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2a: An understanding of teaching, learning and/or assessment processes
2a: An understanding of teaching, learning and/or assessment processes
Designing the first Library-owned online course: LIB262
Designing the first Library-owned online course: LIB262
Until early 2020, the Library's teaching model didn't follow the sustained multi-week 'module' model seen in formal academic teaching. Our teaching usually happened as very short, synchronous 'one-shots', either with a specific cohort or as a general sign-up open to all students. We had little opportunity to support students' development over a longer period of time - we often couldn't provide directional or corrective feedback in a timeframe that would allow the student to absorb the feedback and return with new work, or new ideas. We were reliant on the testimony of busy academics.
In late 2019 I led on the development of the Library's first multi-week online course, that we called LIB262: Advanced Searching for Systematic Reviews. We took our inspiration from the existing, 3-hour face to face class we had been offering for many years.
(CP1) The spine of the course is the existing Advanced Health and Systematic Review elearning tutorials - arranged in different stages that each focus on specific concepts or parts of a Systematic Review search strategy, strongly informed by our teaching experience. The tutorials are hosted in the KLaSS suite we had previously developed which is available to every student at King's - see section 1 describing the process and benefits of this approach.
(CP1) The course was then developed using Garrison's Community of Inquiry to create a social-constructivist learning environment, developing as much peer to peer learning as possible instead of relying solely on the instructor/learner relationship. This was done by:
Using open, non-anonymous Moodle forums as assignments for learners to post and respond as a whole, and within smaller groups later in the course.
Also making peer interaction required to pass the course, in the way that points were awarded in different assignments for providing feedback to peers.
Explicit instructions for engaging with and completing each assignment, as well as clear deadlines.
Setting clear expectations around receiving timely feedback from instructors, necessary to promote and reinforce good learning and development in our learners.
(CP1) The assignments were explicitly designed to follow Biggs' principle of constructive alignment. This means we give the learners the opportunity to practice, and receive feedback on, building a systematic review strategy piece by piece before they complete their own 'summative' assignment to the course - which they might also then use in their degree or research work.
Screenshot of current (at time of writing) LIB262 course - Autumn 2021.
Screenshot of LIB262's stage 2. You can see that activities 7 and 8 link directly to KLaSS - they're the elearning tutorials designed to support each stage, and develop the skills needed to complete each stage's Assignments.
Reflections
Reflections
Developing LIB262 has been hugely rewarding, and a real insight into the process of developing academic courses. I'm working to refine my approach to 'owning' the module - delegating more responsibilities to peers, both the Librarians and Library Assistants. We're in a sweet spot of having a good deal of academic and creative freedom with little of the oversight other parts of the University are subject to. I think crossing over to credit bearing is a Rubicon we're not willing to bridge any time soon - I don't think we're ready or set up for that kind of work.
I'm trying to find new ways to combat the high attrition we see during the course - not in itself a mark of failure (high attrition is common for many online courses with no fee to join), but perhaps having a Faculty agree that its completion should be required for its Postgraduate Researchers might help sustain attendance and raise completion levels? I'll need to work with peers throughout the Library, and Faculties, to develop this idea further.
We're also seeing a broad range of quality in terms of the work our attendees are producing. Some of our students have very obviously grasped what we're trying to teach them, and the improvement in their skills in designing and executing a Systematic Review search strategy is often very obvious. And yet, we're still seeing students 'complete' the course with fundamental flaws present in their work. I am planning a major rebuild of LIB262 over the summer of 2022 to embed the PRESS Evidence Based Checklist (link) as a more explicit benchmark against which assignments will be judged and graded - rather than simply rewarding 'presence' or 'engagement'. I hope that by making this kind of tool a much more obvious guide for students, we can both increase the quality of individual pieces of work, and have that be more consistent over the group as a whole. [Revision] As of Autumn 2022 this is now a part of the course's design, and is discussed in section 2B. [/Revision]
Evidence
Evidence
My FHEA certificate, awarded December 2018
The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework
LIB262's iterative, participant-informed development from inception in 2019 to the present day
LIB262's iterative, participant-informed development from inception in 2019 to the present day
Piloting LIB262 - Library Assistants as learners
LIB262's first iteration was a pilot in January 2020 with Senior Library Assistants (SLAs) in the role of students and the Librarians as Instructors. This was a golden opportunity to see how the course deadlines worked in practice, to identify areas to improve and clarify, and to understand how a group with varying levels of motivation fared with our course.
(CP3) After this pilot the SLAs were given a chance to 'debrief' to the instructors on their experiences, achievements, and frustrations with the course. The debriefs were framed primarily as a problem-finding session, asking open questions such as:
What, if anything, did you think was positive about the course?
What, if anything, would you improve about the course?
What, if anything, did you find particularly unclear?
Examples of the SLAs' responses are in the adjacent document, along with how I altered the course's design to reduce complexity, or perhaps improve clarity, as required from each piece of feedback.
Feedback reporting.docxCollation of examples of peer and learner feedback gathered during past instances of LIB262.
[Revision] Running LIB262 - Who are our learners?
Two of the questions asked of learners signing up to LIB262, designed to give us an insight into their Faculties, level of study, and reasons for joining the course.
The course is opened broadly to our community of PGRs (Post-graduate Researchers) in our Health Faculties. We use the booking process to capture data on their level of study, the specific Faculty or department they're part of, as well as probing their motivations for joining the course.
