University of New South Wales - - Developing TSISL - Teaching Skills for Information Skills Librarians: a web-based staff development

Author:	Barrett,Heather ; Trahn, Isabella
Conference:	ALIA RAISS Conference 99
Paper Title:	Developing TSISL - Teaching Skills for Information Skills Librarians: a web-based staff development
Presented:	06-08-99	Last Amended:	06-07-99

Developing TSISL - Teaching Skills for Information Skills Librarians: a web-based staff development

by Heather Barrett and Isabella Trahn

for the ALIA RAISS Conference in Sydney

at the Sydney Hilton, September 6 –8 1999

University of New South Wales

Division of Information Services

University Library

June 1999

Setting the scene

The following scenario is one that we think most tertiary librarians who have been involved in teaching over the last 10 or 12 years will readily empathise with. In fact it might bring back some very strong memories.

I was a beginning librarian, freshly graduated, full of enthusiasm and vigor (the way we all were. I landed a wonderful job in an exciting and dynamic library. A couple of weeks on the job, I figured out that I would be involved in a thing called bibliographic instruction (something I had never heard of – that tells you when I went to library school). In fact, in a couple of days, I would teach my first class. I was handed a script of what I was supposed to cover, shown the room where the teaching took place, and was told that there would be 20 freshmen in the class, who had been assigned a term paper. "You’ll do great" they said. Right. I didn’t sleep the night before. I was up all night memorizing and rememorizing the script, pacing the room.
The hour came. I went to the room. And in came the students. Yes, there were 20 of them. Mostly male. Either very tall or very broad. Most had jackets with the university insignia. Many had Nikes or Adidas on. All looked extremely uncomfortable in the rather narrow straight-backed chairs. And none looked excited to be there.

I proceeded to launch into my script. I told them about how big the library was, what a great research library it was, about all the branches and places they could go for help, how helpful librarians were, what a research strategy was, how to find background materials, the differences between a magazine and a journal, how to find books, how to find journals, how to find government publications, how to find bibliographies, how to use the online catalog, what the online catalog did and didn’t contain, how to buy a copycard, what you could do at the media centre, and then I took a breath. Eighteen minutes had elapsed. I asked if there were any questions. There were none. They looked at me as if I were from another planet. And, I wished I were on another planet. I thanked them for their attention. They nodded, packed up their stuff, and poured out of the room.

Horror in the classroom. I am surprised that I ever went back. God knows if they ever came back into the Library! (WILSON 1995)

The above scenario is one that none of us would like to have repeated ever again. It is certainly a good example of how not to teach and a good example from the students’ point of view of how not to learn. Betty Wilson took this experience from her early days as a librarian and provided in-house training programs for instruction to ensure that no other beginning librarian would suffer the same "horror".

Much has been written about teacher effectiveness. Theories are continually being proposed, modified and replaced.(WESTBURY 1988) But whatever the flavour of the month there is no doubt that those of us who teach wish to provide a challenging and rich learning experience for our learners. In order to do this one may be a successfully intuitive teacher. But for those of us not blessed with such intuition it is necessary to learn how to become effective teachers. The "horror" sketch above points to the need also to understand more about engaging the learner’s participation.

Who are the learners?

In the university environment our learners are adults: some straight from secondary school, some with a few years of life experiences and some returning in their later years for a variety of reasons. The large and growing number of foreign students also provides additional challenges in the learning process. Adult learners can be unwilling or embarrassed to acknowledge a need for assistance. Adult learners are not a homogeneous group either in their behaviour or cultural or experiential backgrounds. Understanding the nature of our adult learners is one side of the pedagogical experience. Understanding what comprises good teaching practice is the other.

What is good teaching practice?

There are some aspects of teaching technique that can be isolated as being good techniques to apply to encourage effective learning. Certainly clarity, providing an opportunity to learn, including giving the student time on a task, enthusiasm, giving feedback, offering criticism, offering praise, are some aspects of the teacher behaviour which encourages learning. Recent literature supports the concept of facilitation rather than the one-way teaching-learning experience that is so colourfully portrayed by that very early experience of Betty Wilson’s. The ideal librarian teacher, we believe, is one who is intuitive, who facilitates and doesn’t preach, who has a flexible teaching approach depending on the adult learner or learners they are talking to and indeed encourages and is patient in processing the learner’s experience.(BROOKFIELD 1988) In practice, unless librarians are given the training it is very easy to ignore effective teaching practice in our jobs. How do we prevent this pedagogical disaster?

