Due Dates: Draft plan and oral presentation due June 17; Final paper due June 20.

Overview. For a particular organizational context, prepare a preliminary plan for an instructional program. Your program should specify the mix of instructional offerings - both active and passive. You will have to make some assumptions about the size of the professional staff and the number of students/participants unless you base your plan on a real institution. Address the issues of instructor training and publicity. Also define the administrative issues that will get the program in place and keep it running. This assignment may be done as a team exercise. A 5-7 minute oral presentation of your plan is also a requirement. Emphasis is on awareness of the planning issues and the thinking behind the plan.

Preliminary Steps that you can Assume will have been completed. Several important first steps in developing an instructional plan include determining the need for a program, securing administrative and collegial support, conducting a needs assessment and incorporating these steps into the prioritizing and design of the instructional program. For this exercise, assume that the need has been determined, that you have administrative and colleagial as well as financial support. Thus, your emphasis in the assignment is on the design of the program.

Organization Description. Describe your organization - it can be a real one or fictitious but be reasonably realistic. In particular, describe the population needing instruction and the hierarchy. Describe the information resource organization and its staff. Estimate the numbers of the population you will be serving and your staff.

Instructional Program. Here is where you will consider what kind of delivery package(s) to use, whether to use printed and/or online publication help guides, online tutorials, tours, one-on-one instruction at the reference desk, research consultations, drop-in training, 50-minute classes, course-integrated instruction, credit bearing coursework, or other instructional delivery mechanism. There are pros and cons with each type of instruction. You will need to indicate what kind of mix you will use and calculate how that will translate into workload for the professional staff.

Training. The issue of how staff are selected and trained to offer the formal instructional programs is one that institutions have to face. Indicate how you will select instructors from among existing staff and then how you will provide technical training for the instructors plus training in the art of teaching.

Publicity. Publicity is one of the most challenging aspects of coordinating an instruction program. Consider how you will get the message out to your target audience about your offerings.

Infrastructure and Policies. Infrastructure refers to the facilities needed for instruction and the development of training materials plus all the operating policies needed: method for requesting instruction, scheduling procedure, procedure for making class teaching assignments, and confirmation method. Develop an instructional policy that describes who is eligible to receive training, whether you will provide specialized training on request, and the guidelines for making requests for instruction.

Feedback and Evaluation. Consider how to collect feedback from the instructional sessions. Most departments use a standardized form. Devise one that you think might provide useful information. Indicate what other kinds of evaluation mechanisms you will use - peer evaluation and self-evaluation are two possibilities. Videotaping can be effective as can bringing in an outside expert on teaching to observe and critique; peer observation is also possible. At a higher level, a method for evaluating the instructional program as a whole also needs to be considered.

Presentation of Plan. Select cogent elements of the plan and prepare a 5-7 minute presentation to the class allowing some time for questions or comments from your audience. Practice good professional presentational skills.

Alternative to Assignment. If this assignment doesn't appeal to you and you would prefer to do a short (8-10) page paper on some issue relevant to user education, this is an option. If you choose this option make sure your paper is well grounded in the literature. Plan to make a short presentation on your paper topic at the last session of the class.

Revised May 14, 2005.