Staff Developer Flexible Learning, Library Assistant and Head of Department, Technology

Otago Polytechnic, Bill Robertson Library and Dunedin College of Education

bronwynh@tekotago.ac.nz, wendy.ritson-jones@billrobertson.library.ac.nz and dawn.coburn@dce.ac.nz

Information literacy e-Learning modules: reusable and portable across a College of Education, a Polytechnic and a University

Conversation

Information Literacy e-Learning Modules designed and developed as part of a 2005/2006 eCDF project will be presented as an example of Moving learners and educational design. The project was conceived to address four main areas in the tertiary sector associated with information literacy learning:  1. Barriers to tertiary study related to poor information literacy skills and the diverse needs of marginalised, mature and distance students.  2.  A shortage of high quality online information literacy modules which are reusable, portable and have pedagogical flexibility. 3. A need for professional development opportunities for staff in the area of information literacy. 4. A tertiary sector requirement for centrally maintained and managed, standards conformant online resources in this important foundation field. Project procedures such as conducting a needs analysis, educational design considerations, content development and media production, usability and effectiveness evaluation will be outlined. Participants will be asked to provide feedback on the design and content of the modules. The facilitator will lead a discussion about how people believe they can use the modules in their organisations, courses and programmes and how they can be customised using an online editor tool.   

Bronwyn Hegarty has been teaching online and developing resources for the online environment for ten years and currently works in the area of educational development. Bronwyn's role is to assist academic staff with the design and development of online courses, as well as to support them as they learn to become online facilitators. In this eCDF project, Bronwyn has been part of a team designing and developing content for the modules, and also oversees evaluation of the modules.

Wendy Ritson-Jones is a Library Assistant working at the Bill Robertson Library (joint library of the Otago Polytechnic and Dunedin College of Education). She is part of the Information/Reference team who together teach Information Literacy skills to staff and students.  Wendy’s role with the eCDRF project has been as a Research Assistant with the Assessment and Evaluation Group, and latterly with the Content Development Group helping to develop the content and design of the New Zealand Information Sources module.

Dawn Coburn has a teaching background and she has been working in what is now called e-Learning for the last eleven years; firstly in an area school and latterly at Dunedin College of Education. Dawn’s role at the college currently includes; across the curriculum ICT liaison, delivering a multimedia course, staff support for online learning, digital resource development and collaborating in the eCDF project.