Session Abstract
Abstract
The Nebraska College Preparatory Academy (NCPA) is a four-year recruitment program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that begins during the first year of high school and aims to prepare first-generation and low-income students for college. UNL Librarians provide information literacy instruction and research support to the final year students from four high schools, through a three-day Intensive Research boot camp in the final summer and a series of research sessions and support during their senior year. The sessions lead the scholars through a research process and culminate in a capstone paper and presentation to teachers, friends and family.
This instruction is a unique integration of the university’s Learning Management System, Canvas, the self-publishing software, Pressbook, Zoom, and Facebook. The Pressbook NCPA Research Guide (Anaya, Dawes & Simon, 2020) is divided into four information literacy modules with several embedded activities that are both integrative and standalone. This innovative approach allows the modules to be used in synchronous zoom instruction sessions and in asynchronous self-paced learning. Each of the research guide lessons are embedded into a Canvas module and Canvas is used to communicate the class norms and assignment expectations. Zoom facilitates synchronous teaching, office visits, and the final Capstone Presentations and discussions, together with Facebook, maintain the community culture and provide some of the structure that was lost from the in-person instruction.
This workshop will take participants through the development and future use of this information literacy instruction and Research Boot Camp. Through a series of activities and discussions, attendees will gain an understanding of how to pivot from face-to-face IL instruction to a hybrid remote learning experience. This maintains a culture of community and inclusivity, while also supporting the self-paced individualized learning needed to accommodate the student’s various schedules and new family commitments caused by a pandemic or other catastrophic events (Darling-Hammond & Hyler, 2020). Participants will be introduced to a pedagogy that integrates “Inclusive Excellence” (University of Nebraska, 2019) into the classroom using a variety of digital tools and engaging strategies to teach information literacy to students transitioning to university.
Learning Outcomes: Participants will learn how to seamlessly integrate several digital tools to develop an information literacy lesson that facilitates community and supports a culture of inquiry. The lesson will be applicable to both synchronous and asynchronous teaching.
References
Darling-Hammond, L., & Hyler, M. E. (2020). Preparing educators for the time of COVID … and beyond. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(4), 457-465. doi:10.1080/02619768.2020.1816961
Fister, Barbara. (2021) Reimagining Information Literacy in the Qanon Era. https://barbarafister.net/libraries/reimagining- information-literacy-in-the-qanon-era/
Implementing Inclusive Excellence into Learning Environments. ( 2019) University of Nebraska. Office of Diversity and Inclusion. https://diversity.unl.edu/implementing-inclusive-excellence-virtual-learning-environments
Anaya, Toni., Dawes, Lorna., Simons, Janel. (2020). NCPA Research Guide. Pressbook. https://pressbooks.nebraska.edu/ncparesearchguide/