Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online 9781574405804

Citation preview

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online By Emilee Mathews

ISBN 978-1-57440-580-4

©2019 Primary Research Group Inc.

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Emilee Mathews has worked in academic libraries since 2012. She has held positions at Indiana University, University of California, Irvine, and Ohio State University, and is currently the Fine Arts Library Supervisor at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. She graduated with dual master’s degrees in Library Science and Art History at Indiana University in 2011. Her scholarly interests range from art librarianship to digital humanities, neoliberalism, feminist pedagogy, and new media studies, presenting and publishing across these topics. She became interested in online learning after developing and teaching an online course through Indiana University’s Information and Library Science Department in 2018 and is now engaged in transforming this course into an open educational resource.

Contact information

Emilee Mathews 2432 W. Orlando Dr. #6 Fayetteville, AR 72701 [email protected] (503) 680-3812

2|Page

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Synopsis This report presents literature and findings about online library and information science (LIS) programs that have successfully integrated information literacy into online learning. In addition to a literature review, we conducted detailed interviews with librarians particularly knowledgeable in this area. The case studies include an online LIS program as well as librarians whose focus is information literacy in general online learning. The intended audience is librarians and library science programs interested in pedagogical and programmatic approaches. While this report focuses on the activities of those who specialize in online learning, it should be noted that many can learn from the examples and strategies detailed, whether directly engaged with online learners or not.

3|Page

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Table of Contents ABOUT THE AUTHOR.................................................................................................... 2 Synopsis ......................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 8 Literature Review ......................................................................................................... 9 Definition and Growth of Online Learning ................................................................. 9 Types of Institutions that Provide Online Learning.................................................... 9 Online Learning, Cost, and Revenue still Uncertain ............................................... 10 Technology’s Role in Online Learning .................................................................... 11 Instructional Design and Support Services Necessary but not Universally Emphasized ........................................................................................................... 11 Students’ Motivations to Enroll in Online Courses and Programs ........................... 12 Lingering Problems with Online Learning ............................................................... 12 Underserved Populations and Online Learning ...................................................... 13 Retention Factors: Student Engagement versus Financial Health .......................... 13 Tuition and Fees as High or Higher than Traditional Learning ................................ 14 Online Access versus Privacy: The Case of Transgender Populations ................... 15 Accessibility of Online Learning Materials Still Problematic in Enforcement ........... 15 Online Learning and LIS Education ........................................................................... 16 Online LIS Programs Reflect Greater Trends in Online Learning ........................... 16 Online LIS Programs’ Student Demographics and Satisfaction with Model ............ 16 Retention: Student Engagement Viewed as Crucial to Degree Completion ............ 16 Reinforcing the Role of Collaboration and Community ........................................... 17 What Type of Technology Used and How It Affects Students’ Satisfaction ............. 18 Online Learning, Librarianship, and Information Literacy ........................................... 18 Changes in Information Literacy from the Standards to Framework Cause Uncertainty ............................................................................................................. 19 Active Learning Techniques Play a Role in Effectiveness ...................................... 19 Use of Technology Can Increase Satisfaction, but at a Cost to Privacy .................. 20 Emphasis on Community and Information Literacy ................................................. 20 Introduction to Case Studies .................................................................................. 21 University of Missouri, Columbia ................................................................................... 22 Brief Profile of University of Missouri, Columbia ......................................................... 22 4|Page

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online History of the Library and Information Science Program ............................................ 22 Current Online LIS Program ................................................................................... 23 Online Program’s Approach to Student Engagement ............................................. 23 Philosophies in Practice – Engagement and Support are Key to Success .............. 24 Instructional Strategies .............................................................................................. 25 Implementation of Service Learning ....................................................................... 25 Strategies for Student Engagement........................................................................ 25 Extracurricular Engagement ...................................................................................... 26 Administration of the Online Library Science Program ............................................... 27 Feedback from Students in the Program.................................................................... 27 Rubrics, Standards, and Frameworks Used ............................................................... 28 Keeping Informed on Developments in Online Information Science Education .......... 28 Future of Online LIS Education .................................................................................. 28 Indiana University, Bloomington .................................................................................... 30 Brief Profile of Indiana University, Bloomington ......................................................... 30 Access to Library Resources and Support for Instructors in Online Learning/Distance Education .................................................................................................................. 30 Library Resources Transition from One Campus to Multi-Campus Licensing Model ............................................................................................................................... 31 Library’s Role in Instructional Design ......................................................................... 31 Working with Instructors & Instructional Design to Determine Online Student Needs ............................................................................................................................... 31 Development of the Indiana University Critical Thinking Online Toolkit: A UniversityWide Resource....................................................................................................... 32 Indiana University’s Information Literacy Grants Program ...................................... 33 The COLL-X211 Course Series – Background .......................................................... 33 Description of COLL-X211 Learning Objectives ..................................................... 34 Application of Information Literacy and Online Learning to the COLL-X211 Course Series ..................................................................................................................... 35 Application of Service Learning Principles to Information Literacy .......................... 35 How Technology Is Used: the Development of Online Learning Circles ................. 36 Use of Voice Thread for Measuring Student Learning Outcomes ........................... 37 Other Types of Technology Typically Used to Increase Engagement ..................... 37 Instructor’s Own Experiences as an Online Learner and How this Informs Current Course Development Efforts ...................................................................................... 38 5|Page

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online Trends in Online Learning: Open Education and Open Pedagogy ............................ 39 Keeping Informed ................................................................................................... 39 University of Washington ............................................................................................... 40 Brief Profile of University of Washington .................................................................... 40 Background and History of the ISS Program.............................................................. 41 Garber Pearson’s Role in the ISS Program ............................................................ 41 Importance of Relationships, Student Advising and Community to Functioning of ISS Program .......................................................................................................... 42 Working with instructors directly................................................................................. 42 Examples of an information literacy session in an ISS course ................................ 43 Feedback from Students and Incorporation into Future Iterations .............................. 43 Extracurricular Engagement ...................................................................................... 44 Online Workshops for Graduate Students across UW ............................................ 44 New roles for the Library Created through Online Learning ....................................... 45 Role of Collections in Online Learning .................................................................... 46 Challenges for how the library serves online students ............................................ 46 How Technology is Used ........................................................................................... 47 Use of Subject Expertise............................................................................................ 47 Affordances of online learning ................................................................................... 47 Detriments to online learning ..................................................................................... 48 Experiences as an online learner ........................................................................... 49 Phoenix Biomedical Campus......................................................................................... 50 Brief Profile of Phoenix Biomedical Campus .............................................................. 50 Broad Engagement with Users .................................................................................. 50 Use of Subject Expertise Critical to Success.............................................................. 51 Incorporation of Design Thinking ............................................................................ 52 How Information Literacy is Integrated into Online Learning ...................................... 52 Libraries can Help to Create Critical Information Consumers ................................. 52 Working with instructors directly................................................................................. 53 Specific Example of Partnering with an Instructor to Create Information Literacy Deliverable ............................................................................................................. 53 Feedback and Assessment .................................................................................... 54 Affordances of Online Learning.................................................................................. 55 How Physical Spaces and Online Spaces Intersect in Collections.......................... 56 6|Page

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online Instituting Organizational Change .......................................................................... 57 Vocational Awe Leads to Lack of Criticality on Librarians’ Part ............................... 57 Detriments to online learning ..................................................................................... 57 Use of Social Media can Make Students Unsafe .................................................... 58 Recommendation of Open Source Software .......................................................... 58 Over Reliance on Asynchronous Tools .................................................................. 58 Greater Focus on Synchronous, Interactive Tools Designed Intentionally for Target Population .............................................................................................................. 59 Experiences as an online learner ............................................................................... 59 How Pedagogy has been Affected by Online Learning Experiences ...................... 61 Rubrics, Standards, and Best Practices Used............................................................ 61 Keeping Informed ................................................................................................... 62 Author’s Commentary.................................................................................................... 63 Types and Uses of Technology Vary ...................................................................... 63 Student Privacy and Safety Unaddressed Concern ................................................ 64 Relationships and Community Important Strategy to Ensuring Excellent Online Learning Experiences............................................................................................. 64 Role of the Librarian .................................................................................................. 65 New Ways to Participate in Student Engagement .................................................. 66 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 66 Reference List ............................................................................................................... 68

7|Page

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Introduction Online learning has increased in higher education in the United States, impacting both library and information science (LIS) programs and librarianship. This literature review and suite of case studies integrate perspectives from an online LIS program with those of librarians teaching information literacy skills to a general college audience. Online teaching and learning intersect with a number of typical librarian position scopes, such as distance learning librarianship, instruction librarianship, web services/user experience librarianship, and models like embedded librarianship. Collections and acquisitions play their part in licensing content that is accessible to online learners. Reference services provide assistance as students work on assignments. As such, online learning touches virtually all parts of the library’s scope.

Librarians in higher education should make themselves aware of online learning growth and evolution, as it has immediate and long lasting impact on their positions. Perspectives, strategies and approaches of online learning librarians have applicability not only to those who are in similar roles, but to librarians broadly and how they consider and shape their online presence. Crane (2017) provides an excellent introduction to how to work with online learning populations as a librarian. Several standards and frameworks guide librarians’ work with online learning populations. The Standards for Distance Learning Library Services provides useful information (American Libraries Association, 2009). The Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education helps to determine pedagogical approaches to teaching students in the classroom, including the online classroom (American Libraries Association, 2015). For the purposes of this report, we are limiting our investigation of online learning to credit-bearing courses or programs within higher education in the United States. 8|Page

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Many standards, reports, books, and articles have been published on online learning; this report focuses on five current primary interviews as well as a review of literature from the last ten years, given how quickly online learning technology has changed.

Literature Review Definition and Growth of Online Learning Online learning (also referred to as distance learning or e-learning) is most commonly meant as individual classes or entire programs of study that are offered primarily online, credit-bearing or not. Online learning is a growing mode of providing education in postsecondary institutions: as Seaman, Allen, and Seaman (2018) indicate, more and more students are likely to have taken an online course: in 2016, 6.4 million students or 14.9% of all students in the United States were currently enrolled in distance courses. Online learning has increased, in contrast to overall higher education enrollments, which have recently decreased at the undergraduate level (Seaman et al., 2018).

Types of Institutions that Provide Online Learning Public and private, four year and two year colleges have online programs. While distance education is the largest percentage of student body at private for-profits (for example, University of Phoenix has 97.6% of its students enrolled online), public institutions, primarily four-year, have grown as well (Chronicle, 2018; Garrett and Legon, 2018). And public institutions enroll the largest proportion of online students overall, at 73.9% (Seaman et al., 2018).

