Developing library e-learning courses - how to make a fruitful collaboration?

Abstract

The University Library of Stavanger has made three interactive library courses. Two of the courses are in Norwegian, Vitenskapelige artikler i sykepleiefaget (Scientific articles in nursing), and Kildebruk og litteratursøk (Information literacy: How to search and cite) and one in English, Writing thesis, using sources. The purpose has been to help students developing skills in information literacy, to fulfill the demands required by the Norwegian ministry of education and research. The courses are available at the library's webpage. Their purpose is to be a supplement to ordinary library courses. The courses consist of text, films, interactive tasks and voiceover. We have made subject-specific courses, which cover different faculties at the University. We believe that the students at a university seek to identify themselves with the profession they aim to become a part of through their studies, and hopefully they develop an attachment to the library. The course Writing thesis, using sources is primarily aiming towards engineering students, but it will also be useful for other student groups. The university has many foreign students in different engineering disciplines and levels. They sometimes have a bachelor's degree from a country with an academic culture that is different from ours. The course is written in a clear and concise language. The students can listen to the text, or read it. The cooperation between the library and the academic staff has varied during the development of the courses. We had close contact with two members of the Department of Health Studies during the whole process of the first course, Vitenskapelige artikler i sykepleiefaget (Scientific articles in nursing).They gave us advice about content and definitions. There has been less cooperation with academic staff during the two other courses. Cooperation with NettOp (The University's department for web-based education) has been outstanding. NettOp has guided us on subjects like software, layout, technical support, interactive objects and pedagogical advice, like how to write for students. We also invited students to give feedback on the courses. The process has been informative, and we have developed new skills. At the same time there have been challenges, such as software issues and lack of collaboration with academic staff. Maintaining the courses is very time consuming. We would like to meet other colleagues in higher education interested in e-learning courses and exchange experiences. Discussions may be about matters such as: Do we really need interactive courses? Should the courses be subject-specific or general in content? How can we include academic staff in a better way? Could students do the job? Could several universities cooperate to make interactive courses? Could we borrow content from each other? How do we know whether the courses are used or not? What about the learning process and outcome for the students? How do we best promote the courses? Experiences with different software and use of devices. Discussions should be conducted in groups consisting of max 8 participants. The results from the discussions could for example be published on UBIS' blog.