Setting the UNSW Library scene

At UNSW we provide instruction in laboratory settings which enable the students to develop hands on experience in the use of bibliographic research tools. Workbooks are published as a means of reaching those students in courses with high enrolments. Where appropriate, tutorials and instruction are provided in the faculty environment. Consultation with academic teaching staff is the foundation upon which these information skills services are provided. Wherever possible activities are linked to coursework and actual marked assignments.

Two initiatives reflecting the need to improve the information skills program were implemented through 1995-96. The first was an increased emphasis on evaluation of the instructional parts of the program. Evaluation was seen as a means of measuring the effectiveness of tuition. Secondly, in 1996 reference librarians at UNSW participated in a staff development initiative, a face to face series of full and half day workshops, called the Library Information Skills Providers Train the Trainer Course. The course was developed and facilitated by the Library’s Staff Development Librarian in conjunction with academic staff from the UNSW School of Education Studies and related centres using a competitive internal UNSW Quality Award grant as seed money. The development of this course was an acknowledgement of the need to understand the two-way process/relationship of the teaching/learning experience. It was also a recognition that most librarians have received little formal training in pedagogical techniques. The initial UNSW Library information skills providers face to face Train the Trainer course accommodated the learning of appropriate teaching techniques for reference librarians who were responsible for information skills tuition at UNSW and ensured that a core group of staff were working from a certain consistent level of knowledge and understanding.

Emerging technologies

Another element which the original face to face program tried to address was teaching with technology. Now, technology is swiftly changing in the academic library environment. It is not only imperative that we professionals know how to teach well but we need to know how to teach using new technology. One of the principal reasons for this is our increasingly invisible clientele as new types of access become available.

Statistics from both overseas and Australian libraries indicate a decrease in real use and an increase in the use of virtual library services. For example, at the Johns Hopkins University remote use of the online catalogue jumped over 100% between 1994-95 and 1995-96, building use declined 2% and all information desk statistics also lowered.(MASSEY-BURZIO 1998) The ARL (American Research Libraries) statistical data also document "a stabilizing of reference and circulation services since 1996, however demand for library user education and interlibrary borrowing has never been higher. Instructional sessions have risen by 41% in the last six years, participants in the sessions by 33%, and interlibrary borrowing by 71%. These growth rates have remained relatively constant since 1991.(ARL-ANNOUNCE 1999)

At UNSW our own statistics partially support the trends seen emerging in the U.S.A., although UNSW Library statistics do not support the fall in Information Desk enquiries, there has been an exponential rise in web usage. Visits to UNSW Library’s Electronic Resources page for May ’98 were 12,996, and in May this year 20,634. In order to reach the increasing number of students who are remote users it is important for us now to grasp these excellent teaching techniques and this awareness of what adult learners are and how we can teach them most effectively and apply what we know to the "invisible classroom" which is the Web. Can we produce an effective learning experience on the Web?

The Web is characterised by interactivity. This interactivity can simulate the self-directed learning process and the classroom environment. Email, discussion lists, chat-rooms, are all examples of the Web’s capacity for two-way communication: and on the market now are many different packages that facilitate or simulate the classroom mode of teaching and enable distance learning.

Disappearing time

Another consideration at UNSW Library which emerged after the first course was that it was difficult to support the face to face Train the Trainer program because it conflicted with staff rosters, decreasing staff numbers, and the usual university semester obligations. So, how do librarians involved in information skills, on the run, learn these pedagogical principles and skillfully place them in their Web tuition packages to assist the "invisible client"? The TSISL (Teaching Skills for Information Skills Librarians) program was initiated to do this.

What is TSISL?

TSISL is simply a prototype staff development program for enhancing the teaching skills of information skills librarians. It is delivered principally using the web. The program includes dealing with the classic elements of teaching and learning and incorporates the development of a final web teaching product. This product is a web based instruction component that may be free standing, or may be designed to be integrated with other elements of an information skills program of a more traditional kind. For example, the web based component may precede or follow a laboratory or classroom session and be an integrated part of the overall design of the sessions. It is intended that participants of TSISL design this product to suit their own professional needs. We were fortunate to have a national expert on teaching with technology from the Professional Development Centre at UNSW to design and deliver this segment. Chris Hughes was also the developer of the Web Teach software we used as the interactive teaching vehicle for the course.