9|Page

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Online Learning, Cost, and Revenue still Uncertain Online learning’s rise reflects broader pressures on higher education. Administrators invest in online learning because of increased pressure to reduce costs and maximize options to attract students; the model is seen as a way to maximize the number of students one can enroll and graduate, relying on economics of scale to minimize costs (McPherson & Bacow, 2015). Seventy-three percent of administrators see online programs as a way to increase student enrollment, the most cited reason for creating new programs (Best Colleges, 2018; Garrett & Legon, 2018). Without the limitations of class space, online learning has greater flexibility to accommodate larger student enrollment. Yet online programs bring pressure to recruit and enroll new students (Best Colleges, 2018). Garrett and Legon agree that administrators predominantly see online learning as a revenue generator (2018). Bailey, Vaduganathan, Henry, Laverdiere, and Pugliese (2018) show that costs are lowered in four of the six case studies detailed in their report, with chief strategies to increase student enrollment; use more adjunct faculty whose salaries are much lower than those of traditional faculty; and avoid facilities additions and maintenance that would be necessary for in-person courses. However, McPherson and Bacow (2015) warn against the potential negative consequences of fully pushing toward online education - that legislators will see this as an opportunity to cut even more funding.

10 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Technology’s Role in Online Learning Technology plays an important role in how online learning is provided. The learning management system or LMS is the most utilized technology, while simulations/games and micro-credentialing are anticipated near-future adoptions, along with video management and anti-plagiarism tools (Garrett & Legon, 2018). Adaptive learning (learning which adjusts to the student’s level while optimizing pedagogy suited to the student’s learning style) and learning analytics (using student data to predictively respond to needs) are areas of interest (Garrett & Legon, 2018; Bailey et al., 2018).

Instructional Design and Support Services Necessary but not Universally Emphasized Because much of online learning is asynchronous, the course content is more outlined, so that it can more easily be shared among instructors. It also requires greater faculty collaboration with instructional designers, especially as many faculty are unused to teaching in this modality (Garrett & Legon, 2018). While online learning is growing, course development and support services such as instructional designers or librarians are not equally emphasized across institutions (or the literature itself). Instructional designers help to ensure that courses are designed optimally for online delivery, are accessible to learners with disabilities, and to ensure student participation is kept in mind - yet only 31% of programs require faculty to work with instructional designers (Garrett & Legon, 2018). And in terms of cost-savings, Poulin and Strout (2018) found that support services such as but not limited to libraries overwhelmingly cost the same or more than those in support of traditional in-person courses.

11 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Students’ Motivations to Enroll in Online Courses and Programs Administrative motivations to increase online learning are dominated by increasing enrollment while reducing costs, but what about that of students? Forty-nine percent of students cite the ability to fit their educational goals into a life that may include other obligations, such as family, work, service in the military, and other factors, as the primary reason they chose an online program (Best Colleges, 2018). This puts many online learners in the “nontraditional” category (MacDonald, 2018). The largest populations are still those who are already in careers and looking to change or enhance their career options; however the average student age of online learners is decreasing, with high schoolers preparing for college the group with the largest increase (Best Colleges, 2018). Additionally, students are not required to move to another location, or budget for additional costs such as parking, opening up the possibilities for students to attend school from anywhere in the world. Best Colleges shows that many students are local (within 100 miles) but has seen increases in out-of-state and out-of-country enrollment (2018).

Lingering Problems with Online Learning For all the potential to remove barriers for students who have obligations that preclude them participating in traditional education, problems linger with the model that lead to attrition, including lack of support for underprepared and low income students. Further, privacy and accessibility are lingering concerns.

12 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Underserved Populations and Online Learning Bailey et al. (2018) point out that more higher education institutions are working toward diversifying their reach and to provide educational opportunities for marginalized populations, such as lower income, first generation, and/or students of color. Yet, as Xu and Jaggars state, “Online learning has the potential to be a democratizing force in higher education; however, to meet this potential, it must not only improve access to college courses among traditionally-underserved students, but it must also support the academic success of these students” (2016, p. 634. Emphasis in original). They point to the inequity of marketing to underachieving students for online programs, in contrast to these students’ relative lack of support for self-directed learning. This disproportionately affects underserved students; the very students that online learning, with its flexibility, is supposed to help serve. Dynarski (2017) corroborates that students who are underprepared are going to do less well in an online learning environment. Bettinger, Fox, Loeb, and Taylor (2017) present similar findings, which focus on a for-profit university over a four-year time frame. Findings suggest there should be increased attention to better serve the variety of students who would benefit most from a flexible education. Yet that intentionality is lacking: while 76% of programs are designed for adult/returning students, only 25% of programs actively consider the needs of unprepared students as they design their programs (Best Colleges, 2018).

Retention Factors: Student Engagement versus Financial Health Perhaps it is no surprise that one major problem of online learning is retention: students in these courses have significantly higher dropout rates than those enrolled in face-toface learning (Gering, Sheppard, Adams, Renes, & Morotti, 2018). A number of studies have connected attrition with social isolation (Kebritchi, Lipschuetz, & Santiague, 2017).

13 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online However, most students attribute not completing a degree to financial difficulties, with the second most cited reason as “Unexpected Circumstances” (Best Colleges, 2018). The stakes are high for those who invest in a degree that is then not completed: the greatest growth area for online higher education learning is in students with less than $25,000 in annual income, and the lower two income brackets (up to $25,000 and $25,000-$49,000 respectively) make up 63% or nearly two-thirds of online college students (Best Colleges, 2018). Further, evidence that student loan borrowers default at a much higher rate at for-profit colleges, which not only enroll a large number of low income students, but also are heavy proponents of the online learning model (ScottClayton, 2018; McPherson & Bacow, 2015).

Scott-Clayton’s report highlights the systemic inequity experienced by black students, who are both more likely to attend a for-profit and to default on student loans (2018). The dynamic between student demographics and ongoing troubles with financial models indicate a problem that needs to be solved in order to fulfill the promise of equitable online education.

Tuition and Fees as High or Higher than Traditional Learning Sadly, as Poulin and Straut say, “There is much mythology, unrealistic expectations, and unfulfilled promise regarding the economics of distance education courses.” (2017, p. 9) Despite widespread belief that online learning is cheaper for both programs and students, they demonstrate that tuition costs are not necessarily lower in comparison with in-person programs, even when taking into account cost savings on additional fees such as parking (Poulin & Straut, 2017). Garrett and Legon (2018) corroborate, with the majority of programs costing as much as regular tuition or higher. 14 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Online Access versus Privacy: The Case of Transgender Populations Yet online learning has the ability to reach marginalized populations such as transgender populations: as both Jenzen (2017) and Cavalcante (2016) point out, transgender people’s use online connectivity is crucial to find resources and belonging lacking in their everyday environment. And as important as online access is to transgender populations, they must take extreme care not to be exposed and subject to harassment and bullying (Jenzen, 2017; Cavalcante, 2016). This combined with the trend toward learning analytics found in Garrett and Legon (2018), as well as Bailey et al. (2018), increasing the likelihood of exposure that transgender students would be particularly vulnerable to. Rubel and Jones (2016), Pardo and Siemens (2014), Ferguson, Hoel, Scheffel, and Drachsler (2016) all provide detailed guidance on the moral and ethical concerns surrounding learning analytics.

Accessibility of Online Learning Materials Still Problematic in Enforcement Accessibility of learning materials to students with disabilities is crucial. Coleman and Berge (2018) discuss the use of online education to ensure that learners are being provided with the best possible tools with which to access materials. Ozdemir, Preast, and Duffy discuss best practices for institutions to holistically incorporate accessibility standards into their online learning offerings (2018). Instructional designers play an important role in meeting standards; yet, as Poulin and Straut demonstrate, online programs’ use of instructional designers is minimal (2018); and Best Colleges shows that only 31% of programs consider the needs of students with disabilities as they design their courses (2018).

15 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Online Learning and LIS Education Online LIS Programs Reflect Greater Trends in Online Learning Like the rest of higher education, LIS programs have increased their online programs, enabling these programs to remain competitive despite uncertainty stemming from mergers and rebranding (Xue, Wu, Zhu, & Chu, 2019). However, that focus has a price: Xue et al.’s study also demonstrates decreased in-person class offerings and points out challenges for learning online as well as teaching online (2019).

Online LIS Programs’ Student Demographics and Satisfaction with Model In terms of student demographics, Oguz, Chu, and Chow (2015) demonstrate that online MLIS students are predominantly nontraditional in age, and many have work and/or family commitments that preclude an in-person experience. Students reported feeling isolated and lacking networking opportunities but felt that course content and delivery was satisfying. Administrative support services, including mentoring, networking, and other “intangible factors” are of particular importance, especially when working with underrepresented groups (Most, Kazmer, & Marty, 2013).

Retention: Student Engagement Viewed as Crucial to Degree Completion Connections between isolation and retention are outlined in the online LIS degree, and like other programs solve this through student engagement. Aversa and MacCall (2013) link high retention rates to strong student culture and have proactively addressed core issues that stymie completion such as isolation, financial and time management.

16 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online Aharony’s study demonstrated that online LIS students’ satisfaction levels are due to a combination of interest in a new way of learning, prevalent opportunities for reflection, and the ability to interactively participate with one’s peers, with course content and management of less concern (2011). Looking at student performance more so than satisfaction, Zhang (2016) correlates access to course materials, participation, to higher grades.

Reinforcing the Role of Collaboration and Community Burns, Howard, and Kimmel (2016) demonstrate how collaborative learning practices can not only enhance online courses, but also reinforce community-minded practices once librarians are in the field. Robbins asked students to go out into their own communities, such as their local public library, to observe interactions (2012). However as an asynchronous course, certain activities were not replicable, such as having students role play reference interviews. Bossaller (2016) expands this idea by working with online LIS students in a service learning course (more below in “Jenny Bossaller, University of Missouri” case study). Communities of practice were a key takeaway for the students participating in Marken and Dickinson’s study (2013). Becnel et al. (2016) show that prefacing connections between LIS students and classrooms through embedded librarianship practices also contributes to community. Alcalá, Austin, Granroth, and Hewitt emphasize the importance of building community through inclusive pedagogical strategies (2016). Active learning, class participation, and reflection all ensured that student learning outcomes were successfully implemented. Cooke (2016) affirms the need to “deindividuate” online learners to increase their learning capacity.

17 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

What Type of Technology Used and How It Affects Students’ Satisfaction Using social media technology outside of the LMS to increase connectedness has mixed results (Stephens, 2016). Students did feel that they learned content better, and their privacy was protected by not requiring that they use their real name. Pymm and Hay (2014) echo this strategy through using collaborative editing software for group assignments, in which students interacted in supportive, community-increasing ways. Both Stephens (2016) and Pymm and Hay (2014) found that students’ satisfaction and interaction with the platform varied widely. Farooq and Matteson reported positive results using Google Hangouts for synchronous, discussion-based interactions as a way to deeply engage and explore material (2016).

Online Learning, Librarianship, and Information Literacy Panigrahi, Srivastava, and Sharma (2018) show that much has been written on how technology has been implemented to increase effectiveness, perceived satisfaction in use, and retention. Librarians’ contributions are often framed as strengthening engagement and social collectivity, lowering attrition. Information literacy is an important talking point in order to do so, with emphasis on active learning. The greater discourse surrounding online learning has nominated information literacy as an important goal: the 2019 Key Learning Initiatives from EDUCAUSE lists information literacy as number four out of fifteen listed initiatives to strive toward, just behind faculty development, online and blended learning, and instructional and learning experience design (EDUCAUSE, 2019).

