Week 1: Forumulating Significant Learning Goals

Like many colleges and universities, mine is engaged in an assessment overhaul. We do not have an assessment culture on our campus, and there has been a concerted effort from the Dean's office to create one. This has been a long and painful process for many, as I am sure anyone in higher education can attest. Teaching faculty are not accustomed to defining goals, outcomes, and mapping course sequences towards departmental visions. Even for someone like myself, who has (albeit limited) a K-12 background, this process had brought out out some of my worst characteristics: I hear "assessment matrix" and I become sullen, sassy, or socialist, depending on the day.


But reading Fink's text put many of these assessment-driven ideas into a better context, helping me see how they can work together to create a cohesive instruction plan. I love it when that happens!

" A year or more after this course is over, I want and hope that students will______________."

Foundational Knowledge

The key information for distance education students to remember after taking Library 101 (which is my current name for the course. I'm sure it will be more snazzy eventually) are threefold: 

1. That there are a lot of library services available to them that they can access, but that access comes in a variety of ways. This is just a reality of all the systems libraries have to manage, and though we do our best to limit "friction," some resources use their school ID number, some use their NET-ID login information, and for some resources they create their own account, but with their school contact information. 
2. There is an understanding that they should be able to navigate their way through many online systems. 
3. Always Ask-A-Librarian! 

Application Goals

 (side note: I like defining thinking in these three different ways.)

1. Critical thinking- students will be able to evaluate which systems or resources are the most appropriate for certain assignments or classes. 
2. Creative thinking- students will be able to create keyword search terms based on the topic or research question they have formulated.
3. Practical thinking- students will be able to trouble shoot why a system may not be working for them.

The skills that students need to gain are wide ranging. Typing, clicking and tracking their web browser are the most fundamental skills that need continuous reinforcement and practice. Managing passwords and login information is another skill that needs to be mastered. And finally, understanding which system (library catalog vs database, for example) offers which kind of resource.

This course does not have a specific assignment attached to it, which makes it a little tricky. There is no long-term, complex project that will be evaluated. But they will need to understand that research is complicated, and takes time, patience and flexibility. 

Integration Goals

Because the course I am designing is a stand-alone module, I believe my integration goals are fairly broad. Students should be able to see that they need to make connections between different kinds of courses; there is only so much a system can do. They can read a book review in a database, then check the catalog for that book. But the primary goal of this course is to lay a foundation for the rest of the content courses in their program, so they can be successful at finding information they need for different assignments and projects. For their broader work life, I hope students can see that many systems are built on the same architecture and with the same assumptions about user behavior. I know that's not how the students will understand it, but hopefully they can see how much in their lives is managed, or controlled, by information. They themselves probably do information management in their place of work without realizing it. And all of that is related to how libraries present and manage their resources for students. 

Human Dimensions Goals

I hope students learn multiple things about themselves during this course. They should learn what parts of research makes them anxious, what parts of research takes them the most time, and in what kind of environment they can best do their work. This class is an individual learning module, so there will not be an obvious opportunity to work with others. 

Caring Goals

In my ideal world, students will change the way they think about libraries and library research (assuming that most students begin with negative feelings) and move toward the idea that they are capable of navigating these complex systems. 

"Learning-How-To-Learn" Goals

I feel like the answers to this question are wrapped up in the Human Dimensions Goals for this course. This is designed to be self-paced, so ideally the process itself will teach students what environment they need in order to be an effective researcher and how to manage their time when it comes to researching a project. 

Now that I've gone through both of Finks' worksheets, I can see how many assumptions I make about students, their learning process, and their abilities when I design a library session. While these goals still feel very abstract, I know that as we move through the design process they will translate into something more concrete in the end.