What did we want the course to deliver and why?

Firstly we wanted the course:

to enhance the abilities of experienced information skills librarians to design and deliver effective information skills programs, especially in relation to the new digital environment.

Many information skills librarians in the Australian academic environment are mature staff who have been staffing reference desks and delivering reader education/information skills/information literacy sessions for a long time. Teaching techniques, teaching technology, course requirements and content are all changing perhaps more rapidly than they have ever done and the level of accountability in terms of client satisfaction has never been higher. Librarians cannot afford to provide second class traditional options or to be left with only those traditional options when funding and even survival within the university appears to be going to the flexible, the innovative programs and those rating highly in the evaluation processes.

Secondly we wanted the course:

to ensure librarians are aware of and can incorporate best practice pedagogical concepts as well as technical competency into information skills programs development and delivery: and to ensure that those librarians working with academic staff can participate professionally on equal terms.

After many years on the periphery of the academic program information skills is finally being integrated in a meaningful way in increasing numbers of courses. The academics (hopefully) are developing programs using the best course design and presentation principles and practices. Librarians need to understand instructional design and teaching with technology to a greater degree than they have ever done. Courses developed by librarians or by librarians and academic staff together need to be seamlessly professional. University administrators expect no less.

Thirdly we wanted the course:

to develop skills so that librarians are in a position to be able to effectively use technology and electronic resources to support the new methods of course delivery .

Course delivery using flexible web based technology is taking a central role in many universities. After a couple of years of discussion and re-organisation of resources many universities are investing more and more heavily in this way of teaching and learning. Technology is superb as regards basic communication and storage of data and images. The flexible approach, however, still has a way to go to replicate high level human interaction and interpersonal rapport. Somehow email and a 24 hour delay in getting a reaction to your great idea seems a clumsy substitute for sitting with someone else and getting instant feedback through all your senses. That said, remote delivery of information skills or a mixed mode approach is better than no contact or fewer contacts or exposure to the course materials than the student needs to learn effectively. Information skills librarians need to harness the power and overcome the weaknesses that currently form part and parcel of flexible teaching and learning. Experiencing this way of teaching personally, and developing materials suitable for this approach is potentially a powerful learning experience.

Fourthly we wanted the course:

to enable professional staff with heavy workloads and rigid rostering requirements, and/or those who cannot access established staff development programs because of isolation or distance, to participate in extended staff development through a web-based flexible learning mode.

The very reasons why many administrators, academic and students are embracing flexible learning are the reasons why the Staff Development Librarian at UNSW was very keen to develop this mode for meeting some of the info skills librarians development needs. Lack of time, excessive workloads (and in the case of librarians rigid roster requirements), distance and long commuting times in metropolitan areas, heavy external commitments – all these combine to make it almost impossible to attend any sustained program with multiple modules and sessions. The face to face predecessor of TSISL, developed to be presented in full and half day modules over a number of months encountered all sorts of difficulties in keeping the attendance of the same group of participants. Every year the time available and the requirements of the roster are more insistent as staff numbers decline. In addition, even very large libraries like UNSW have difficulty retaining staff time and a reasonable budget for specifically tailored programs. For small institutions it must be impossible to do alone. Yet, today there are a large number of smaller, non-metropolitan academic libraries. Librarians in these institutions deserve equal access to programs for their professional development.

Finally we wanted the course

to develop a core teaching skills program tailored to the particular requirements of information skills librarians which might provide a generic model for the delivery of such a program nationally and beyond.

The content of TSISL is not rocket science. It is sound, basic educational theory and practice. Even if every university library in Australia had the resources to devote to the development of such material, it would be a colossal waste to replicate TSISL across Australia. The Edulib program in the UK recognised that, even in their much more populous environment a core skills program developed once and taken around the country was the only way to go.

Why is there a need for such a specialised librarian oriented course?

The design and delivery of and participation in an extended staff development program in situ is complex and time consuming. What about existing programs?

Traditional training programs in teaching skills for academic staff within universities have always included aspects which were of benefit to information skills librarians in developing their own teaching skills. Most universities have teaching and learning centres, or similar units, which run brief sessions, principally aimed at new academic staff with no teaching background to give them survival skills in the lecture theatre and tutorial room. The skills required for the delivery of chalk and talk reader education programs to small and large groups of students in the past were not totally dissimilar from the skills required by academic staff to undertake the same processes. Over a number of years, some, indeed most of our information skills librarians had attended these programs. At other times we had commissioned the staff delivering the standard teaching skills program to try to focus on aspects of the source which were most relevant to information skills staff.