18 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Changes in Information Literacy from the Standards to Framework Cause Uncertainty Yet information literacy itself is in flux: the recent introduction of the Framework causes challenges to programs that were built on the previous Standards. For example, Wray and Mulvihill’s use of information literacy modules are successful due to the highly integrated nature of the module into the learning object platform used across campus for instructors (2018). However, changes to platform, as well as updating the modules to reflect the Framework, rather than the Standards, is an ongoing challenge. And information literacy itself is not a panacea: Qayyum and Smith (2018) point out that teachers need better assignment design in order for students to better absorb information, suggesting that information literacy for online learning can vary based on level, task, and pedagogical tactic. Boden and Murphy (2012) likewise find that online tutorials are less effective at communicating higher level information literacy goals.

Active Learning Techniques Play a Role in Effectiveness In addition to facilitating information literacy, active learning techniques increase effectiveness. Shen (2018) describes a “flipped” classroom model that pushes against online learners’ expectation to be passive consumers, not actors, in the classroom environment. Rapchak (2018) points to social metacognition as an important concept to increase collaboration that leads not only to satisfaction, but also long lasting learning. Webster and Whitworth (2017) support and respect difference through facilitating dialogue between campus students and distance learning students.

19 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Use of Technology Can Increase Satisfaction, but at a Cost to Privacy Libraries and librarians can directly contribute to effectiveness by using technology to create salient, memorable learning objects. Matlin and Lantzy (2017) demonstrate that online learning modules were equivalently effective as an in person one-shot instruction session, calling into question what types of instruction is most preferred or most effective. Gamtso and Halpin use a combination of videos embedded in the LMS as well as social media, to engage students on platforms that would be familiar to them (2018). Comparing sections of courses that were hybrid and online-only, students in the online course were more satisfied with the information literacy instruction. However, using social media can be problematic: as Waycott (2017) demonstrates, students are likely to be uncomfortable with being asked to share more personal information in a classroom setting. And as Bauman and Baldesare suggest, cyberbullying is prevalent in higher education, and in fact students agree that professors should have a code of conduct in place whenever using online discussion in their classes (2015).

Emphasis on Community and Information Literacy Active learning can also be put in service of building inclusive communities. Like Alcalá et al. and Cooke (2016), Harris (2008) calls attention to the importance of acknowledging that community, not individuality, should be emphasized in teaching information literacy. He explicitly discusses online learning as an important place to do so, and enumerates several successful strategies drawn from a literature review.

20 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Introduction to Case Studies Current trends indicate online learning’s growth, yet lingering issues with retention, an uncertain cost model, and structural inequity prevent its success. Librarians have already positioned themselves to strengthen retention through increased effectiveness; however, greater focus on social justice can work towards ameliorating the issues facing online learning. These case studies bring together one LIS program and three librarians working in broader online education to explore innovative practices in online learning and librarianship that pair effectiveness with critical engagement.

21 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

University of Missouri, Columbia Brief Profile of University of Missouri, Columbia The University of Missouri, Columbia is the flagship campus of the University of Missouri system. It is a public land-grant institution with approximately 30,000 undergraduate students as of Fall semester 2018. It is a doctorate-degree granting institution with very high research activity. We spoke with Jenny Bossaller, associate professor and program coordinator of the Library and Information Science Program, housed in the School of Information Science & Learning Technologies (SISLT) at the University of Missouri, Columbia.

History of the Library and Information Science Program The master’s program was accredited by ALA in academic year 1966/1967, building out of an undergraduate degree. They were early adopters of the online distance education model: their first online class was offered in 1997: Library Information Systems, taught by professor Thomas R. Kochtanek.

Next, they tried "the starfish model" where professors drove to St. Louis, Kansas City, and Springfield to teach classes in a blended model. By 2017 they transitioned to an online program with some in-person classes. According to the 2017 Salary and Placement report prepared by Library Journal: 2017 graduates of MU’s program achieved a 34.9% placement rate (31.1% being the average across reporting institutions) and an average starting salary of $48,900, ($52,152 being the average across reporting institutions) (Allard, 2018). More information about the program, 22 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online learning objectives, time to graduation, and student performance data can be found at https://sislt.missouri.edu/lis/

Current Online LIS Program MU offers an online LIS program, with a few specialized classes that require physical attendance. In many ways, MU approaches their online program as a natural and blended extension of in-person classes. With faculty in three cities across Missouri, and a presence in Nebraska, the program has practice in facilitating classes across locations when instructors and students are distant from one another. Classes are offered in a variety of styles: synchronous, asynchronous, and blended. In-person classes use Zoom (a web conferencing software used for virtual meetings) and technology-enhanced classrooms to bring in online students’ presence and to communicate and collaborate with them in real time.

Online Program’s Approach to Student Engagement Bossaller states, “Our philosophy is that we can do almost everything that we did in the classroom online; … It works really well – we are able to do group work in the classroom, to talk to students, see their faces, and demonstrate how to do things by showing physical objects or sharing our screen.” However, she cautions that the problem with offering online classes is that “some students want the face-to-face classes, but we might not have enough students who want to attend for that to be a viable option. Online education breeds fewer face-to-face options.” There are a few courses that have not been converted online: “For instance, our Special Libraries class visits a lot of libraries where cameras are not allowed, so this is only offered in St. Louis.”

23 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online Another example is their study abroad courses. Many online classes require extensive fieldwork, which might include service learning components, visits and observations in libraries or other community spaces, or direct interactions with professionals. The required practicum experience also solidifies classroom learning in a professional setting.

Philosophies in Practice – Engagement and Support are Key to Success Bossaller encapsulates the program’s philosophy this way: “Education should never have been equated to sitting in a classroom and listening to a lecture; that is really easy to replicate online. The harder part is having students who are actively engaged with their education, student groups, campus, and their communities. This is harder both inperson and online. It’s easier for online students to slip off the radar. Small classes and attentive instructors can prevent this.” The faculty spend a great deal of time ensuring that

their commitment to excellence and student-centered pedagogy are translated successfully into practice. In order to do so, they are frequently in the position of asking for support services to be offered to online students: “the campus is pushing for more online options (as many campuses are), but not all of the support structures are in place at all levels, so we find ourselves having to ask, ‘is this available to distance students?’” This has included support services and access to health resources, such as mental health. Other ways they have worked across campus included working with the Office of Service Learning, a campus initiative that supports service learning initiatives (https://servicelearning.missouri.edu/).

24 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Instructional Strategies Implementation of Service Learning One in-depth example of the integration of support services with online learning was the implementation of a service learning course in the online LIS curriculum, in which both on-campus and distance students are able to participate. Service learning is an approach to experiential learning that emphasizes working with the community in ethical, reciprocal ways. As such, self-reflection and consideration are valuable tools to ensure that the student is engaging thoughtfully with the experience. In this course, the students increased their understanding of and empathy toward people who might not visit the public library in their own communities. They identified a community organization and spent time working with clients and developing a project that met an information need at that site. The behind-the-scenes coordination between students and organization took up significant time and energy. Not all organizations have the capacity to work with a student and finding a project that mutually benefited both parties was sometimes difficult. Additionally, finding the time was particularly challenging for students who already have work or caretaking responsibilities. However, students’ opportunity to experience indepth, hands on learning with an emphasis on community engagement was determined to be valuable enough to keep on working towards offering these types of experiences. (For more details, see Bossaller, 2016).

Strategies for Student Engagement More broadly, Bossaller had a number of examples that instructors use to meet pedagogic goals. “Meaningful learning opportunities vary, based on the subject matter; for instance, writing a paper can be a meaningful learning opportunity, especially if 25 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online students are encouraged to publish or if they are writing for someone besides their professor. We have them do community analyses working with multiple data sources in a couple of classes, they create LibGuides, and they might work with their local library or even nonprofit or community-based organization for another project. In a way, that is a strength of online learning if you’re creative: students are able to work with their home communities. That said, they need to be aware that they might need to move to obtain a job afterwards.”

Extracurricular Engagement Bossaller states that “One of the challenges in developing online library science instruction is offering community involvement; providing this is not insurmountable but it is a challenge.” For students who are enrolled in the online program but are located in Missouri, MU uses its connections to enhance student experience through networking and other professional development opportunities. “It’s harder with students who live in far-flung areas, but not impossible – we certainly tell students, beginning in orientation, to get involved with local and state library organizations because it will help them get a job! Our graduate school has recently begun a new push for more student progress accountability, which also means that they are providing lots of programs for students on goal-setting, mental health, and other issues. These will be available next year online, thanks to those of us with online programs pushing for it.”

Additionally, there are workshops and other programming offered both in person and streaming through the MU libraries. Another resource is their membership in Amigos Library Services, which offers webinars and online conferences. “We have had some student leaders online as well in our ALA student group and ASIST student group...

26 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online There’s no shortage of extra-curricular opportunities, but it can be more difficult to interest online students in those opportunities.”

Administration of the Online Library Science Program Scheduling classes is a complicated and time-intensive aspect of administering online programs. Conveying important information to students, such as policies or degree completion requirements, can also be difficult. Most of this is conveyed through orientation, and sent through emails, but it is not always clear that students are paying attention in orientation or read the emails. When asked to compare what aspects of administering an online program might differ from an in-person program, Bossaller says that “I imagine that regularly seeing students face-to-face helps a lot with communication, and that when people are on campus all the time it’s just easier to communicate with faculty as well. We all deal with a lot of email and different methods for coordinating tasks because so much is online – it can be counterproductive and frustrating. I’m sure that face-to-face programs have their own frustrating aspects of administration, though.”

Feedback from Students in the Program The feedback from students is “Mostly positive. There is no negative feedback about online classes, because students understand that the program is online now. When we were making the transition, we did have some students who wanted more in person classes, but we found that when students had the option not to attend class, they would not come. That was a struggle.”

27 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Rubrics, Standards, and Frameworks Used In addition to the ALA standards for accreditation, the program has written student learning objectives that are both available on the website, embedded into classes, and “students are required to discuss and demonstrate mastery for portfolio completion.” In order to ensure that the program is meeting its goals, “we evaluate our classes regularly and work with our Educational Technologies group on campus to ensure that our classes are designed well. Several of us have passed the Quality Matters rubric and gone through a course redesign process, which is helpful for ensuring that the courses are designed well.” (Quality Matters is an independent group that has developed best practices for online learning. See more at https://www.qualitymatters.org/about.)

Keeping Informed on Developments in Online Information Science Education The Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) annual conference is a major source for seeing other online models in practice. Bossaller believes ensuring cross-communication between programs is not only helpful, but also necessary to keep up with trends, as well as ensuring the program’s continued excellence. “I think that is the best way to continue evolving: listening to what our peers are doing and getting involved with the pre-conferences, which often focus on a specific method of teaching or specific subjects within teaching (e.g., diversity and social justice, etc.).”

