons suggest that a combined approach of embedding library services in Moodle and course instruction is ideal. [blended learning.]
8. The guides work better in some browsers than others and we have statistics for assessment from both Canvas and LibGuides (and Google Analytics)
9. Need two librarians to maintain the database and to add new guides. Involves working with IT and taking some of their time