Instruction Resources

ONU Academic Structure

ONU has four undergraduate colleges:

• Arts & Sciences
• Business
• Engineering
• Pharmacy

The College of Arts & Sciences is further broken down into six Schools:

• Center for Teacher Education
• Health and Behavioral Sciences
• Humanities and Global Cultures
• Science, Technology, and Mathematics
• Social Sciences and Human Interaction
• Visual and Performing Arts

General Education

All students in all four colleges complete the same General Education program. It consists of 10 outcomes:

1. Effective written communication
2. Effective spoken communication
3. Critical and creative thinking
4. Knowledge of the physical and natural world
5. Knowledge of mathematics and statistics
6. Knowledge of human thought and culture
7. Knowledge of human society and the interactions between society and individuals
8. Knowledge of the principles of aesthetics
9. Knowledge of the principles of civics or ethics on a professional, community, or global level
10. An understanding of diverse cultures

Along with the General Education program, there are four courses that all students take:

TREX (Transitions Experience) Class

• for first year students; taken in their first semester or first year
• introduction to college and college level work; for Bus, Eng, and Pharm, also an introduction to the field
• in A&S: special topics determined by the instructor
• in Business: TREX for Business Students
• in Engineering: Foundations of Design 1
• in Pharmacy: Foundations in Pharmacy Practice 1
• Library Involvement:
  • A&S: depends on the course, but usually minimal; often a tour or overview
  • Business: general overview
  • Engineering: tutorial for FoD 2
  • Pharmacy: instruction for assignment in FIPP 2

Writing Seminar

• for first year students; taken during their first year
• introduces students to college-level writing and research
• students can get credit through College Credit Plus or with a transfer from another college
• Library Involvement: formal partnership with 2-3 sessions in each section that cover developing a topic, choosing keywords, and evaluating sources

Diversity Seminar

• usually a 2000- or 3000-level course
• has to have specific characteristics, including a research paper; that requirement has been dropped
• most are offered through Arts & Sciences; the other colleges have limited offerings
• Library Involvement: depends on course instructor and whether research is required; usually 1-3 sessions about more advanced research specific to the subject area of the course

Capstone

• final overarching project done in students' junior and/or senior years
• areas will often have one or more classes to help students prepare
• projects are done by major
• type of project depends on major; examples are:
  • individual research project with presentation or paper (Chemistry, History)
  • group design project (Engineering)
  • group research project and proposal (Business, Nursing)
• Library Involvement: sometimes a session with students in the whole course; usually meetings with individual students or groups to help them with their specific topics

Contacting Faculty

1. Several weeks prior to the beginning of the semester, Bethany will send out a general email to all faculty reminding them to schedule instruction sessions. Bethany will also send a direct email to all of the Writing Seminar instructors.
2. At roughly this same time, librarians should check the course listings to see if any courses they have taught for in the past are being offered again, and directly contact those course instructors to see if they would like to schedule an instruction session again.
3. Faculty may also contact the library to schedule a session.

Scheduling and Planning a Session

1. Communicate with the faculty member to determine what their library instruction needs are. If they are asking for something outside the scope of library instruction, direct them to a more appropriate person or office (e.g. citation instruction--Writing Center or searching for internships--Career Services).
2. Work out a date and time for the session. We prefer that sessions be held in the library computer lab. If the class is too large to meet in the lab or there is a conflict, you can meet in the course's regular classroom or in another computer lab on campus.
3. Once you have worked out a date and time, reserve the computer lab through LibCal and create an event on the shared Google Calendar.
4. Plan the content of the session.
   1. Establish what assignment students will be working on; obtain a copy of the assignment sheet if possible.
   2. Determine what skills and resources students need to know in order to complete the assignment.

Guiding Ideas: the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education

• https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework
• concepts over mechanics
• from scarcity and complex searching to abundance and complex evaluation

Best Practices

• tied to a specific course and assignment
• use active learning—get students talking and doing things
• break up the session—try to switch activities every 10 minutes or so
• avoid library jargon (LibGuide, facets, circ desk)
• incorporate assessment

Theory and Lesson Planning

• Backwards Design from Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
  • https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/understanding-by-design/
  • HML 375.001 W655u or ebook: https://polar.onu.edu/record=b2550949~S7
  • the idea that instructors should plan their classes based on what they want students to learn rather than what they want to teach
  • instead of going from content-->goals, go from goals-->content
  • process: (1) identify what you want students to learn [outcomes]; (2) determine what evidence will show students learned that thing [assessment]; (3) plan activities that will help students learn the thing [instruction]
• Learning Outcomes
  • statements of what students will be able to do (behavioral), know (cognitive), or perceive/feel (affective) after instruction
  • give your instruction goals and structure and help you focus on what students need to learn, rather than what you want to teach
  • consist of three parts:
    • Introduction - “Students will be able to”
    • Action Verb - “choose keywords based on their topic”
    • Reason/Purpose - “in order to conduct an effective database search.”
  • learning outcomes should be:
    • concrete - "Students will locate Web of Science in the databases list" not "Students will remember Web of Science"
    • active - "Students will select keywords based on their topic" not "Students will be familiar with keywords"
    • measurable - "Students will locate three scholarly sources on their topic" not "Students will find sources"
    • focused - "Students will create a research question" not "Students will write a research paper"
  • search online for "Bloom's taxonomy verbs" to help if you are stuck, and to try to move towards higher-order skills
  • practice: In a 3000-level electrical engineering class, students are given an assignment in which they must choose the name of a notable electrical engineering researcher from a list, find an article by that researcher, read the article, and write a response in which they summarize the article and relate it to a topic discussed in class. The professor asks you to teach a session to help students complete this assignment. What learning outcomes should guide your session?
• Assessment
  • in class and at a program level
  • assessment must align with outcomes in terms of content and mode; behavioral outcomes must have behavioral assessments, etc.
  • Formative
    • assessment that happens during instruction to test what/if students are learning
    • results can be used to change instruction immediately
    • examples: asking "Does that make sense?"
  • Summative
    • assessment that happens after instruction is complete to test how well students have met the learning outcome
    • results can be used to change instruction the next time it is offered
    • examples: final exam, final survey, review of student portfolios or journals, etc.
  • assessment used for all classes: One Minute Paper ("What is the most important thing you learned or one thing you want to remember?") and Muddiest Point ("What is one question you still have or one thing you are confused about?").