LIBRARY TOOLS FOR TEACHING KATE PETERSON, UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES SHANNON KLUG, WRITING STUDIES September 2, 2009

Agenda  Research skills of Undergraduates  Tools for Teaching  Assignment Calculator  UThink blogs

IS RESEARCH HARDER OR EASIER TODAY?

Undergraduate Students  Start with Google and Wikipedia  Little discipline knowledge  Never used an academic library (may not have had librarian or library training in high school)  No knowledge of scholars or how scholarly communication works

Library Tools for Teaching 1. Unravel the Libraries (FYW) series of workshops  CourseLib-page of library resources for your class  Chat with a Librarian (24/7)  Click on “Chat” in upper left corner of Library website 4. E-reserves 

E-reserves  Can be used for a variety of materials  When licensed resources are linked inside e-reserve course pages, instructors no longer need to include them in traditional course packs  Not paying royalties on licensed articles saves students money!  Statistics show that students use e-reserves heavily  Submit PDFs or clean, single-sided paper copies  Library will evaluate non-licensed documents for fair use

Peer Research Consultants (Pilot)  Partnership with the Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence and the SMART Learning CommonsMulticultural Center for Academic ExcellenceSMART Learning Commons  PRCs have completed WRIT 1301  Extensive training in information literacy, tutoring and cultural competencies  Hired three students for Fall

Peer Research Consultants (Pilot)  Available for one-on-one appointments and drop- ins in early October  SMART Learning Commons and MCAE  PRC can help with research  Selecting and narrowing a topic  Finding Books and articles  Finding scholarly articles  Evaluating sources  Basic citation creation

Questions?

Assignment Calculator  Debuted in 2002  Created in partnership with Center for Writing and Center for Teaching and Learning  Goal: Break down research and writing process for students into deadlines (get reminders)  New beta version in 2009:

Assignment Calculator-New Features  Customize assignments for your class  Research Paper  Poster  Media/Video  Add, delete, edit steps  Add course specific readings, etc. to a step  Move assignment online (where students live)  Students can sign up to get reminders

Assignment Calculator

 Change the dates  Edit/add/delete steps  Get URL for your assignment  Post in WebVista/Moodle  to students  Put in syllabi  Hand out in class

Assignment Calculator  Demo:

Questions?

UTHINK BLOGS

Reasons to use a blog in your class  Takes learning and engagement with classmates outside of the classroom  Asynchronous  Participatory / student centric  Encourages collaboration  Easy to share multi-media (links, images, video, etc.)  Learn how to write for a public forum

UThink Upgrade  UThink blogs are hosted by University Libraries   Upgraded to MT 4.25 on June 15, 2009  UThink now has a whole bunch of new features (including tagging, page creation, custom fields, etc.)  Example of new template 

Things to consider  Will you have one blog for the class or will students have individual blogs?  How will you measure/encourage participation?  Privacy and anonymity  Will you moderate comments?  What will you do with the blog after the semester ends?  Can be labor intensive  What will you do with incorrect content / information?

Questions?

Contact Us  Kate Peterson   Shannon Klug 