Week 4

Final Project and Learning Reflections

Environment:

I will be creating an instructional session on using databases for a 1-unit, 16-week, online credit course at a two-year community college. The purpose of the course is to help students become effective academic researchers who think critically about information sources and research strategies. The students currently in my class are with various backgrounds as one would typically find in community college classrooms. For most of them, this is their first online class. A couple of the students have tried the course in face-to-face format, but didn’t finish successfully. The online course is deployed using Moodlerooms Learning Management System.

Learning Outcomes:

 As a result of the instructional session on using databases, at least 75% of the students will be able to find at least two relevant scholarly articles to support or challenge a given research question.

Assessments:

Learning Goals for Course	Teaching/Learning Activities	Ways of Assessing Learning
Be able to access the library’s article databases	Video demo	Assign students to find a particular database by providing the subject category this database is listed under
Be able to identify scholarly journal articles	1. Scholarly vs. Popular LibGuide 2. Ask students to compare two sets of articles: ·      One scholarly + one popular ·      Both from scholarly journals but one is a book review	Complete a chart comparing scholarly and popular articles
Be able to find scholarly articles from databases	·      Online tutorials ·      Reflection on search techniques used in finding the articles	Share search results
Be able to find relevant scholarly articles from databases	·      Peer assessment on relevance ·      Self reflection on relevance	Include two scholarly articles to an annotated bibliography project

Learning Theories 

Instructional Tools:

Learning Objectives	Teaching Activities	Tools to Use	Similar Tools to Consider
Students will be able to: 1.     Access databases from library’s web page 2.     Find relevant articles based on a research topic from databases	Database access basics	1. Screen-o-matic (screencast) 2. Print handout (PDF)	Guide on the side
	Database searching techniques	Existing online tutorial: “Database Searching Basics”
	Spotlight on two databases	Existing online tutorials: ·       Academic Search Premier ·       JSTOR
3.     Locate scholarly articles from databases 4.     Find relevant articles from databases based on a research topic	Scholarly vs. Popular	1. YouTube video 2. Scholarly vs. Popular LibGuide that includes: ·       Comparison chart for students to complete ·       Anatomy of a scholarly journal by NCSU Library

Week 3. Post 2

How to Motivate My Students?

At the beginning of a semester, I ask my students through online discussion forum why they are taking the library credit course to identify their intrinsic motivation. Most of them would say that they want to learn how to research effectively. For my face-to-face classes, I would draw a diagram showing the research process on a board. I explain to them the steps involved in a research process, the tools that they will learn to locate the sources in each step, and tell them that they will achieve their goal at the end of the semester if they actively participate in the class. Throughout the semester, I'll remind them where they are in the research process so that they could see how far or close they are to achieving their goal of being able to conduct research effectively.

When a student does every well in an assignment, I share it as an "Exemplary Assignment" and upload it to Moodlerooms. Even though the assignment is posted without the student's name, I think it meets the student's need for achievement (the need to strive for personal excellence), and my recognition of what the student has done provides him with extrinsic motivation. 

This semester for my online class, I assign the students into groups of 2 to create booklists for each other based on their research topics, and each student does a discussion post afterwards to evaluate the books his or her teammate has created. This activity helps meet students' need for affiliation (the need to exert influence over others).

How to strengthen students' intrinsic motivation, and what instructional strategies "help achieve that optimal level of arousal (zone of curiosity) characterized by excitement, interest, and exploration during the information search process" (Small, p. 5) are questions I would like to find answers to. 

Week 3. Post 1. 

Learning Theories & Teaching/Learning Activities 

(based on my week 2's learning scenario) 

A rough outline of a learning theory supported lesson plan