Teaching infoskills to Education Postgraduate students- the blending, flipping and testing approach

Teaching infoskills to Education Postgraduate students – the blending, flipping and testing approach!Tony Wilson([email protected])

Challenges when teaching Postgraduate students Different experiences/different backgrounds – you can’t assume knowledgeGreater number of International students – Potential language barriers, different expectationsMore diverse resource needs – interests more niche

How did we change things?Flipping the classroom Our Teaching & Learning team have developed some Digital Skills GuidesThe students were asked to complete 5 Online Tutorials in advance of the workshop

Academic Sources – an overviewBreaking down your search: Keywords and synonymsCombining your search terms and Boolean Operators Plurals and variations in spelling: Truncation and wildcardsCritical reading: identifying arguments

How did we change things?

Testing the studentsNeeded some way to test whether the students understood the content covered in the tutorials

Used Kahoot – an online quiz tool to test the students

Has it been a success?Early signs look good!Numbers are up to full capacity againBut engagement is back again too – questions have returnedThe continuity between the sessions appears to be benefitting students

But

Awaiting module/tutor feedbackNeed to see how students do on the Library exercise

What hasn’t gone to plan? We have not been able to focus on Reference Management Software as much as we would have liked

Time issues – especially in the Information skills workshop

Staff illness

Lessons Learned •Bring related sessions/ colleagues together if you can •Having tasks that the students need to complete relating to their assignments makes a big difference – try to avoid your session being stand alone•Kahoot is great!

Some other top tipsSend out questionnaires in advance of the training then frame session around responsesBe responsive to your audience – how many are returning studentsCheck what the students do know (Kahoot great for this!) but, at the same time, don’t assume that they do know the very basics!The content won’t necessarily change as much as you think – what will change, however, is the toneLikely to be greater focus on services such as Interlending, SCONUL, British Library

The future?

Any Questions?

Thank you for listening

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