Adopting the Embedded Librarianship Model to Improve Students’ Research and Informational Literacy Competences in Online Courses and Other Digital Spaces
The embedded librarianship model is based on the collaborative and active work of librarians in diverse educational spaces. Under this model, librarians create partnerships with academic departments, professors, instructional designers, administrative staff, and students to collaborate in the integration and facilitation of experiences that help them develop and improve their informational literacy competences. This session includes strategies for planning, implementing, and evaluating the embedded librarianship model in online learning environments, based on a department led initiative to adopt the model at undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels. Several approaches to embedding and collaborating will be discussed. Students that participated in the first phase of the project expressed having increased their knowledge and skills for searching, qualifying, and presenting information. The most significant lesson learned was that the scope of implementing this model in online courses was too broad. Therefore, the institution should adopt and implement design and instructional strategies that encourage and reinforce the development of informational literacy competences throughout the curriculum. A third iteration of the project was implemented in the Fall term of 2019 in a research course at graduate level. This time the Librarian was embedded – along a Statistics professor – in an application called Slack. The instructor of the course created dedicated channels for discussions and inquiries about APA style, search for information, the concept paper, and other related topics. He also facilitated synchronous workshops to help students select and delimitate their research topic, search for information and interpret the literature.
Technologies
The following technologies were used in this project:
– Blackboard Learn: The institution’s Learning Management System for online courses.
– Blackboard Collaborate Ultra: The videoconferencing app used for the workshops
– Wikipedia: The page students used to familiarize themselves with the selected topic.
– Google Scholar and Library Databases: Used for locating information.
– Slack: Productivity app used for creating the course’s workspace outside the LMS.
– Doodle: Web-based app used to probe student availability for synchronous meetings.
– Calendly: Web-based app used to sign up for the workshops
Explain project results
Informational literacy competences are crucial for scholars and practitioners. The acquisition and mastery of these skills can contribute to students’ academic performance and success, as they learn how to locate reliable information needed to solve the problems they face and inform their decisions. The lessons learned through this project highlight the importance of collaborative work among instructors, librarians and students in the development of information skills, the importance of creating communities of knowledge and practice to foster information literacy, and the challenges of fostering informational literacy in digital spaces. The institution is working on addition strategies for ensuring the scalable and sustainable continuity of this project.
Why it should be considered best practice?
This project should be considered a best practice because through the implementation of this model:
– Librarians are integrated into teaching and learning processes
– Instructors are also accountable for the development of students’ informational literacy
– Collaborative work between students, instructors, and librarians is encouraged
– Instructional design and administrative support are identified as key pieces in the development of informational literacy
Many of the initiatives can be replicated in other institutions.
Highlights of your proposed presentation and lessons learned
The lessons learned are highlighted in the previous section. Highlights of the presentation include:
– Explaining the purpose and benefits of adopting the embedded librarianship model
– Discussing the requisites for implementing the model
– Presenting how the model was implemented over time