Some universities have formal academic programs on teaching and learning in the higher education sector or higher degrees in education with some relevant programs. UNSW is one. The content of these programs was partly useful. The theoretical content in particular of the programs is extensive, but unfortunately, the sad reality is that the commitment in terms of time and of cost to the individual librarian for a formal academic program is such that these worthy programs are not within the reach of more than the very rare, enthusiastic and unusually time-rich individual. Library staff need something more concise, and oriented to practical application, in addition to covering the basic theories. Library staff also benefit greatly from the interaction with peers from a library setting and background and being able to focus the discussion on the library specific issues. The precursor to TSISL found strong feedback on the benefits of learning with and from one’s peers. In addition the ability to choose library specific topics for projects, demonstrations and examples enhanced the experience considerably.

Information skills programs do have unique characteristics apart from their content which set them apart from mainstream learning activities for many students. Information skills sessions still tend not to be as integrated with required studies as conventional teaching programs, and are more frequently an ad hoc, one off activity, or an activity with few contact points built in to the program. This makes dealing with varied student needs or ensuring extended learning development over time almost impossible for the librarian to establish and maintain with their students. Perceptions by students about the worth, or lack of worth, of programs which "don’t count" are something libraries are only too well aware of.

The role of librarians has also changed dramatically over the past few years and the technological component of the development of knowledge seeking and research skills which form the subject content for information skills programs has increased dramatically. Librarians need not only to teach with technology, they are increasingly teaching about technology.

The former generation of reader education librarians had mainly to emphasise the physical location of volumes and outline the organisation of material within hard covers. Readers could walk to a location for themselves, pick volumes up for themselves and turn pages for themselves. Since the invention of the book (or perhaps the clay tablet) it has been transparent. Granted that flipping through catalogues drawers required some guidance the worst possible technical catastrophe for readers was ensuring that they didn’t inadvertently pull out a whole drawer of cards which hadn’t been properly secured by rods. If only learning were so simple now.

At one point in time it was common to recruit staff with recent extensive experience in teaching as refugees from the teaching system. Their skills were very useful, if a little too directive for teaching adults, but the days of actually recruiting staff seem to be virtually over, let alone being able to recruit a substantial complement of trained trainers or teachers.

Now research clues are hidden in electronic searching. Technology hides the structure upon which resources are catalogued or arranged. The keyword entices a researcher towards the quick and easy. Access can be invisible too, and clients may understand little how to evaluate material according to its source when full text is on-line. With the plethora of on-line databases it is easy to forget other source material in traditional formats. At the same time, library professional staff numbers have declined, sometimes dramatically, in Australian university libraries and both the median ages of librarians and their work loads have increased. Further, resources for library staff development have often been first casualties in Library budget cuts.

So the challenges of change are relentless and librarians are running faster than ever. In order to meet all these challenges the professional development of information skills librarians in Australian university libraries is critical. At the same time, our libraries, and even our universities are not resourced to individually develop and provide the skills and knowledge required. At this time there is no national curriculum resource with the potential to provide the knowledge and skills to apply good practice pedagogy as part of the flexible teaching movement within universities, let alone in face-to face situations.

International trends

There are a mushrooming number of local and overseas projects in the area of developing web based information skills materials. As with the teaching and learning workshops of the past, programs designed specifically for library staff to hone their skills in how to develop and deliver material for effective learning in both face to face and in flexible mode do not yet exist.

The skills training component of the current GAELS project in Scotland, for example, relies on informal assistance from on-site project technicians whose chief responsibility lies with the technical aspect of this Glasgow/Strathclyde University collaboration.

The closest UK work to the TSISL content is the Edulib program , a part of the E-lib programmes which specifically aimed to " enhance the educational expertise and teaching skills in the higher education library and information services community." Edulib also relied on fully face to face seminars and has come to a pause since funding appears to have ceased in 1998. The UK based Deliberations project is certainly also worth a look

Netskills is a project at the University Computing Service of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne which has produced kits which are available for a fee to recognised educational establishments. These kits can be used by any staff teaching basic web skills in those institutions as a basis for their sessions. A similar arrangement governs TALiSMAN, a Scottish grouping of higher education networks which offer to their members a restricted range of materials to enhance basic web skills, but these are aimed directly at academic staff. Only one of the seven available kits comes even close to our resource and this is Kit 6 on " Using the Internet for teaching", which contains material similar to that obtainable in Australia through a number of teaching and learning centres at Australian universities.