Future of Online LIS Education In Bossaller’s experience, online LIS education has grown and will continue to grow. “We do attract a lot of working professionals, which means that it will likely continue to grow.” 28 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online However, one major detriment to how online learning is characterized is the idea that one can “do this degree in their pajamas. They can write papers and do some projects in their pajamas, but they have to get out there in the world and interact with people, be involved with their communities.”

Sometimes students are not aware or prepared to do this type of work to ensure that they are getting the most out of their education. That being said, the flexibility of online education definitely creates more equitable access for a broader population: “Students don’t have to quit their jobs, uproot their family, or even find parking to go to class, which is a huge deal. That is probably a driving force in the growth of online education – it removes barriers.”

29 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Indiana University, Bloomington Brief Profile of Indiana University, Bloomington Indiana University, Bloomington is a public land grant doctoral-granting institution with very high research activity, enrolling nearly 33,000 undergraduate students as of fall 2018. Bloomington is the flagship campus of the Indiana University system. We spoke with Michael Courtney, Outreach and Engagement Librarian at Indiana University in Bloomington. Courtney’s position encompasses outreach and engagement to distance education learners, as well as various student groups on campus. His position is in the Teaching and Learning department in the Libraries.

Access to Library Resources and Support for Instructors in Online Learning/Distance Education Courtney considers the key aspects of online learning to be access to resources and support, and access to the instructor. Resources include, but are not limited to, access to learning materials, both print and online. IUB has services in place for online learning students, such as the ability to mail print resources to the student wherever they are.

However, Courtney points out that high visibility and clarity on the library’s website is important for ensuring this user group takes advantage of these services. She encourages others to keep this in mind in current and future iterations of their websites to ensure proactive communication with distance audiences.

30 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Library Resources Transition from One Campus to Multi-Campus Licensing Model Online learning can also be applied to a multiple campus model. IU has become more unified as a multi-campus university whose course offerings are more and more spread across multiple locations. Questions still linger about how to provide access to students at regional campuses, when the resource in question may only be licensed to one campus. That is slowly being resolved through a more centralized licensing system but remains a talking point when discussing best practices in how to use library resources in online learning.

Library’s Role in Instructional Design Beyond access, distance education librarianship has more instructional concerns, such as how to engage with students more meaningfully in online learning classrooms. This includes how to work cohesively with faculty to assist not only in providing resources optimally, but as Courtney explains, “It’s not just a laundry list of how-to’s, but also pushing for more things like collaborative assignment design, working with a faculty to reimagine some of the ways they incorporate information literacy in their classes, and how that might play out in online environments.”

Working with Instructors & Instructional Design to Determine Online Student Needs IUB’s Teaching and Learning department has developed several different projects to provide resources at the point of need, and to partner proactively with instructors as they develop and redesign courses. The department worked with an online instructional design and development team as well as a systemwide office of online education to

31 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online develop a tutorial module for online course instructors. The module has a focus that extends beyond traditional library orientation to, instead, focus more specifically on the strategic use of library resources as well as assignment design. The librarians ultimately collaborated with the eLearning Design and Services (eDS) unit instructional designers to pilot an online series of instructional modules for distance education teachers labeled IU Teaching Online Series (https://teachingonline.iu.edu/). The series is designed to explore what can be accomplished while teaching in an online environment. It has a central focus on learning activities essential to student success.

Development of the Indiana University Critical Thinking Online Toolkit: A University-Wide Resource The Teaching and Learning department has also been actively developing the Critical Thinking Online Toolkit, a multi-campus initiative intended to provide all Indiana University instructors and students with an introduction to information literacy practices that promote critical thinking. The Toolkit will provide instructors of both online and traditional courses with a pathway to integrate information literacy principles into student coursework. For students, the Toolkit will provide modules and other tutorials to help them distinguish online information as creditable, reliable and authentic. Currently, it is in testing phase with various instructors, and will be officially rolled out in fall 2019. Courtney characterizes this project as a “big ticket” effort that will “hit faculty broadly,” while being of use to subject librarians as they work with instructors in their own departments, as many disciplines on campus are increasing their online course catalogs.

32 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Indiana University’s Information Literacy Grants Program The more proactive approach is the Information Literacy grants program, which began in 2009 and is ongoing (https://libraries.indiana.edu/apply-instructional-grant). To offer these grants, the program was offered in partnership first with the College of Arts & Sciences, and then the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. Private donors Ellen and Hilda Jay provided money that expanded the Libraries’ ability to fund grants. The grants were intended to help faculty to improve or develop courses or programs.

Over the years, faculty and librarians have partnered across a variety of disciplines and have demonstrated better learning outcomes through enhanced information literacy. At the time of writing, 28 course grants and 3 curriculum grants had been funded and completed through the program; 2,000 students have been enrolled in these courses or programs.

Currently, Courtney is on a project team that is migrating aspects of a course to be more online, creating a more blended approach. COLL-X211 Pre-Trip is a pre-service learning course that continues as COLL-X211: Books & Beyond Service Trip, which takes students abroad to Rwanda and has them teach literacy and English language proficiency in Rwandan schools. (More about this below.)

The COLL-X211 Course Series – Background The COLL-X211 course series is a total of three credits, 1 credit for X211: Pre-Trip which is a second-eight week course taking place in the last half of the spring semester each year, and is a required pre-requisite for the second course, X211: Books & Beyond 33 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online Service trip. The second course is two credits, and lasts for a month, taking place at the Kabwende Holiday Day Camp at Kabwende Primary School in Kinigi, Rwanda. As of spring 2019, the course changed from being offered through the School of Education as EDUC-L295 and L296 and is now offered through the College of Arts and Sciences as an “experimental topics” course.

Students across a variety of majors have participated in the course: from Education to Public and Environmental Affairs, from English Literature to Nutrition Science. The cost to students for the Books & Beyond Service trip is $4,500, including tuition, travel, lodging, and food. Instructor compensation varies based on appointment type.

Description of COLL-X211 Learning Objectives In COLL-X211: Pre-Trip, students prepare for the expectations of service learning, and the context of where they will be employing these approaches. They are extensively trained in service learning ethics, teacher training, leadership development, and Rwanda’s cultural, political, and social history. Additionally, they learn about the specific context of the Books & Beyond initiative (More information here: http://www.indiana.edu/~booksb/index.shtml)

COLL-X211: Books & Beyond Service Trip takes place in Rwanda, where the students and instructor spend four to five weeks in the country. The first portion of the course intensively preparing for their service learning experience, which is to teach literacy and English language proficiency to students and teachers, including classroom management and Kinyarwanda language skills. Some of these student volunteers have never traveled outside of their home state, never mind the country. As such, a great deal of preparation goes into making sure they are as aware as possible of their role coming 34 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online from a first world country into a postcolonial Global South country with a recent and extended history of genocide to help with literacy through teaching. A large part of the process of learning is performed through self-reflection, so that students are actively considering their own backgrounds, dispositions, and knowledges, and how this changes in relation to service learning in a different country, especially one with a history of conflict and one that has been harmed by Western intervention.

Application of Information Literacy and Online Learning to the COLLX211 Course Series Courtney’s expertise is centered at the intersection of information literacy, service learning, and instructional technology. For the COLL-X211 course series, Courtney and his co-instructor brainstormed ways to productively engage these dimensions to enhance student learning goals. As Courtney explains, “in service learning pedagogy, we have reciprocity, reflection, and the broader idea of civic engagement.” In order to ensure that they are acting responsibly and ethically within the postcolonial context of the course, they work with an advisory board, primarily made up of members of the African Studies Program. “There are things that are sensitive enough that we do rely on a level of expertise that extends to a level far beyond my own.” In addition to their advisory capacity, members take on mentoring and guest lectures in the course.

Application of Service Learning Principles to Information Literacy Information literacy plays a huge role in articulating the mechanisms for not reinforcing the work of colonialism and its missionary/civilizing aspects. For example, the students do a lot of reading in the course, and many of the readings are written from a Western, white perspective, in a scholarly, dissociative tone. Students need to be empowered to challenge these views and criticize the tone and content of this work, and to read 35 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online argumentatively, so that they can contribute their own views responsibly and ethically. The readings are intentionally assigned to create strong reactions, so that students are prompted to think about how information is created and is a process. “It’s crucially important that the students know what the biases are, where this information comes from, and one particular thing that we have a focus on, is making sure that students know that they are contributors to the scholarly conversation. We want them to know that what they’re reading is not just the official word.” Empowering students to criticize power structures is the “threshold that we want students to be able to cross over.” It is particularly crucial in this learning context to get students to be reflective and consider how they will interact with cultures and histories not their own, and how this does and does not reflect colonial history.

How Technology Is Used: the Development of Online Learning Circles One way that the course is trying to support authentic, empowered student contributions that foster and enable reflective practices is to create online learning circles. These are designed to be a cohesive, cohort-building experience, to increase students’ knowing sharing, and provide reflective space, where students feel their voices are heard. These online learning circles also correlate to the group assignment: each student writes an issues paper, and together they create a group presentation that combines the perspectives of each paper. These are designed to provide critical feedback and support, and to provide a place to experiment with problem solving, knowledge sharing, and is a setting to get to know each other well, as they will be sharing close quarters in an unfamiliar place for several weeks. Intensive emotional reflection is very necessary to help them understand and attune to their own response.

36 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Use of Voice Thread for Measuring Student Learning Outcomes Rather than relying on traditional papers to measure student learning outcomes, Courtney is experimenting with mixed media assignments, such as using VoiceThread, which allows students to create presentations from different types of media, and further allows for annotations and comments out of any media, to make a more interactive and collaborative learning experience. This has several net positives: “it has a meta-literacy component. It asks students to integrate multiple types of information. It also provides a trace of the student’s engagement that can live on to be recruitment for future classes, provide ways for the larger class cohort to see what is going on, and to provide students with something for their online portfolio.”

Other Types of Technology Typically Used to Increase Engagement Courtney incorporates more time-based media into his feedback as well. He has used voice memos to provide feedback and check-ins for students so that they have more informal ways to connect and have a better understanding of how their contributions have impacted the course and the learning of other students (see more below).

Yet, technology can only go so far. Doing a service learning project at a distance “necessitates students becoming a group.” As Courtney explains in the COLL-X211 examples, a key objective to the course is cohort building. “There is a real need to get students together, comfortable with one another, and to set expectations.”

37 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Instructor’s Own Experiences as an Online Learner and How this Informs Current Course Development Efforts As a student Courtney had experience taking individual classes and MOOCs and this impacted his approaches. Courtney’s main objection to online courses is that they are isolating and are not readily flexible and open to the ways that students individually and collectively make meaning with the professor and the course. “I felt siloed, I didn't feel like I was part of a group taking this journey. I felt like it was all laid out, no mystery involved...” There is less room for incorporating individuals’ feedback, anecdotes, and for gelling a culture among students and getting the feeling of a group together. “There’s this nuance ... invariably your fellow students will ask [about an assignment] in so many different ways that you might not have thought about. There is a piece that is almost always missing [in online courses] that fails to anticipate what can be borne out of those conversations. I felt like there was no space for that. It was just for me an experience of singular pursuit to an end, meeting little tasks along the way, and those tasks were check ins for the instructor to make sure that they were able to gauge individual student progress, and determine whether there was any intermediation needed, which is fine, but it doesn’t take into account the group dynamic.”

