NOTE: If you are signed up as a student in this course, please go to Student Information and provide some information for a class list. No addresses or phone number will be included. Soon you will also be able to go to Blackboard and enter the course site by using your onyen and password.

Goals and Objectives of the Course

Goals of the Class: User education is an open course that can be tailored to student interests in a variety of professional careers involving education and training. The course will provide basic background knowledge and skill development in instructional design and delivery.

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

Recognize your natural teaching style and develop a repertoire of teaching styles and coping strategies for different teaching/training situations. Explore a given context and its career options relative to education and training. Analyze a targeted user population relative to its need for knowledge and skills and to identify the value set of this population as to what constitutes good teaching and a good learning environment. Show knowledge of learning theory, instructional design and what motivates people to want to learn. Demonstrate skill in the selection and use of appropriate learning technologies and alternatives to face-to-face instruction. Design active and independent lesson plans using appropriate instructional modes and materials and suitable evaluation criteria. Create an instructional plan for a specific user population based on a consistent design philosophy.

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Textbook and Other Resources

One textbook will be required as follows:

Morrison, Gary R., Steven M. Ross and Jerrold E. Kemp. Designing Effective Instruction. 4th ed. Wiley, 2004. ISBN: 0-471-21651-8. List Price: $88.95.

The textbook will be available in the Student Stores bookstore. I note the Amazon list price is $83.95 and that used copies are available from $34.95. I suspect the 3rd edition (2000) is not greatly different and might be had for less.

A wealth of resources on relevant topics are also available in print and on the web. A selected annotated readings list will soon be available on the "Resources" section of the class website. Journals with articles related to user education include:

ASTD Training & Performance Yearbook (ejournal collection)
College & Research Libraries (full text available in UNC ejournals)
Information Outlook (Special Librarians) (ejournal collection)
Information Technology and Libraries (ejournal collection)
International Journal of Training and Development (ejournal collection)
Journal of Academic Librarianship (ejournal collection)
Journal of Instructional Psychology
Journal of Library Administration
Journal of Workplace Learning (ejournal collection)
Portal: Libraries and the Academy (ejournal collection)
Public Library Quarterly (PLQ) (ejournal collection)
Reference and User Services Quarterly
Reference Services Review (RSR) (ejournal collection)
Training and Development Journal

Students should select several likely titles from this list and examine current issues to determine whether the journal should be an important source of professional knowledge in the future. More general journals like Change and the Chronicle of Higher Education will be valuable as context for academic librarians.

Students interested in user education in library settings are encouraged to subscribe to the Information Literacy Instruction L(ILI-L) istserv during (and possibly after) the course period. Please see http://www.ala.org/ala/acrlbucket/is/ilil.htm for subscription information.

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Assignments and Grading

There are three primary assignments:

• Career option exploration
• Lesson plan presentation or Tool for independent learning
• Instructional program plan (or paper on agreed-on topic as alternative)

Each assignment will count for about a third of the grade. The instructional program plan and the tool for independent learning may optionally be done as a team of two people. If either 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. To encourage collaboration and learning from one another, I ask that individual coursework be made available to all members of the class by posting on designated discussion forums on the Blackboard site. Each assignment has a presentation requirement in order to allow the student to gain skill and experience in direct instruction. In addition to the assignments, students are expected to contribute actively to class discussions in class and on Blackboard and to provide feedback to one another on assignments.

More detail for each assignment will be available on the Assignments page.

Grading will be based on the following weights:

Assignments Class Participation Context Exploration Lesson Plan Presentation or Tool for Independent Learning Instructional Program Plan or Paper

Weight 20% 20% 30% 30% 30%

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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. Your learning will best proceed as we share questions, answers, and experiences (using a constructionist approach).

I will develop an agenda for each day we spend together. Our class days will be a combination of lecture, exercises and discussion. 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 are posted. 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.

• Attendance at every class session is expected. If you have an unavoidable absence, 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 then 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 5/14/2005.