Who are our students – actual and potential? What is the market?

The target population for TSISL is all of those librarians who undertake information skills development and delivery as part of their daily duties. In the Australian university sector alone the group could easily reach around 1,000. A similar need obtains in the TAFE and VET sectors whose numbers have not been estimated. There is a significant and widespread sense of need out there. This is demonstrated by the response we received to our invitation to participate in the prototype TSISL, which was sent to a fairly obscure staff development electronic discussion list early in 1998. The response was immediate and enthusiastic.

The broad geographic cross section of Australia represented by our original group was a real surprise. Even more surprisingly most of these people volunteered to attend the compulsory face to face workshops. Distance did not present a problem in itself and, in fact, made for fresh viewpoints and lively conversations. Library staff from isolated, smaller institutions such as Central Queensland University and Northern Territory University were particularly appreciative of the opportunity to participate in such a program. In fact, the level of that random response made it irrelevant for us to undertake any more systematic involvement of staff for the pilot of TSISL. TSISL 2000 is currently being developed and the next round will focus on staff from a couple of major institutions with extra spaces available to nearby, smaller institutions.

How the Prototype TSISL was developed

The team and their roles

The team that constructed and delivered the course consisted of five academic staff from the School of Education Studies and the Professional Development Centre, and two librarians. All seven participated in both the development and delivery of the course, although facilitation of the teaching and the discussion process was directly the responsibility of the academic staff. The first stage of development for this course involved the establishment of a timetable for when enrolments would begin, when the modules would begin and when the final evaluations would conclude. The second stage of the course was development of objectives for each of the modules and the design of the publicly accessible pages that would advertise the course. An enrolment form was also placed with these public pages and the tuition pages were protected by a password system. Some of the team members were less proficient with the new technology. However, the teaching requirements for those team members were such that they received support from the co-ordinating librarians and the other team members who were more proficient. At all times the development and delivery team maintained a sense of humour and a very caring and sharing philosophy about the creation of this project.

From the point of view of the librarian (co-author of this paper, Heather Barrett) responsible for placing the materials on the web and designing the pages and working with the very professional educationists who were part of the team, this was a very rewarding and challenging experience. This editing and co-ordinating role included responsibility for coding, graphic design and design of links in a logical and intuitive way, creating the electronic forms, and placing all these materials on the server. Being mindful of the fact that tricks and furbelows might distract people from the learning experience, design was simple. Having been a participant in the Train the Trainer course when it was a total face-to-face experience a few years previously, it was recognised the interweave of the modules with discussion, and practical exercises would be the most important thing for the participants. So structure and layout of the pages, flow of the arguments, flow of the modules, was of primary consideration.

Administrative note

Considering that the self-selected original list of participants came from Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, regional New South Wales and the ACT as well as Sydney, the administrative load was minimal.

All advertising, enrolments and inquiries were dealt with electronically. Evaluations were lodged electronically. Certificates were produced electronically but sent by courier. At a couple of points those participants who had been inactive were followed up electronically to check whether they wished to continue with the program.

The TSISL teaching materials

Each of the educationists in our team provided their materials as Word documents. These were edited into manually generated html code for the Library server. This was a deliberate choice as commercially produced web editors have been found to aggravate browser compatability. Diagrams were converted into gifs and colour was applied. Links were created to lead to subtext or references. Evaluation forms were created and coded for each module. Printed materials were only supplied for the face-to-face modules.

WEB TEACH : the Teaching and Learning Software

The WebTeach package we used to facilitate the classroom environment on the Web was created by Lindsay Hewson and Chris Hughes. ; It was located on a server that was run by the Professional Development Centre at UNSW. Teaching materials for TSISL were placed on the UNSW Library server. Students of the TSISL course would login to the teaching materials on the Library server, use their password, proceed through a module and when prompted, click on a link that would take them to the WebTeach site in order to participate in discussion mode. In other words all interactions apart from the two days of face-to-face were through a web browser.

The logins from the participants of the Course were asynchronous, because the participants were all from different organisations, all experiencing different roster and other professional obligations, and personal commitments. A participant would open their browser, go to the Web site where the teaching materials are, do some reading, respond to a discussion stimulus and log out and go back to their other duties. Two or three days later, or even two weeks later, another participant might do the same with the same teaching materials and the same discussion topic.