We use two questions to explore where more targeted communications are needed for under-represented Faculties (or to give other departments advanced notice of the next course), and the third to start building a picture of who our incoming students are, what kind of projects they're undertaking, and their expectations for us and the course.
Example of a learner introducing themselves early in an instance of LIB262. They have introduced themeselves with a chosen name (dark red) that is different to how they appear in the system (dark green). The instructor (blue) has taken care to use their chosen name in their reply.
The course's first assignment is a forum where Instructors and Learners introduce themselves to each other. We encourage Learners to post their preferred names and describe their research topics of interest, helping instructors to:
communicate with the learners in a respectful, authentic way, forming bonds and encouraging a genuine interest in the student's work.
place students with similar research interests into the same groups at stage 2's start.
Both of these help to build the Social Presence (described in 2a) by fostering the conditions for authentic social interactions, aiding the development of social bonds and stimulating the flow of ideas and feedback between groups.
Running LIB262 - Insights on the learners' understanding
A significant change made to the LIB262 run in Autumn 2022 was to introduce a new opportunity, at the end of Stage 1, for instructors to give learners structured feedback on their nascent search strategies before they submitted to Assignment 7 in Stage 4 (worth a significant 70 points, or 24% of the course total). The learners deserved a chance to receive a 'course correction' if the instructors felt the submissions fell below the expected standard (a problem we had seen in previous iterations of the course, even from learners who eventually 'passed' the course). Most, if not all, students designing a systematic review are expected to eventually publish so we feel this is an especially valuable time investment.
[/Revision]
Running LIB262 - Communicating with the learners
(CP3) Within each course there is a Communication and Support Forum for learners to ask questions about, or report issues they encounter in the course (see forum exchanges below). This is monitored by the Instructors to provide timely responses and help as needed. Where appropriate, these conversations can lead to improvements being made instantly, or implemented in future courses (see LIB262 Forum Exchanges 01 and 02 below) depending on the changes' complexity and potential disruption to the learners.
Running LIB262 - Communicating with the Instructors
(CP3) During each iteration of LIB262 I schedule a weekly drop-in debrief for the instructors to give us a chance to get together, raise issues, and agree solutions to any problems we're facing. The Instructor Manual's (embedded below) appendices 1 and 2 were added as a response to these debriefs, as some of the Instructors were unclear on when they should budget time to grade each stage's assignments.
Closing LIB262 - Communicating with the learners
(CP3) At the course's end we send a link to an Impact Survey that asks learners to evaluate the impact their taking part in LIB262 has, or is likely to, have on their own ability to develop their Systematic Review search strategy. The course is left open to allow enrolled learners to revisit the course as and when they like, and in accordance with King's' course retention policy.
Closing LIB262 - Communicating with the Instructors
(CP3) Each LIB262 is followed by an in-depth review where the Instructors discuss what worked, what didn't, and suggest solutions for future courses (see the pilot's debrief questions above). See the adjacent LIB262 reviews document for examples of how the Spring 2021 LIB262's Instructor review led to changes being made in preparation for Autumn 2021. This will continue to happen for each course's iteration - it's an invaluable [revision]'on the ground' view of the course's inner workings reported directly by those working most closely with the learners, helping us to clearly and authentically identify successes, and fix pinch points. [/revision]
Reflections
Reflections
I think establishing a very open-minded approach to seeking and, most importantly, using feedback from all of the groups involved in the course has been one of the success stories of this project. The collation of feedback examples linked above is a small fraction of all the suggestions, ideas, innovations, and changes we've made to the course since its inception - only a few of which came directly from myself or my immediate peers. This is not to say we're not thinking of ways to improve, but that it's imperative to remember that my immediate peers aren't the only people worth listening to. This commitment to constantly tinkering does make it difficult to compare iterations of the same course - neither two 'runs' are ever quite the same, but I think the benefits of the above approach far outweigh this minor inconvenience.
[Revision] Links and bonds with students are visible - we've noticed continued communication with learners after the course, sometimes informally, sometimes in other teaching spaces like in-person workshops or forums. We intend on following up with these learners to develop case studies of our impact (such as we can discern) on the learners' work/eventually publishing.
We will be reviewing and analysing new 'course-correcting' approach as it provides us with quantitative data to gain insights for the next round of learner-centred improvements.
[/Revision]
Evidence
Evidence
LIB262 Forum Exchange 01 - Example of a forum exchange with a student in a LIB262 course from April 2021. This led to our changing the way we set up Forums to send fewer emails.
LIB262 Forum Exchange 02 - Example of a forum exchange with a student in a LIB262 course from March 2021. This led to our adopting the same deadlines when there are multiple parts to an Assignment (i.e. posting and replying).
Example of notes made during a review meeting with Senior Library Assistants in April 2020.
Example of notes made during a review meeting with Instructors in April 2021 with highlighted examples of actioned feedback.
A small selection of Instructor feedback and ideas from a LIB262 review run in December 2021. Boxes' colours reflect their answering specific questions such as:
- What went well? (red)
- What didn't? (yellow)
- What could we change? (green)
Learner responses from question 10 of our post-course feedback survey, providing another opportunity for learners to express themselves, and for us to uncover new understanding and ideas around how the course runs, and could be run differently in future.
LIB262 Instructors V4 (2).docxLIB262 Manual developed over the past two years to support instructorsÂ
A short piece of written feedback from an Instructor colleague, describing the impact the LIB262 Manual has has on their confidence
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