Description
As an increasing number of courses are either partially or completely taught online, it is essential for academic libraries to develop sustainable online instructional strategies. Instruction librarians develop a tremendous amount of instructional materials (i.e. learning objects) when they prep for teaching, and are often happy to share when asked. If pooled, librarians' existing learning objects could dramatically, and sustainably, scale up a library instruction program, particularly in the online environment, by saving prep time and eliminating redundant development efforts. This presentation will illustrate a case study of one library that pools learning objects in a simple centralized repository. Using the easy-to-learn platform Wordpress and provided server space, one instructional design librarian developed a web-based solution to facilitate storing, sharing, and discovery of learning objects. Our Wordpress site became a repository by creating a record, based on a template, for each learning object that contains metadata about the object's format, content, and accessibility. Wordpress organizes information through assigned categories and tags, so each learning object is grouped with like objects, and searchable by tags. By using Wordpress, the repository is also expandable, through additional free and paid plug-ins, to function as a simple Learning Management System that may also issue badges. As a result of implementing a learning object repository, librarians save time prepping for classes by reusing or adapting their colleagues' work. Instruction librarians are equipped to teach online students by having materials available in a centralized location. The repository also increases the visibility of a library instruction program by exhibiting the breadth and depth of available materials. Implementing a Wordpress repository at your institution is a sustainable solution that will facilitate sharing, increase collaboration, and will allow libraries to scale up their instruction programs by avoiding duplicative efforts and allowing faculty and student direct access to learning objects.
Start Date
17-3-2016 1:00 PM
End Date
17-3-2016 2:00 PM
Scale Up Your Instruction by Sharing Your Resources: Deploy Wordpress as a Learning Object Repository
As an increasing number of courses are either partially or completely taught online, it is essential for academic libraries to develop sustainable online instructional strategies. Instruction librarians develop a tremendous amount of instructional materials (i.e. learning objects) when they prep for teaching, and are often happy to share when asked. If pooled, librarians' existing learning objects could dramatically, and sustainably, scale up a library instruction program, particularly in the online environment, by saving prep time and eliminating redundant development efforts. This presentation will illustrate a case study of one library that pools learning objects in a simple centralized repository. Using the easy-to-learn platform Wordpress and provided server space, one instructional design librarian developed a web-based solution to facilitate storing, sharing, and discovery of learning objects. Our Wordpress site became a repository by creating a record, based on a template, for each learning object that contains metadata about the object's format, content, and accessibility. Wordpress organizes information through assigned categories and tags, so each learning object is grouped with like objects, and searchable by tags. By using Wordpress, the repository is also expandable, through additional free and paid plug-ins, to function as a simple Learning Management System that may also issue badges. As a result of implementing a learning object repository, librarians save time prepping for classes by reusing or adapting their colleagues' work. Instruction librarians are equipped to teach online students by having materials available in a centralized location. The repository also increases the visibility of a library instruction program by exhibiting the breadth and depth of available materials. Implementing a Wordpress repository at your institution is a sustainable solution that will facilitate sharing, increase collaboration, and will allow libraries to scale up their instruction programs by avoiding duplicative efforts and allowing faculty and student direct access to learning objects.