There is also the feeling that the LMS is a closed environment, not open to other resources or experiences. “I feel like online students feel trapped within that environment. The way that we set these courses up, kind of like going into a classroom and closing that door and leaving.”

In order to counter these effects, Courtney has incorporated several pedagogical strategies. For example, in small- to medium-sized classes, Courtney will record voice

38 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online memos weekly providing individualized feedback for each student, letting them know how their contributions have impacted the course, in order to help them feel that that they are visible and that they matter. The online learning circle mentioned above is also an example of trying to curb the isolating and regimented effects of the online learning platform. In this case, giving the students “freedom to use whatever technology is meaningful for that group. Sometimes it’s the LMS, sometimes it’s abandoning that entirely. I encourage that.”

Trends in Online Learning: Open Education and Open Pedagogy Courtney sees a big push toward OERs and open pedagogy. Students want more affordable options, and it also allows for a greater flexibility of what students interact with and how they create assignments, rather than the “closed door” feeling of an LMS described above.

Courtney also sees how LMSs are changing. “I see it evolving, a shift away from a place to hang your syllabus and your files… There’s a greater focus on using more of the abilities within the LMS. Especially embedding content and media.” Additionally, he notes how LMSs are positioning themselves more and more as content providers, not just a platform through which classes are provisioned.

Keeping Informed In ACRL, both the Instruction Section and the Distance Learning Sections have excellent resources, lots of educational opportunities, often cover similar topics, and have been collaborating more frequently on topics such as advocacy and accessibility. In addition, 39 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online the ACRL University Libraries Section has been having online hangouts around similar themes. There are online discussions and online round tables. Courtney recommends these resources for those seeking to find resources and models.

University of Washington Brief Profile of University of Washington The University of Washington, Seattle is a public university with very high research activity; it is the flagship of the University of Washington system. Total undergraduate enrollment is approximately 31,000 as of fall 2018. We spoke with Reed GarberPearson, Integrated Social Sciences and Online Learning Librarian, about the University of Washington’s approach to working with online learning.

Garber-Pearson is the first full time librarian in a newly formed position that works directly with the Integrated Social Sciences Bachelor's Degree program (https://integrated-social-sciences.washington.edu/). The position is funded fully through tuition dollars stemming from Professional and Continuing Education, which administers the ISS program. Beyond liaising directly with the ISS program, Garber-Pearson is responsible for online learning more broadly across the campus and in the libraries. Their position is housed in the Instructional Design and Outreach Services unit of the University Libraries.

40 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Background and History of the ISS Program Launched in autumn of 2014, the ISS program was developed over a number of years through the support of UW administrators, as a way to expand access to a UW undergraduate degree. Like many online learning programs, many of the students are older than typical college age and have responsibilities that preclude going to school full time. Garber-Pearson is careful to consider their lives outside of school and what they want to do with their degrees: “they’re not necessarily students who are going on to grad school, or think of themselves as researchers, so it leaves a lot of room for me to think about what research is, in terms of an open thought process.”

Garber Pearson’s Role in the ISS Program Garber-Pearson has a highly integrated role in the program and participates in curriculum planning as well as individual courses. Weekly meetings are held with core faculty, advisers, and administrators, in which team members communicate, plan, and develop strategies for ensuring the program is being delivered successfully. GarberPearson also attends curriculum retreats and has contributed improvements to the program, such as successfully advocating for increased diversity and inclusion in the core reading list. Garber-Pearson is also highly integrated into the course delivery mechanisms: a “librarian” or “teacher” role is included in all core ISS courses, and teaches he a module in one of the early required courses. Additionally, information literacy is included in the orientation module.

41 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Importance of Relationships, Student Advising and Community to Functioning of ISS Program In addition to weekly meetings, communication happens across the different roles in the program in both official and serendipitous ways. “It is truly very integrated, and there’s a lot of respect and collaboration, [which is] sort of necessary given how our approach is with students. We do have an 86% retention rate, and for a program of its kind that is extremely high.” Garber-Pearson credits this to the program’s investment in a high advisor-to-student ratio. Additionally, he adds: “unlike any other program I’m familiar with, we’re constantly reviewing the curriculum and changing it. It’s never really fixed. It’s a problem for online programs in general, not able to flex with the needs of students, and our program is trying to do that.” Generally, the team invests in team building, communicating informally, and building relationships among one another by such means as going on walks together and communicating through Slack. Other more informal support such as providing feedback for presentations also helps lead to a strong collaborative team. Garber-Pearson asserts that this dedication to positive community translates into positive student experience: “Students pick up on it.”

Working with instructors directly In addition to team meetings, Garber-Pearson communicates directly with instructors to discuss various info literacy teaching strategies and to provide some continuity (instructors are on fixed three-year contracts so new instructors come on semifrequently). Garber-Pearson teaches a module that is integrated into another instructor’s course, ensuring that the instructor in question understands and is comfortable with the expectations around grading and instructor feedback during these instances. Many instructors have not worked with a librarian in this extensive role before, but once

42 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online introduced to the collaborative aspect, are enthusiastic. Garber-Pearson’s goal is to inculcate trust and respect to ensure everyone feels supported.

Examples of an information literacy session in an ISS course One example of an inserted information literacy session comes from Garber-Pearson’s module in one of the introductory courses in the ISS program. In the module, they introduce an article about confirmation bias and ask students to read it and consider how they employ confirmation bias in their own information consumption. This emphasis on lived experiences is purposeful in creating learning opportunities that students can continue to draw from after they graduate.

Garber-Pearson explains their approach to information literacy this way: “I think the role of IL is not to instill an ability to read peer-reviewed articles or search complicated library databases, but to navigate information platforms critically to find a multitude of perspectives for the things that you want to talk about. It involves critical source evaluation, digital safety assessments, and community accountability in research and writing.” The emphasis on “real world” application of concepts is reinforced throughout the program: students are prompted to consider issues by asking, “Who would you want to have on a topic panel about this issue? Whose voices need to be heard in order to understand the problem?” In this way, students are encouraged to consider ramifications of larger issues outside of the classroom context.

Feedback from Students and Incorporation into Future Iterations Garber-Pearson describes an example of how they gather student feedback about the assignment cited above and use it to adjust the assignment for future classes. The first 43 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online iteration of the assignment was “library heavy” and required students to identify and use peer-reviewed sources. However, the assignment changed over time as Garber-Pearson read student feedback, considered how the assignment aligned with the ISS program’s learning outcomes, and the students’ post-graduation goals. However, Garber-Pearson warns that how assignments are received by students often changes cohort by cohort, so how one group of students interacts with content is not necessarily representative. Sometimes it is best to wait until several cohorts interact with material, to ensure that it truly needs to be changed.

Extracurricular Engagement Garber-Pearson has attempted to find ways to gather students together and create a community outside of the classroom, through “homework happy hours” and other synchronous activities. Though well intentioned these were not as well attended, and Garber-Pearson has drawn back from this approach. Another way they have interacted with students is through a diversity committee made up of various ISS staff, faculty and students.

Online Workshops for Graduate Students across UW Beyond the ISS program, Garber-Pearson is on a team that develops and administers online info literacy workshops for graduate students. Workshops developed in partnership with other units include Digital Storytelling, Data Management, and a generalized Graduate Student Research Institute. The Graduate Student Research Institute (GSRI) was developed in partnership with the UW Graduate School’s Core Programs, in response to large attendance at annual libraries workshops through the UW Center for Teaching and Learning. One popular workshop was “Research Smarter

44 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online Not Harder,” which focused on building effective literature reviews. The GSRI is asynchronous and totally online, has no capped enrollment, and is facilitated not only by the libraries but also staff from the Graduate School and the Graduate Opportunities and Minority Achievement Program (GO-MAP).

The five day workshop consists of daily materials with an accompanying activity. For example, students learn about the many different offices for research on campus and then the student is asked to make a contact in their area of study.

GSRI enrolled over 200 students in its first year of operation. Feedback from the pilot session indicated that students wanted additional specific discipline contacts, so the course was redesigned accordingly, and the team trained subject librarians to serve as mentors in small disciplinary-differentiated cohorts. GSRI enrolled over 320 graduate students in its second year of operation.

New roles for the Library Created through Online Learning Without the barriers of geographical distance between different units, Garber-Pearson has observed that students’ experience of the library is not separate from their experience of the program as a whole. “The library is not this space, it’s not even the resources, the library is me. And I’m part of the program, I’m not a separate entity in the library, they don’t know where my office is (which is in the library), I’m just part of the program. I’m on the website, I’m in their orientation course, I’m just like an advisor, or faculty member to them. It’s not separate, they don’t see that or experience that for the most part, so I think that offers a lot of opportunities to engage in really different ways, shifting the meaning of what a liaison is in online learning.” This opportunity for

45 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online seamlessness between librarian and program contributes to students’ knowledge of what librarians can do for them.

Role of Collections in Online Learning What this model does not emphasize is the role that collections play, particularly print collections. Garber-Pearson believes that this transformation can help to integrate libraries into the lives of students: “If libraries are going to evolve with education, with learning, with people, and with digital citizenship, then we can’t be based on our collections. We have to be based on our relationships, and that’s where we fall flat a lot of the time, and that’s what’s enabled my ability to work so intensively in the curriculum, redefine what it means to be a librarian, to be someone who works in a library and works in the program. It’s not about the collections.”

Challenges for how the library serves online students Because the ISS program emphasizes interdisciplinary connections across the social sciences, it can be difficult to translate students’ research interests into library resources, as the resources themselves tend to be very disciplinary-bound. Another issue that has come up is the way the ISS program uses keywords as a concept does not necessarily translate to how librarians use that terminology. When students have used reference services such as chat reference that Garber-Pearson does not mediate, this can become confusing for both parties.

46 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

How Technology is Used Garber-Pearson communicates with students primarily over the phone, via email; he also has video conferencing and occasionally, in person, meetings. Most frequently, students are calling rather than using video conferencing software.

Use of Subject Expertise Garber-Pearson’s deep knowledge of the curriculum and personal integration with many of the courses allows him to be able to assist students with coursework. Garber-Pearson also draws on an educational background and broader readings across the social sciences to help students think more critically about their topics, and to help them frame their questions more cogently.

Affordances of online learning Compared to traditional learning, online learning has many positive aspects, chief among them the flexibility built into asynchronous education. Students who need to work or attend to other responsibilities and cannot be tied to a specific place or time, are now much more able to pursue educational goals. In addition, in Garber-Pearson’s experience, asynchronous education also “benefits a particular learning style, more reflective or contemplative... you can spend a long time thinking about things in an online environment...and be very intentional…” However, they point out that asynchronous education “loses the freeform aspect [of a face to face classroom environment], loses its ability to gel and form together in unexpected ways.”