Teachers responsible for these modules would communicate with the participants directly if need be via email, although most feedback, most discussion, occurred in the discussion mode on WebTeach. At any point when activity occurred on WebTeach, an email would issue to all the enrolled participants letting them know that there had been a WebTeach activity.

For those of you interested in how a software package such as Webteach works, there is a demonstration site at http://www.pdc.unsw.edu.au/webteachdo/welcome.html

Flexible timeframe

The Course was structured so that the first module was done from a distance within a flexible framework or flexible timeframe between 14 September and 9 October. The second, third and fourth modules were face-to-face and they were run over two days and this enabled the participants to meet with the teaching staff responsible for the course and also the co-ordinating librarians. This was an opportunity to troubleshoot. Modules 5, 6 and 7 were again distance learning mode. The review and evaluation occurred in the web environment.

What did the modules cover? How did the participants respond?

Here is a brief outline of the course content and the topics the first participants found most useful.

Module 1 was about adult learning and development. After this module the TSISL participants should have:
- a greater understanding of the characteristics of the adult learner
- understand the principles of teaching adults
- understand the differences between the teaching and learning process
The TSISLers themselves commented that they had found it particularly useful to know more about:
- How to explain concepts and demonstrate skills to adult learners taking into account the way adults learn and their expectations and motivation
- Being aware of utilising and integrating existing knowledge into learning and demonstrating the relevance of material
- Consulting on learner needs and listening to learner feedback
- Understanding the emotional needs of learning and the need for a safe climate
- Responding to adult learning learning styles and backgrounds
Module 2 was about human memory and how people learn, remember and forget
This was a face to face workshop which covered:
- How short term and long term memory work
- How and why memory fails and the methodology teachers or facilitators can employ to encourage successful remembering
- Strategies for maximising the effectiveness of short and one-off sessions
Many participants found this a fascinating topic and clearly wanted more time to focus on the practical teaching strategies to boost student recall, particularly in relation to one off sessions.
Module 3 was on communication and experiential learning. This was also a face to face session on the social and environmental issues of learning, that influence the teaching / learning process.
Part 1 looked at models of communication, barriers to effective communication will be analysed exploring the methods recommended for improving communication, including both one-to-one communication and cross- cultural communication.

Part 2 included :
- how to use an experiential model in training
- characteristics of effective facilitation of learning
- establishing a climate which encourages responses based on experience
- effective listening and asking key questions to assist participants' reflection
Besides having an enjoyable experiential activity, participants were stimulated by the ideas behind experiential learning.
Module 4 introduced quite difficult subject matter in focussing on evaluation through the second face to face day. Participants developed evaluation plans for a variety of instructional situations. There were hints on analysing and interpreting evaluation data and writing an evaluation report. Some participants rightly judged that the mature presenter’s ease with the material made it all appear much easier than it really was.
Module 5 covered instructional design
Areas covered included:
- curriculum design, a needs based approach
- planning for training sessions using a number of methods
- designing a self- directed learning package.
- skills of:
  - presenting and explaining
  - discussing and questioning
  - using technology in presenting
  - multi-sensory approaches
Participants found every part of this module germane to their work, but they particularly enjoyed working through Bloom’s taxonomy which was somewhat of a revelation to many.
The project session outlines were begun as part of Module 5 and, during Module 6 Using Technology in Teaching, the process of converting outlines to an internet based training resource continued. The presenter was keen to re-inforce the value of producing a resource as part of a more comprehensive training strategy, to help the users achieve an outcome. The student web products integrated more interactive elements and more appropriate page design elements as a result of consultation with and suggestions by the Module 6 teacher.
The final module was actually the completion of the products and their display on a virtual gallery for comment by their peers. The participants who finished found that, having been guided once through theoretical and education design issues and having actually produced and displayed their own web based information skills related program on the virtual gallery for peer review they were now more confident of developing sound web based resources within their own institutions. Some will use and adapt their project work on their home Library web sites.

This was the most difficult and time consuming aspect of the course to undertake but the one of the most rewarding for participants once completed. Students produced electronic information skills programs providing very different approaches to some similar topics and a few innovative looks at more specialised areas. Those displaying on the gallery were very excited by others’ contributions. The gallery products produced inspired fellow students in numerous ways.

