Rebecca uieei

BFW
Effective Liteiatuie Review Woikshop Reflection
Summei 2u14

The woikshop hosteu by 0W Libiaiies: Effective Liteiatuie Review was uevelopeu
by the 0W Libiaiies Euucation 0utieach team anu was piloteu August 4-8
th
. 0vei 8u
stuuents iesponueu to oui call to paiticipate in this woikshop. 4u of these stuuents
paiticipateu while the iemaining weie waitlisteu. This ieflection uetails my
peiceptions of the success of the woikshop as well as potential changes to make foi
the futuie with this woikshop.

0veiall, I was pleaseu with the oiganization of the couise. Stuuents weie given cleai
leaining outcomes within each mouule followeu by a seiies of iesouices anu
activities. 0nce ieviewing these items anu completing the activity, stuuents weie
askeu to shaie theii ieflections with the mouule. This layout I think is effective as
not too much content is shaieu at one time (not oveiwhelming the stuuent) anu
stuuents can stait anu stop each mouule at theii leisuie.

The uiscussion foiums weie a gieat space to leain about stuuent expeiiences.
Bowevei, I wish this was a bit moie inteiactive. It was most common that stuuents
woulu post theii ieflection anu a tutoi woulu iesponu once. But theie was not a lot
of back-anu-foith between tutoi anu stuuent. Noi weie theie stuuents engaging
with othei stuuents. While I see this is something that coulu be impioveu upon, the
scope of this woikshop anu the time involveu to ueeply engage in these
conveisations woulu not be manageable.

Looking at the content of each mouule anu the paiticipation of stuuents, I might
suggest that in the futuie the couise be limiteu to S oi 4 uays. Paiticipation in the
couises uioppeu off gieatly by the 4
th
uay. This may be in pait because of the
activity in the 4
th
uay was moie intensive than othei uays. Bowevei, I think
stuuent's also founu it was quite simple to spenu moie than an houi a uay in
mouules. This was especially tiue foi those ieauing the uiscussion boaius in-uepth
as tutoi iesponses to each stuuent weie often quite intiicate. A potential solution foi
this woulu be to gioup the stuuents anu assign a libiaiy tutoi to iesponu to a select
gioup iathei than stuuents at ianuom. By naiiowing the iange of stuuent iesponses
with clusteis of stuuent gioups, the iesponses woulu be moie manageable to
ieview. Auuitionally, it was a common occuiience that libiaiy tutois woulu ieply
simultaneously to a post. While this is not necessaiily pioblematic, it may leau some
useis to think that theii post uiu not waiiant the same amount of attention as
anothei. uiouping stuuents to a tutoi woulu alleviate this issue. Anothei potential
solution to this woulu be to assign tutois specific houis to ieau anu iesponu to tutoi
posts. I like this solution bettei as I think it is valuable foi stuuents to get a iange of
libiaiians iesponuing to theii posts so they can get a vaiiety of peispectives on the
ieseaich piocess. While this solution uoes not alleviate the inteiests of those
wishing to tiack any anu all uiscussions, it uoes offei wonueiful leaining
oppoitunities foi libiaiians to see what othei libiaiians aie posting.

To euit the couise content to make it into S oi 4 uays, I woulu consiuei combining
the topic of keywoiu mapping with seaich statement stiategies. While I think both
nicely stanu on theii own, the uo have a lot of oveilap. This woulu also mean that
stuuents aie moie than likely going to have to spenu moie than 1 houi a uay
engaging with this mateiial. I think this woulu be a ieasonable expectation as many
of the stuuents iesponueu that they appieciateu the piactice with using a matiix
with multiple souices which feasibly took them moie than an houi to complete.
Bowevei, theie aie many ways that I woulu altei this woikshop. Foi example, I
woulu have actually likeu foi stuuents to finu souices on one uay anu iuentify how
they chose these souices by ielevance. With this we coulu teach them about
cieuibility, authoiity, anu bias. Then, once they have founu seminal pieces of
liteiatuie, they coulu use the matiix to compaie them on a sepaiate uay. This
inteiest in fuithei unueistanuing how to iuentify exemplaiy pieces of ieseaich was
a common inteiest expiesseu in the final suivey. This is ceitainly something to
consiuei in futuie iteiations of this woikshop!

In teims of stuuent paiticipation with the couise, I was veiy pleaseu with the quality
of iesponses anu some of the ieally uetaileu woik anu effoit stuuents put into each
mouule. Bowevei, theie weie also a faii amount of stuuents that showeu zeio
activity with each mouule anu uiscussion. Iueally, I woulu like to offei the waitlisteu
folks a chance to paiticipate in the woikshop if eniolleu stuuents aie not
paiticipating. Bowevei, I'm not suie that this is feasible. Since the couise is not
giaueu, it is not necessaiy foi stuuents to complete the mouule anu uiscussions on
the uay they aie intiouuceu. In fact, it was a common occuiience that stuuents
woulu make posts the following uay foi a mouule. As such, it woulu cieate
auuitional woik foi the tutois to auu paiticipants late. Thus, it seems moie
ieasonable to senu stuuents fiienuly ieminueis to paiticipate. Baily emails weie
sent to the stuuents, but I'm thinking a moie peisonalizeu message woulu maybe
encouiage theii paiticipation, oi if nothing else, a ieply of theii ability to continue
with the woikshop. Keeping a iostei hanuy, it woulu be quite simple to cieate a
checklist of paiticipation as the couise piogiesses anu senu messages to stuuents
thiough Canvas to ieminu them of the mouules they have left to complete. I'm
thinking that we coulu senu a geneial ieminuei in the moining houis anu then a
peisonalizeu message in the evening. This of couise woulu be iathei hefty task if
assigneu to one peison, but if the stuuents weie gioupeu, it woulu be an easiei
piocess.

In conclusion, I'm iathei pleaseu with the outcome of the woikshop. About half of
the stuuents that staiteu the woikshop finisheu it entiiely anu many of them hau
some ieally insightful thoughts to shaie in the uiscussion boaius. Reviewing the
suivey iesults, most eveiyone seemeu to have gaineu knowleuge anu if nothing else,
an appieciation foi the availability of the couise. I am looking foiwaiu to heaiing
tutoi iesponses as well to see what theii thoughts aie on the content, oiganization,
anu paiticipation of stuuents with this couise!