47 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online This lack of spontaneity is reflected in the relative need for lesson-planning. When asked if they do lesson-planning, Garber-Pearson asserts that developing an online assignment is a lesson plan in and of itself. The sequence of activities is built in. Of course, unless the activity is strictly controlled so that students only can proceed through materials sequentially, students often don’t interact with the materials in the way the instructor had designed.

Detriments to online learning Online learning, while opening up education to a broader student population, does have its limitations. “Online learning is a neoliberal market. The online program that I work with, even though it’s public education, does not using state funding or state funding models, so it gets to operate like its own little company. Even if those little companies are aware that they’re a little market, and they’re responding to student needs, I think it’s really challenging to push back on that model.” Not subject to the limitations of classroom availability, online learning programs continue to grow and to increase profitability by increasing the number of students in the program. It also contributes to a more skills-focused education rather than a one that is exploration focused. “I see that that is a necessity right now in our economy generally. Student need skills to get a job. When I was in undergrad, I was able to explore. It was an exploration process for me, and I loved my undergraduate degree because it wasn’t about needing to have a skill to work in a sector, that’s what a lot of students are dealing with now.” Garber-Pearson’s approach to working in this environment is “to focus on making relationships with people. The only way we’re going to move against the neoliberal capitalistic force is to have relationships with people. We have to continue to find ways to do that, have identity be part of the conversation if students want it to be.”

48 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Garber-Pearson points out that there are chances for people to be more heard, and to express themselves in online learning versus face-to-face. However, they have also seen more opportunity to make assumptions about other people, and not to spend time thoughtfully considering another person’s positionality. Some examples they have seen include misgendering, or assuming that everyone is of a similar background, or that because of what little one knows about another’s background, one makes assumptions about another person’s thoughts.

Experiences as an online learner Garber-Pearson has experience as an online student which he draws from in order to be more student-centered and improve the provision of course content. They noted a tendency for online instructors, particularly those who were teaching courses that they themselves did not create, to focus more on managing the classroom than on meaningfully engaging with the course content. Garber-Pearson reported that “I never felt like I got a ton of personalized feedback on my work in the online program. And the couple of times that I did take a class in-person, it felt like the instructor was much more present and was providing a lot more feedback to me.” As a result of these experiences, Garber-Pearson’s goal for online learning is “to create more pathways for curricular, but also non-curricular, conversations and learning to happen. Because the curriculum felt so fixed.”

49 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Phoenix Biomedical Campus Brief Profile of Phoenix Biomedical Campus The Phoenix Biomedical Campus Library, located in Phoenix, Arizona, serves students from both Northern Arizona University (NAU) and University of Arizona (U of A)’s health science programs. The Phoenix Biomedical Campus is owned by the City of Phoenix and hosts a number of healthcare-related institutions and companies (for more information visit https://biomedicalphoenix.com/). NAU is a public doctoral-granting institution with high research activity and 27,000 undergraduate students in fall 2018.

U of A is a public doctoral-granting research institution with very high research activity; it enrolled 35,000 undergraduate students as of fall 2018. We spoke with Catherine Lockmiller, Health Sciences Librarian at the Phoenix Biomedical Campus Library.

Broad Engagement with Users In her current position, Lockmiller works closely with healthcare providers, both aspiring and currently practicing. Lockmiller has worked for quite some time in libraries that serve two institutions simultaneously (currently, a satellite campus that supports both NAU and U of A; her previous position was at a community college library that also served as a public library). She capitalizes on this broader mission to serve multiple audiences. For example, in her outreach, Lockmiller is able to reach not only students and faculty, but also practitioners in the field. She has presented her work in public settings such as TEDx to further promote awareness of the issues she works on.

50 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Use of Subject Expertise Critical to Success Lockmiller’s deep knowledge of healthcare and subsequent understanding the particular disciplines allows her to optimize integration of information literacy into healthcare education. Professionalism and ethics are a huge emphasis for Lockmiller’s information literacy instruction, emphasizing who holds privilege and who is disadvantaged. In her work with students, she emphasizes social determinants such as disabilities, age, gender identity and sexual orientation; and how these all combine intersectionally to profoundly affect how people get care. In order to make her point most cogently, she takes care to use the language and methods of the discipline. For example, medical students are very used to case studies, such as: “John fell out of a tree and broke his elbow. What treatment do you provide?” In instruction, Lockmiller points out that the case study doesn’t provide any context for John’s class, race, age, and other determinants that could not only profoundly affect his existing conditions, but also what remedies would be most effective considering his needs. Lockmiller believes that this is crucial because in her experience, people who are in or are training to be in medical professions, by and large, come from privileged backgrounds and don’t necessarily have an informed understanding of those who do not. Medical providers need a better understanding of illnesses such as chronic conditions, autism spectrum, personality disorders, and trauma in order to provide better, more ethical care. They need to be aware of issues such as, “As a medical professional, how do I touch people who have had adverse childhood experiences, including but not limited to sexual harassment?” Through this emphasis on the experiences of marginalized and disadvantaged populations, Lockmiller’s goal is to coach current and future healthcare providers to be more ethical, sensitive, and compassionate in how they think about and work with patients. 51 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Incorporation of Design Thinking In order to effectively design and implement assignments, Lockmiller uses design thinking strategies, such as persona building and empathy mapping, to build patient education and design experience. “Grad students can stand to be challenged.” Deliverables have included infographics and pamphlets. Lockmiller is able to work closely with the students because of the high quality working relationships with she’s developed with instructors over time.

How Information Literacy is Integrated into Online Learning Lockmiller points out that distinguishing between online and in-person learning, and what kinds of information literacy can be implemented in each domain, is “increasingly muddied by all sorts of socio-technical phenomena ... I think it's important that we take note of these shifts in shared reality because they are very closely tied to the ways information structures itself and flows across human platforms. It also means that information literacy does not exist in a binary online / offline state.”

She goes on to say, “I'd also suggest that this is a key learning for students to take away from any class, and especially from a class that happens entirely inside a learning management system like BBLearn or Canvas.”

Libraries can Help to Create Critical Information Consumers In terms of how libraries can work with this environment, Lockmiller suggests that libraries consider how to position themselves for online consumption and to be cognizant of differences in how students may interact with information across time. However, Lockmiller sees a key point for librarians to “put together online learning situations that 52 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online complicate the information environments students interact with from day to day. For those of us in health sciences, that means slowing down the urge to go straight to an easy, short answer in a point-of-care database, and instead, to really seek an understanding of the information being presented through the research.”

Working with instructors directly Lockmiller endeavors to have as much understanding as possible of the course objectives, the students, and the instructor’s preferences as possible to be prepared and ensure that the delivery of instruction is as targeted as possible. Additionally, she asks to be added to the course learning management system to ensure smooth communication, delivery, and any follow up communication from students. “After meeting these criteria, we begin designing instruction materials.” Lockmiller typically records a short lecture and accompanies this with a guide customized to the needs of the class. However, “I'm trying to move away from that, and in the future, I want to experiment with Slack and other synchronous information sharing interfaces.”

Specific Example of Partnering with an Instructor to Create Information Literacy Deliverable An example of how Lockmiller works with instructors to integrate information literacy in the online classroom environment follows: Recently, an instructor asked me to help her design a lesson that involved consumer health information and the spread of misinformation through social media, popular websites, and mainstream news outlets. It wasn't a large assignment, but it was important to me that health information seeking behaviors be included in parts of the curriculum where they were

53 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online previously absent. This included introductory courses like Ethics in Occupational Therapy, the class being taught in this specific instance.

Because this is the first full-credit course in which new students are enrolled, we assumed that our students would lack a robust understanding of health science research, but we wanted them to see the gaps that are often prevalent between peer-reviewed research and massmarket interpretations of that research via popular news and/or social media platforms. In my mind, this is an especially important time to remind them that information exchange between human persons can get very messy very quickly, and that, as future health professionals, it will be their job to sift through the mess for themselves and for their patients or clients. This thinking informed the learning outcomes for the assignment.

Lockmiller recorded the lesson as a video and uploaded it to YouTube as well as embedding it into the course’s LMS.

Feedback and Assessment In terms of feedback and assessment, “The students were very involved in this assignment, and returned high quality work, for the most part. They were graded on their participation, their adherence to the criteria mentioned in the assignment description, and their use of form (APA, formal writing style). I was mostly pleased with the results; however, in the future, I want to make assignments like this happen in real time using Slack Channels and allowing students to discuss in a more immediate context than discussion boards allow.”

54 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online While the examples above are relatively time- and resource-intensive, Lockmiller suggests more incremental ways to change one’s teaching practice, such as being more inclusive and intentional in choosing search terms what search terms to use while demonstrating a library database, also goes a long way.

Affordances of Online Learning Online learning helps bridge the gap and reach students who are “a member of a social minority group and feel unsafe in a traditional classroom.” In order to best serve the students, the librarian must learn to understand the communities. A successful example of implementing online libraries took place at Lockmiller’s former institution. She noticed that there was a very small collection of LGBT resources, so outdated that they were actively detrimental. Lockmiller developed the collection to increase in size, relevancy, recency, and provide much more complex and nuanced resources, in order to broaden the collection’s representation of multiple identities that fall under the umbrella of LGBT. She ensured that it was intersectional to include overlapping identities such as LGBT immigrants and people of color. Her collection development also broadened the types of resources available, such as nonfiction, fiction (particularly youth and teen), and online resources, including a robust online resource guide. This guide not only addressed topics such as how to find legal and medical information, but also social integration, such as dating sites, and safe open facilities, in order to serve the whole person. Lockmiller’s efforts paid off: it was the top used LibGuide and spurred further engagement with this community, on and offline.

55 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

How Physical Spaces and Online Spaces Intersect in Collections Lockmiller’s collection development encompassed a holistic approach to the topic; but, because of the way libraries organize information, the physical collections themselves were shelved in different locations. By gathering these resources together online, it provided a dedicated resource environment. Lockmiller knew that the community these resources were intended to support are more likely to feel comfortable finding resources online rather than in person, because of the daily difficulties they face in the form of microaggressions such as misgendering, being outed, labelled, and a legitimate fear of violent aggression such as harassment or assault. Through demonstrating the need for and resultant success of her collection development and resource guide, Lockmiller was able to argue for a further iteration: to better situate the physical collection, and to make the organization itself more LGBT friendly. Programming and events centered on the LGBT community began to be put on and attended. They were attended because the library had already built trust with the community, through all the work they’d put into the online presence.

Working with online populations should not be only thought of in terms of online only interactions. It is a continuum between in person and online activities. Increasing online activities is a great way to demonstrate value to people who don’t normally or who wouldn’t necessarily think to come in, and this is especially crucial and true for people who are from marginalized communities.

56 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Instituting Organizational Change As a further result of this work, Lockmiller was also able to change the organization itself for the better. She pushed for gender neutral restrooms, worked with HR on necessary medical benefits, worked with a committee on diversity, equity and inclusion, and rewrote benefits and safety policy. It passed through a piloting stage and then was approved through governing board.

