Lollipops for Learning Resources Leo Appleton & Anthony Beal March 18th, 2008
Overview Information West Cheshire College Discovering Lollipop Information Literacy staff West Cheshire College Project results
Information West Cheshire College Learner – thorough induction introduce catalogue InfoTrac etc Two full weeks during induction for all full time students Learning Resources Workshop includes introduction to the VLE and i-skills Quiz at end of LRW with prize of an MP3 player Follow up i-skills sessions publicised by Springboard
Information literacy in the curriculum
High Profile Curriculum Links Gatekeepers and regarded as such of: – i-skills – Research skills – Referencing – E-learning – Intranet – Web 2.0 – Digital media
Induction Quiz on VLE
Learning Resources Home Page
Curriculum Area Page
West Cheshire College model Declining use of print resources
West Cheshire College model Proof of expanding e-resource use Full text retrieval
Actively promote information and research skills training Bespoke Springboard – Planning essays – Research skills (i-skills) – Harvard – Reflective Learning – Presentation skills i-skills embedded into assignments
Learning Resources Staff Recently converged, multi-disciplinary service No real overall awareness of information literacy within curriculum areas Curriculum liaison and information skills teaching done by selected staff Needed a holistic awareness and approach Opportunity for VLE familiarisation
Lollipop Information Literacy Prior to the course all staff took part in Information Literacy discussions All Learning Resources staff taking part Blended learning No charge for the materials that can be modified as required for hosting institution All web based At WCC now built into our VLE, Fronter
Lollipop content – learning materials
Lollipop content - forums
Lollipop content - blogs
Lollipop Staff Development – Results
How important do you think information literacy is?
How knowledgeable are you about information literacy?
What have you found most interesting about Lollipop? Search terms Opinions of colleagues Boolean operatorsSconul E-journalsCritical evaluation AuthenticationPrimary/Secondary sources Web sitesAttitudes of curriculum PlagiarismGateways CopyrightIntellectual property
How much use do you make of the VLE?
How did you find the Lollipop materials and VLE functions? Lollipop Content – 90% Blog – 68% Discussion – 77%
How familiar are you with the VLE functions?
Overall success Would you recommend Lollipop for curriculum staff? 77% Would you recommend Lollipop for students? 68% What worked particularly well? Discussion forums, Different VLE tools, Tests at the end of each section, Group participation
Conclusions Generalisations Lollipop increases perception of information literacy as ‘important’ to learning Lollipop familiarises staff with information literacy Lollipop increases staff knowledge about information literacy Lollipop is an effective way of delivering information literacy content Lollipop can be used effectively as a staff development tool Lollipop can be used to increase awareness and familiarisation of institutional VLE functionality