Yes, we've used it at University of Otago in a number of situations both for information literacy and digital literacy teaching in Oral Health (100 level), Medical Laboratory Science (200 level), and Pharmacy (undergraduate and post graduate level).

We use a variety of material, in house video or interactive content, externally sourced content, practice searches using our databases, online based quizzes that can require physically coming to the library to find material.

The advantages we've been alerted to through in house evaluations are that: students feel more prepared for class, they have a better understanding of concepts, they have time on their own to work at their own pace, and they can come to class with questions, they exhibit deeper understanding. In order to embed this in the programme without adding time to the students, we have negotiated reducing in class time to cover the pre -class learning (usually up to half an hour).

The major disadvantage is when students don't engage with the pre-class learning, come to class unprepared, and the same amount of work still needs to be completed in 2/3 of the time.

It also takes time to design and set up these learning packages and embed them in the LMS. We often use Adobe Captivate to build the content but do have a collection of learning objects that we reuse and tailor the content to fit around it. If grades or terms are to be applied this needs to be negotiated at an early stage. A small grade can increase motivation to participate for some students! 

I hope this helps.

Thank you for replying, this is the first instance I have heard about doing it for information literacy and thank you for detailing the software that you use as others may also benefit from it as well.

Would anyone else like to contribute to the discussion? Carrie

Hi Carrrie,

I've been working for an online educator for nearly 15 years now, and I don't have a physical library so have to provide much of the information literacy training via technology platforms. These have included webcasting, self-paced e-tutorials with quiz test banks and Articulate clips. I will add that it is very important to evaluate and assess your information literacy learning support materials. I evaluated a series of e-tuts I designed and implemented to improve student's understanding of referencing protocols and plagiarism. Establishing whether there have been learning gains is important, and leads to continual quality improvement.  My students are postgraduate course work students studying in the financial services.

I have been using a flipped classroom for information literacy since 2006.  There is no one way to do this.  I find the most effective method is to assign students a writing task involving research "cold" due before the class session.  When they have trouble is when they begin paying attention to all the online tutorials and in-class consultations I provide.  Lectures have been entirely eliminated and exchanged for feedback on student work.  All class sessions are working sessions where they work on improving their first shot at the assignment with a librarian present to consult.  A search of the library literature will reveal many librarians taking this approach.  The main advantage is students are not sitting around bored in a lecture, and are immediately asked to apply their skills to a problem.  Another advantage is that it does not waste precious class time on material that can be communicated easily outside of class.  Students also help each other in class.  This is a proven technique for improving learning.

Learner engagement  in learning cetainly is crucial, if you can get students offering peer support that certainly seems extremely helpful. 

Any tips welcome from anyone else interested in this topic on flipped or otherwise learner engagement?

Carrie

I use their assignments to workshop as I prefer authentic learning tasks, as it leads to deeper learning. My students are mostly part time, and working full time, so they are focused on learning what they need to know. With small groups of students collaborative learning occurs in these sessions.