NOTE: If you are signed up as a student in this course, please go to Student Information Form, fill it out and send it to me. Thanks.

Goals and Objectives of the Course

Goals of the Class: Students will acquire broad knowledge of learning theories and instructional design principles sufficient to enable them to design and evaluate appropriate user education programs in a variety of contexts for a variety of audiences.

Specific Objectives: Students, upon completion of the course, will be able to:

Describe at least two different learning and instructional theories and apply them to user education situations Analyze and describe the pertinent characteristics of a targeted user population Create an collaborative instructional plan for a given population consistent with a design philosophy Recognize what is your natural teaching style and develop a repertoire of teaching styles and coping strategies for different teaching/training situations Select, design and develop a set of active learning techniques for a given environment. Select, design and develop appropriate evaluative criteria for a lesson plan or a sequence of instructional sessions. Plan, create and evaluate an educational training session for a specific user population Demonstrate skill in the selection and use of learning technologies and alternatives to face-to-face instruction.

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Textbook and Other Resources

One textbook is required and should be available in the Student Stores bookshop. It is:

Robert Cannon & David Newble. A Handbook for Teachers in Universities & Colleges; A Guide to Improving Teaching Methods. 4th ed. Sterling, VA: Kogan Page Limited, 2000.

A list of additional print, web, and nonprint resources is provided as well (see Resource List).

In addition, please become familiar with those of the following journals that are appropriate to your career plans:

American Journal of Distance Education
College & Research Libraries
Journal of Academic Librarianship
Public Libraries
Information Outlook (Special Librarians)
Journal of Instructional Psychology
RQ
Reference Services Review
Research Strategies
Training & Development

More general journals like Change and the Chronicle of Higher Education will be valuable as context for academic librarians.

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Assignments and Grading

A discussion board is set up for the class. During the course you are expected to post four reading summaries (short papers sumamrizing key points of 2-3 articles or book chapters on a related topic relevant to the course with your reflections and personal observations on them). You are also expected to respond to the postings of fellow class members (at least six substantive reactive comments). In addition to discussion board postings, there are four other assignments:

• a critique and redesign (2-3 ways) of an existing lesson plan
• a tutorial or website design/redesign,
• a paper on collaborative instructional planning or some aspect of a tutorial program, and
• a poster presentation based on the paper.

Some of these assignments may be done optionally as a team of two people. If an assignment is completed as a team, both members of the team will receive the same grade unless there is overwhelming evidence why it should be otherwise. Written work will be made available to all members of the class on a designated web space. Each student will be expected to make class presentations based on the work that he/she does and to contribute actively to class discussions.

Please see Assignments for more detail.

Grading will be based on the following weights:

Assignments Class Participation Discussion Board Commentaries Lesson Plan Revisions Tutorial/Website Design Paper Poster Presentation

Weight 15% 15% 20% 20% 20% 10%

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Class Policies and the Honor Code

Except for specifically indicated assignments, collaboration with your classmates is highly desireable and encouraged. Sharing your work and giving and receiving assistance from others in the class is valuable. My major interest is in your learning which will best proceed as we share questions, answers, and experiences.

I will develop an agenda for each day we spend together. Workshop days will run from 9 to 4, a double class session, and will combine students from INLS 214 and INLS242. Workshop activities will center on instructional design and presentations and other learning activities. Our class days will be a combination of lecture, exercises and discussion with an occasional speaker or tour. You will want to participate actively in class discussions by asking and responding to questions and by offering your observations and ideas.

Class policies that you should be aware of:

• All assignment due dates (for reading and portfolio submissions) will be posted in advance. In the event a deadline adjustment is announced during a class session, you are responsible for knowing about it. (It will be helpful to have a class buddy).

• An open atmosphere in which members of the class comment in helpful ways on each other's work is encouraged.

• Ontime attendance at every class session is expected. If you have an unavoidable absence or an unavoidable reason to be late, please let me know ahead of time, if at all possible. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to propose to me how you might make up for the missed experience. We will negotiate your proposal.

• Reading on the scheduled topic from the text and other sources should take place before coming to class.

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Revised Jan. 5, 2002.