Class Dismissed
With the right technology at the right time, says Miriam Pollack, continuous staff learning can be fun and effective
By Miriam Pollack -- netConnect, 10/15/2005
It's Tuesday afternoon, and Tim Prather is chatting with eight librarians about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. It's a heated discussion that's a key component of Prather's online workshop exploring how U.S. copyright law affects interlibrary loan.
The workshop, offered through the Dallas-based Amigos Library Services, is one of many transforming continuing education in libraries. Driven by many factors—the emergence of low-cost, accessible distance learning tools; the imperative to sharpen skills in an ever-changing digital world; and the desire for more flexible training options—online learning dramatically changes how libraries train their staff, and in turn, how those staff members experience learning.
E-learning is not a new concept, of course. In its infancy, virtual learning offerings were widely criticized for simply mimicking face-to-face classes. Organizations would take existing educational materials, add a few Web links, and consider it “transferred” to an online environment. Today, e-learning comes in many flavors and formats, from formal for-credit courses that incorporate blogs and wikis to informal online communities for sharing best practices. (See “The New E-Learning Tools” on p. 4.)
Online onlyMention e-learning and most people think of virtual courses. Typically, these courses are described in two ways: asynchronous or synchronous.
With asynchronous classes, learners take classes at their own pace, on their own time. WebJunction, for example, offers asynchronous classes for library staff development on topics that range from Microsoft Office skills to how to develop digital projects. There's extreme flexibility: Some participants take courses from beginning to end while others pick and choose which segments they want to tackle. All learners have access to course material for one year. This kind of learning requires self-motivation and independence since feedback is delayed and all of the visual and aural cues of a real-time class are absent. It is also possible to lose a sense of continuity and immediacy.
Synchronous classes, on the other hand, occur in real time. Learners in different locations meet in a secure, self-contained environment that typically includes application sharing, chat, and other interactivity. For example, Prather's copyright class comprises three 90-minute sessions. Participants log in at the appointed time to hear a mini-lecture, ask questions, and swap ideas on the topic at hand. Prather can even administer on-the-spot quizzes.
Powering the class is Moodle, an open source course management system that's enjoying enormous popularity of late. Via the online platform, students can access handouts, additional resources, and recordings of past class sessions. They can submit homework assignments through the system as well, and receive instructor feedback.
Beyond time and money saved on travel, students cite the ability to learn in short sessions as a major plus. They report it's more effective to assimilate “chunks” of learning over time versus an all-day session. Students do sometimes encounter technical snags. Amigo monitors all class sessions so they can address individual problems as they arise. If all else fails, learners can access the recorded session in the archives.
Best of both worldsUnlike full-fledged virtual courses, blended learning combines face-to-face with some form of e-learning. At the Hennepin County Public Library in Minnetonka, MN, for example, Jean Johnson uses a mix of in-person training and online tutorials to teach staff the ins and outs of the new Horizon Integrated Library System. Mary Ross, training coordinator at the Seattle Public Library, took the same blended approach for training staff on Horizon. In addition to posting training workbooks on the staff intranet, Ross created a visual overview of Horizon's graphical interface and other features using Camtasia software. She presented each staff member with a CD of the overview so they could preview the system before receiving hands-on training.
Blended learning can utilize all types of resources and formats, such as online articles, classroom training, Web-based courses, Webinars, CD-ROMs, video, EPSS systems, simulations, as well as books, job aids, conference calls, documents, and PowerPoint.
Community lessonsAn often overlooked aspect of staff development is informal learning. In fact, training expert Jay Cross estimates that only ten to 20 percent of the information and skills we need for work are learned formally. The rest of the time we're learning informally, usually as a by-product of our quest for information. For example, in St. Joseph County Public Library in South Bend, IN, Michael Stephens and his colleagues use IM to answer each other's technical questions, such as how to work with blog software to provide a link.
Two important informal learning venues are online communities and communities of practice. Online communities allow people to stay current in their field through dialog with other members of the same organization, or the larger global field. Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do: a band of artists seeking new forms of expression, a group of engineers working on similar problems, a clique of pupils defining their identity in the school. Technologies often used by these communities include email, online bulletin boards, conferencing software, wikis, blogs, and other collaborative tools. A good introduction to using communities of practice can be found on the IBM research site at www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/404/lesser.html.
Informal or formal, e-learning in all its variations means librarians have more choices than ever for getting the knowledge and skills they need to run modern-day libraries. Moreover, with new tools and methods so readily available, libraries have the ability to customize staff training based on learner styles, preferences, and needs.
| Author Information |
| Miriam Pollack, an independent consultant (www.miriam.pollack.com), has over 25 years of experience working in public and special libraries, library systems, and library education programs. Special thanks to Eva Miller and Amy Poftak for their work on this article |
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