Vocational Awe Leads to Lack of Criticality on Librarians’ Part Lockmiller situates her work in response to the profession’s propensity toward vocational awe: the idea that libraries as an institution, and librarianship as a vocation, is good in principle, but it leads to a lack of criticality of how these ideas translate into action. Lockmiller points out that libraries can be and have been detrimental if not outright harmful to entire groups of people. Libraries can and do perpetuate systemic oppression. In order to combat this, Lockmiller works micro culturally and macro culturally within the organization, “throwing away any hint of neutrality.”

Detriments to online learning Online learning is isolating. “This includes feeling physically and existentially separate from one another (being a number); feeling disembodied and feeling unable to place other students as bodies; feeling a sense of displacement, being absent from college meetspace while potentially being displaced from home and community (as a member of the military, for instance)...”

57 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Use of Social Media can Make Students Unsafe Another risk to online learning is the potential for instructors in using non-course approved technologies that potentially expose students’ privacy. “To me, this is a major issue in digital pedagogical design. When instructors fail to really consider the ethical and social boundaries they may be crossing by having students use a problematic platform, not only does this indicate that they have not really reflected on student needs, but it also poses legitimate risk for students who are in danger of being doxxed, swatted, stalked, etc.”

Recommendation of Open Source Software In order to use technology both ethically and effectively, Lockmiller will “provide as much open source content as possible. I read third party user agreements, and then I show students what they are signing on to do before they have to do it. I also give them an out if they don't want to use a platform. I help them learn useful online communication tools like Piktochart, Trello, and OBS Studio, all of which have a free component (even better, OBS is open source). Doing so, I give them new ways to express themselves online, so they aren't constantly writing and pushing out letters as if they are beholden to some capitalist project designed only to economize their thought. I want to do more, but for now, this is what I am doing, and what I think matters. Because that's what helps students understand that they matter.”

Over Reliance on Asynchronous Tools Beyond potentially ethically harmful use of technology, using asynchronous education tactics, such as using the discussion board as the main point of assignments, “doesn't really promote deep reading or attention to another person.” More synchronous solutions 58 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online would help to promote greater attention and depth. “This could include Slack, Google Hangouts, or BB Collaborate; it might also allow people to use group text -- in order to ensure privacy, instructors can show students how to set up burner phone numbers using a Google account. They can text from that if necessary.”

Greater Focus on Synchronous, Interactive Tools Designed Intentionally for Target Population Beyond course assignments, information resources themselves could benefit from a more participatory functionality. While Lockmiller uses Libguides, she finds them to be “very sage on the stage.” Ideally, she would like to level the playing field by engaging the students more actively in creating their own learning environments. Drawing from her knowledge of healthcare and LGBT populations, Lockmiller has an idea for an appbased solution for librarians and informationists to be in contact with gender nonconforming patrons or their allies, in a safe, closed environment, to provide patrons the ability to ask questions, engage in dialogue, and have access to health information. There would be the caveat that we aren’t licensed medical professionals and can’t give medical advice, but it would give the ability to communicate back and forth and provide the opportunity to learn about the experiences and of ideas those who receive care. One model for its information architecture would be reddit, although that is too wide open. It would have to be more monitored to ensure privacy, anonymity, and freedom from harassment.

Experiences as an online learner Lockmiller’s experiences as an online student have shaped her ability to understand the mindsets and approaches of online students, perspectives that she draws from to optimize her contributions for their learning. One good experience with online learning 59 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online was her MLIS degree: this included a required orientation course administered before students start taking classes, so that they are thoroughly familiar with the technology and mechanisms of online learning. In the curriculum, technology worked seamlessly to allow students to communicate and collaborate. Instructors kept to approved technologies that did not risk students’ privacy. Because the school was in the WISE consortium, Lockmiller was able to take online classes at other universities as well, opening up the curriculum considerably and allowing her to customize her coursework to topics that interested her (https://wiseeducation.org/). WISE is a web-based information science education consortium that enables its member to exploit one another’s key advantages in different sectors of information science, improving the range and quality of courses available to members.

And not least, the school facilitated co-curricular experiences such as an online conference with digital networking opportunities built in. A much less satisfying experience at another school also gave Lockmiller hands on experience in how to optimize online learning in her career. The LMS was not “robust enough to support an online learning program.” Another detriment was that instructors did not respect student privacy, by forcing them to use social media platforms as part of their assignment. In the curriculum there was a lack of engaging ways to participate, over- relying on discussion boards. “I just do not think that rote, weekly discussions do that much to promote discourse.” Additionally, “most of the teaching content is textual….students encounter enormous walls of text (I'm talking 2000 words with no break even for a table or graph).” Accessibility standards did not seem to be consistently utilized. Furthermore, “assignments are not well planned, and do not promote diversity (for instance, I was told by an instructor not to pursue research into transgender

60 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online affirming healthcare because ‘it is not necessary’).” And not least, “there are far more classes available to students on-campus, and it feels like the online courses are mostly there to generate $$$.”

How Pedagogy has been Affected by Online Learning Experiences Lockmiller has taken inspiration from her experiences to ensure that her approach to online learning uses “pedagogy that recognizes and affirms student agency.” Her use of media and minimizing text, as well as careful adherence to accessibility best practices, ensures that students are first and foremost served. Lockmiller tries to ameliorate the isolation of the online environment by “[looking] for opportunities to practice synchronous conversation, and I try to let others speak for themselves and their own ideas.” She practices pedagogy that decenters teacher authority, to encourage students to be more actively engaged in their own education. “Of course, I am willing to stand by my own ideas, and I make that clear. The difference is: we're engaging in a discourse and growing that discourse as colleagues on a more level plane than when I tell them what to think, teacher to student. I constantly look for feedback, and I am willing to change my course materials. Also, I take the time to review my course materials, looking for outdated information and new ways to promote metacognitive practice.”

Rubrics, Standards, and Best Practices Used Familiarity with accessibility standards, writing for the web, and familiarity with HTML and CSS all contribute to Lockmiller’s ability to communicate effectively with online learners. Lockmiller uses the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. “I think that the Framework's focus on metacognition and critical application of skills and knowledge can help students understand information in its materiality and

61 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online situational context.” Since she works with medical education, she also uses evidencebased practice standards (EBP), particularly those under the research standard. This ensures that her teaching is in line with the field she works with.

Keeping Informed Lockmiller looks to user experience librarianship for keeping up to date on content delivery best practices. For inspiration on content and pedagogy, “I'm also involved in online conversations concerning digital pedagogy, digital humanities, and critical librarianship, all of which are closely connected to the ways information gets shared online.”

62 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Author’s Commentary As the literature review indicated, case study participants noted an increase in online learning at their respective campuses. Xue et al.’s (2019) finding that online programs decrease in-person course offerings was confirmed by Bossaller. Garber-Pearson’s experience working with a self-supported unit was an interesting example of an alternative funding model: according to Poulin and Straut, 16% are likewise independent, 48% source from the same funding models as any other course, and 29% are a mixture (2017). Lockmiller’s comment that “the online courses are mostly there to generate $$$” is certainly corroborated by the findings in the reports (Best Colleges, 2018; Garrett & Legon, 2018).

Types and Uses of Technology Vary Technology usage and reliance varied by participant. Bossaller notes the ability to connect with students synchronously using smart classroom and web conferencing tools; Courtney’s experiments with annotating media seamlessly unite different information sources and types to further students’ learning; Garber-Pearson’s flexible use of communication channels, and their integration into the program’s courses, facilitate seamless access to material; and Lockmiller’s deep engagement with tools in the context of access and privacy all illuminate nuanced approaches to and deployment of technology.

Each noted that the LMS was a limitation in how they were able to connect with students, and how students were able to interact with course content. In contrast, the literature demonstrates a continued reliance on the LMS platform (Garrett & Legon,

63 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online 2018). While Courtney specifically mentioned Open Educational Resources (OERs), in Garrett and Legon’s study, OERs ranked far down the list of trends online programs were looking to adopt (2018). However, Poulin and Straut’s survey did indicate interest in reducing student costs through OERs and other mechanisms (2017). Lockmiller specifically noted the limitations of asynchronous course delivery; yet Garrett and Legon demonstrate that asynchronous offerings are likely to stay (2018).

Student Privacy and Safety Unaddressed Concern Privacy and safety of students using online platforms also emerged as a concern across the literature and case studies. Given both Lockmiller’s experience and the data from Waycott (2017) and Bauman and Baldesare (2015), it would strongly suggest that students’ privacy and safety are kept in mind in working with students, especially as learning analytics expands. Stephens (2016) provides one example of how to balance privacy with open collaboration in an online learning setting.

Relationships and Community Important Strategy to Ensuring Excellent Online Learning Experiences Despite, or perhaps because of the isolating effects frequently reported in online learning, a throughline across the literature and case studies was an emphasis on creating relationships and emphasizing the student’s unique identity. A chief challenge of the online learning model is that the flexibility it creates that suits so many types of students is partially incumbent on asynchronous offerings, which was touched upon by Garber-Pearson. Yet asynchronous models reinforce isolation This was reflected not only in online learning broadly, but also in online LIS education: Aversa and MacCall (2013) emphasize the need to create student culture through cohorts, further reinforced by the experiences detailed by Most et al. (2013). Bossaller’s description of the MU 64 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online program also emphasized the importance of reinforcing students’ ability to participate in curricular and extracurricular activities and support, regardless of distance. This was echoed by Garber-Pearson’s discussion of the program they work with. Lockmiller offers reasoning and strategies for more synchronous offerings.

Role of the Librarian The literature and case studies both reinforced an experimental mindset and one that was highly knowledgeable about the students’ needs and the discipline served. The case study participants displayed a degree of intentionality that enabled them to design impactful instruction. Crane (2017) reinforces this need for librarians to know the audience for online learning; and broadly, this is reinforced by the use of instructional design principles in the field (Garrett & Legon, 2018). In their teaching practices, case study participants consider what kinds of students are taking the course, and what they’re getting out of it, to design the learning object to be as targeted as possible. It also reinforces a desire to look outside of the academy for meaningful learning experiences: Bossaller and Courtney both discuss examples of service learning; Garber-Pearson discusses digital citizenship; and Lockmiller blurs the line between students and practitioners in her approaches. Each shows a capacity for information literacy to be broadly applied to the online learning environment; a phenomenon certainly backed up by the numerous articles detailing approaches in the literature review. As Lockmiller points out, “information literacy does not exist in a binary online / offline state.” Online library services and physical library services can and should go hand-in-hand. Work online bleeds into work offline.

65 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

New Ways to Participate in Student Engagement As the case studies showed, the librarian has a new way to participate in the co-creation of meaningful student experience. This can be seen in the curricular support models detailed by Garber-Pearson and Courtney, for example, and Lockmiller’s ability to integrate information literacy into clinical education. In many ways, this is facilitated by the seamless melding of people and resources that can be represented in virtual space as Garber-Pearson pointed out, the students don’t know that Garber-Pearson’s office is in a separate building; they are just as integral to the program as the instructors and advisers. Case studies varied in terms of how they used library resources. Each emphasized the importance of using open access materials and tools. In this way, the role of the librarian was less tied to traditional systems of spaces, print resources, or even library databases, but rather spent more on how to integrate these resources effectively to increase information literacy, regardless of provenance.

