Thinking about my Information Literacy Wiki in terms of ADDIE

ADDIE - Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation

ADDIE is learning model often used by those who design instruction or instructional materials. Prior to creating my Information Literacy Wiki, I first thought about my criteria for and objectives in building an online "learning resource center." I am currently in the development, implementation and evaluation stages of this project, however, I find it helpful to go back to what I did in those first few phases and re-evaluate my work. I'm sure that as I continue with this project I will find things that I could have done better or things that I will do differently next time. But for now...this is what I've got. I think for today I'll just start out with the Analysis part of this project...

Analysis:
The primary learning problem I faced was in finding a way to make my learning materials available to all of the students at my institution, without necessarily visiting each class or every individual student. During my time here as the librarian, it has become very clear that information literacy instruction is desperately needed. Students by and large do not know how to search online databases, or even a library catalog. When asked to write a brief (1 page) paper about the discovery of a famous mathematician or scientist, many had no idea where to even begin, despite the fact that they had already been introduced to our Virtual Library system several times. They are also mostly clueless when it comes to evaluating the information they are reading. Some instructors are far more receptive to my taking time out of their class to do library instruction than others, leaving some students a bit behind on the information literacy track.

In thinking about what my goals should be for this project, the first thing that came to mind was simply making my instruction available to students who could not necessarily see me in a classroom environment. My second goal was to aim toward producing students who were information literate. My objectives in reaching those goals are
1. Provide information literacy instruction based on the Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education developed by ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries).
2. Create a Web presence for our Learning Resource Center in which students will have Internet access to information literacy instruction that relates directly to what they’re doing in class.
3. Create course-specific instructional pages for students, especially those working on course projects.
4. Market the new Web site to students across campus.

Knowing that most of the students I’m dealing with are going back to school for the first time in years, or have had little experience with writing and “research” in a post-secondary environment, I knew I needed to create a learning environment that was simple to use and at a low enough level to help students across the board. I also needed to include enough information for students who may not have had the opportunity to attend one of my in-class “library” sessions.

Immediately several different solutions came to mind that I knew could help me fulfill my goals. I thought about learning management systems such as Moodle and simple, free Web pages available from Google. I also thought of Wikis and Blogs. Ultimately, I wanted a space that could provide me with the ability to display a wealth of information in a neat and organized way, along with the ability to add interactive elements.

In determining the best way to go about developing my library’s online presence I ran in to several constraints. First, as I mentioned in a previous post, my institution does not provide any sort of Web space for its employees. In addition, because of its corporate nature, it is very important to not misrepresent my employer or their goals in any way. If I were to create my own Web space, I’d need to carefully monitor the content and keep any student information and curriculum information confidential.

Fortunately, time was not a key concern in my development of this new resource. This type of project is something that I knew I could build over time as I created new instructional materials. I had no deadline or pressure hanging over my head to create this resource right away; however I knew it would be to my benefit to get started sooner, rather than later. Being the solo librarian, I know that as the size of our institution grows, I will have less time to devote to this type of work.

...Coming up next... A discussion of the Design of my Learning Resource Center Wiki