Conclusion To summarize, the best kinds of programs spend time and energy developing the curriculum to be both holistic and flexible, are responsive, student-centered, and have pathways for feedback, invest heavily in support services, and leverage technology effectively and ethically. Given the context of online learning, both its promise and its perpetuation of inequity, libraries are needed more than ever. In the literature, most of the attention has been paid to how librarians can increase effectiveness, often but not necessarily always in the context of information literacy. However, information literacy is necessary not only for the effectiveness of online classroom instruction, but also for understanding the greater ecosystem surrounding online learning: who it benefits, who it harms, why it is being promulgated and by whom. Consider the following from the 66 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online framework “Information has Value”: “Experts understand that value may be wielded by powerful interests in ways that marginalize certain voices.” That is certainly born out in online learning literature. Yet the frame goes on to say: “However, value may also be leveraged by individuals and organizations to effect change and for civic, economic, social, or personal gains.” (ALA, 2015) By doing so, librarians can lead the way towards cutting through the “hype cycle” McPherson and Bacow point to surrounding online learning (2015). The four case studies detailed here provide strategies for doing so.

67 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Reference List Aharony, N. (2011). Library and information science students' feedback in an online course. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 52(4), 305-319.

Alcalá, J. C., Austin, M., Granroth, M., & Hewitt, B. (2016). Online inclusive pedagogy: A call-and-response dialogue on digital storytelling. Education for Information 32, 71–85.

Allard, S. (2018). Foundations and futures. Library Journal 143(17), 16–21. Retrieved from http://0search.ebscohost.com.library.uark.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=132 303184&site=ehost-live&scope=site

American Library Association. (2009). ACRL standards for distance learning library services. American Library Association. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/guidelinesdistancelearning

American Library Association. (2015, February 9). Framework for information literacy for higher education. American Library Association. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework.

Aversa, E., & MacCall, S. (2013). Profiles in retention part 1: Design characteristics of a graduate synchronous online program. Journal of Education for Library &

68 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online Information Science, 54(1), 147–161.

Bailey, A., Vaduganathan, N., Henry, T., Laverdiere, R., & Pugliese, L. (2018). Making digital learning work: Successful strategies from six leading universities and community colleges. Retrieved from https://edplus.asu.edu/sites/default/files/BCG-Making-Digital-Learning-Work-Apr2018%20.pdf

Bauman, S. & Baldasare, A. (2015). Cyber aggression among college students: Demographic differences, predictors of distress, and the role of the university. Journal of College Student Development 56(4), 317-330.

Becnel, K., Moeller, R. A., & Pope, J. C. (2016). Powerful partnerships: The worth of embedding masters level library science students in undergraduate classes. Journal of Education for Library & Information Science, 57(1), 31–42.

Best Colleges. (2018). Annual trends in online education 2018. Retrieved from https://www.bestcolleges.com/perspectives/annual-trends-in-online-education/

Bettinger, E. P., Fox, L., Loeb, S., & Taylor, E. S. (2017). Virtual classrooms: How online college courses affect student success. American Economic Review 107(9), 2855-2875.

Boden, C., & Murphy, S. (2012). The latent curriculum: Breaking conceptual barriers to information architecture. Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library & Information Practice & Research, 7(1), 1–17. 69 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Bossaller, J. S. (2016). Service learning as innovative pedagogy in online learning. Education for Information 32, 35–53.

Burns, E. A., Howard, J. K., & Kimmel, S. C. (2016). Development of communities of practice in school library education. Journal of Education for Library & Information Science, 57(2), 101–111.

Cavalcante, A. (2016). “I did it all online:” Transgender identity and the management of everyday life. Critical Studies in Media Communication 33(1), 109-122.

Chronicle of Higher Education. (2018). The Chronicle of Higher Education almanac. Washington, D.C.: The Chronicle.

Coleman, M., & Berge, Z. (2018). A Review of Accessibility in Online Higher Education Online. Journal of Distance Learning Administration 21.

Cooke, N.A. (2016). Information sharing, community development, and deindividuation in the eLearning domain. Online Learning 20(2). Retrieved from https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/614/212

Crane, B. E. (2017). Online teaching and learning. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Dynarski, S. (2017). Online schooling: Who is harmed and who is helped? Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/research/who-should-take-online-courses/

70 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online EDUCAUSE. (2019). Key issues in teaching and learning. Educause Learning Initiatives. Retrieved from https://www.educause.edu/eli/initiatives/key-issues-in-teachingand-learning

Farooq, O., & Matteson, M. (2016). Opportunities and challenges for students in an online seminar-style course in LIS education: A qualitative case study. Journal of Education for Library & Information Science, 57(4), 271–282. https://0-doiorg.library.uark.edu/10.12783/issn.2328-2967/57/4/2

Ferguson, N., Hoel, T., Scheffel, M., & Drachsler, H. (2016).Guest editorial: Ethics and privacy in learning analytics. Journal of Learning Analytics 3(1), 5–15.

Gamtso, C. W., & Halpin, P. A. (2018).Tailoring library instruction for non-science majors taking hybrid and online science classes: Student perceptions of information literacy in the virtual environment. Public Services Quarterly 14(2), 99-118.

Garrett, R., & Legon, R. (2018). The changing landscape of online education (CHLOE) 2: A deeper dive: Quality Matters & Eduventures Survey of Chief Online Officers. Retrieved from https://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/research-docspdfs/2018-QM-Eduventures-CHLOE-2-Report.pdf

Gering, C. S., Sheppard, D. K., Adams, B. L., Renes, S. L., & Morotti, A. A. (2018). Strengths-based analysis of student success in online courses. Online Learning 22(3), 55–85.

71 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online Harris, B. R. (2008). Communities as necessity in information literacy development: Challenging the standards. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 34(3), 248–255.

Jenzen, O. (2017). Trans youth and social media: Moving between counterpublics and the wider web. Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 24(11), 1626-1641.

Kebritchi, M., Lipschuetz, A., & Santiague, L. Issues and challenges for teaching successful online courses in higher education: A literature review. Journal of Educational Technology Systems 46(1), 4-29

MacDonald, K. (2018). A review of the literature: The needs of nontraditional students in postsecondary education. Strategic Enrollment Management Quarterly 5(4), 159164.

Marken, J. A., & Dickinson, G. K. (2013). Perceptions of community of practice development in online graduate education. Journal of Education for Library & Information Science, 54(4), 299–306.

Matlin, T., & Lantzy, T. (2017). Maintaining quality while expanding our reach: Using online information literacy tutorials in the sciences and health sciences. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 12(3), 95-113.

McPherson, M. S., and Bacow, L. S. (2015). Online higher education: Beyond the hype cycle. Journal of Economic Perspectives 29(4), 135-154.

72 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online Most, L. R., Kazmer, M. M., & Marty, P. F. (2013). Intangible factors influencing the successful completion of graduate LIS coursework by non-traditional students: A case of two IMLS-funded scholarship projects. Journal of Education for Library & Information Science, 54(3), 205–219.

Oguz, F., Chu, C. M., & Chow, A. S. (2015). Studying online: Student motivations and experiences in ALA-accredited LIS programs. Journal of Education for Library & Information Science, 56(3), 213–231.

Ozdemir, D., Preast, V., & Duffy, P. A. (2018). Systematic approach for improvising accessibility and usability in online courses. Handbook of research on human development in the digital age. In V. C. Bryan, (Ed.), Handbook of research on human development in the digital age (pp. 258-280). [S.l.]: IGI Global.

Panigrahi, R., Srivastava, P. R., & Sharma, D. (2018). Online learning: Adoption, continuance, and learning outcome—A review of literature. International Journal of Information Management 43, 1-14.

Pardo, A., & Siemens, G. (2014). Ethical and privacy principles for learning analytics. British Journal of Educational Technology 45(3), 438-450.

Poulin, R., and Straut, T. T. (2017). WCET distance education price and cost report. Retrieved from https://wcet.wiche.edu/sites/default/files/Price-and-Cost-Report2017_0.pdf

73 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online Pymm, B., & Hay, L. (2014). Using etherpads as platforms for collaborative learning in a distance education LIS course. Journal of Education for Library & Information Science, 55(2), 133–149.

Qayyum, M. A., & Smith, D. (2018). Changing research behaviours of university students with progression throughout a course. Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association 67(3), 256-277.

Rapchak, M. E. (2018). Collaborative learning in an information literacy course: The impact of online versus face-to-face instruction on social metacognitive awareness. Journal of Academic Librarianship 44(3), 383-390.

Robbins, S. (2012). Moving a general reference course online: Issues and considerations. The Reference Librarian 53(1), 12–23, 201.

Rubel, A., & Jones, K. M. (2016). Student privacy in learning analytics: An information ethics perspective. The Information Society 32(2), 143-159.

Seaman, J., I. Allen, and J. Seaman. (2018). Grade increase: Tracking distance education in the United States. Retrieved from http://onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/gradeincrease.pdf

Shen, J. (2018). Flipping the classroom for information literacy instruction: Considerations towards personalisation and collaborative learning. Journal of Information Literacy 12(1), 48-67. 74 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Scott-Clayton, J. (2018, January 10). The looming student loan default crisis is worse than we thought. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/wpcontent/uploads/2018/01/scott-clayton-report.pdf

Stephens, M. (2016). Connected learning: Evaluating and refining an academic community blogging platform. Journal of Education for Library & Information Science, 57(4), 295–310.

Waycott, J. (2017). A virtual panopticon in the community of practice: Students’ experiences of being visible on social media. The Internet & Higher Education 35(10), 12-20.

Webster, L., & Whitworth, A. (2017). Distance learning as alterity: Facilitating the experience of variation and professional information practice. Journal of Information Literacy, 11(2), 69–85.

Wray, C., & Mulvihill, R. (2018). Framing Up Digital Literacy: Reviewing and Reframing Information Literacy Modules. The Reference Librarian 59(4), 195-204.

Xu, D. & Jaggars, S. S. (2014). Performance gaps between online and face-to-face courses: Differences across types of students and academic subject areas. The Journal of Higher Education 85(5) 633-659. DOI: 10.1080/00221546.2014.11777343

75 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online Xue, C., Wu, X., Zhu, L., & Chu, H. (2019). Challenges in LIS education in China and the United States. Journal of Education for Library & Information Science, 60(1), 35– 61.

Zhang, X. (2016). An analysis of online students’ behaviors on course sites and the effect on learning performance: A case study of four LIS online classes.” Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 57(4), 255-270.

76 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

77 | P a g e

Profiles of Best Practices in Teaching Information Literacy Online

Keywords Information literacy Online Learning Distance learning Library and Information Science Education Instruction Librarianship Pedagogy Technology Higher Education Critical librarianship Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Teaching and Learning

78 | P a g e