It is intended that completing participants be followed up again in twelve months to hear from them what types of information skills programs they have developed or participated during the year and in what ways the learnings of the TSISL program have assisted them in their tasks.

Reactions to the technology

Primarily one needs to know who the students are, and their level of knowledge, so that we can design the most appropriate learning experience for them. In the case of the pilot of TSISLsome aspects of this were overlooked. Insufficient details were obtained about their experience with the Web and the equipment they would be using. At the face-to-face sessions it was discovered that a substantial number had overlooked some very obvious points. It would be preferable to see the face-to-face session begin the course. This allows the co-ordinator or the facilitator to ensure that the students are in line and starting in the right way. A good start is always very important in the learning experience.

Reactions to asynchronicity

A broad discipline of pace needed to be set to encourage participants to move in concert with others through the modules. Moving in concert with at least a few other participants was necessary to enable a critical mass for the threads of discussion. The flexibility which was still maintained to a considerable degree was necessary to enable participants to fit the course in to their very busy lives. Some discipline in timing was also necessary from the point of view of the teachers to give them the expectation of a peak period for interaction and a lower residual level of interaction around this peak.

The asynchronous progress through this course was disorienting. Discussion was not as productive as it could be in an immediate classroom setting. Some participants found the level of WebTeach email postings quite high at times and this must have conflicted with their other work obligations for them to feel that it was a little stressful.

A small number of students dominated electronic discussion and sought and received the close attention of teachers to their specific queries and needs. The volume and length of email contact maintained a considerable short-term burden for some teachers during their peak teaching period. Individual students continued to return to specific topics and maintain a solid level of queries when most others had moved in a more linear sequence on to the later modules without the need to loop back to earlier topics.

The feedback on their experience with this mode of learning from those participants who completed the course was extremely valuable. These adult learners are indeed team participants in the teaching-learning process. The asynchronous learning experience proved to be an asset, for these participants were all professionals who required flexibility in order to complete the course.

TSISL 2000 and beyond

There are a range of possible options for future development and delivery. TSISL has a future which , depending on circumstances, will follow one of these paths.

Some possible considerations include:

Using comments captured on Web Teach© from the pilot program and possibly participation of some of the first group as mentors to enrich the learning of subsequent students
Persisting with the face to face in order to reap the real benefits in terms of strengthening national networks of like staff. Participants who had already met and worked together virtually, found the face to face component a great opportunity to forge much stronger links and boost their morale and commitment to the program. Participants in the first program found the ideas of their peers so useful they are keen to use an ongoing electronic discussion list to agitate for moves towards a national curriculum of web-based information skills materials and programs
Changing the scheduling to ensure a TSISL free Christmas for future participants
Regional group enrolment and presentation of the face to face at local venues
Possibly developing a completely distance-learning based version. This is entirely feasible but not preferred by the team at present, but it is certainly an option for those with no means to attend a face to face component because of distance or time constraints.
Possible inclusion of video conferencing

Strategies to identify user problems with the teaching software to be identified early in the course and alternative strategies built into the revised course

Further options

Apart from the pedagogic and structural options outlined above there are a number of ways to make the course accessible to librarians in the higher education sector and beyond.

Librarians have always been an active profession in terms of forming groups by sector, by geography and by specialisation, Consequently there are a number of groups around the country which could support the delivery of such a course as TSISL for their constituency both in terms of publicity, facilities and, perhaps, financially, albeit very modestly. What is lacking most in promoting continuing education for librarians is the expertise and the time to develop appropriate courses. Interest groups of librarians do have fairly effective means of disseminating information. They also, usually, have access to reasonable teaching areas and equipment.

Even in the international arena, the Universitas 21 Australasian libraries at least are currently watching with interest the activities of their institutions to register, accredit and deliver common core programs in a number of basic university disciplines across the globe using web based flexible course delivery. It is not such a huge leap from basic level program delivery for students to delivering basic skills programs for university staff (even if library staff are non-academic staff in most of the countries concerned).

Beyond the university sector there is also probably a keen potential market within the TAFE and VET sector. In this sector the programs information skills librarians are required to deliver to their students may be slightly less complex than those required of some of their university counterparts but the basic principles are the same and professional library staff seem especially active in staff development. The initial email to a small university library staff development electronic discussion list, which produced our participants for the pilot program, elicited a surprising number of active enquiries from librarians in the TAFE sector.

The range of potential national supporters of useful library staff development is considerable, both in terms of individual institutions, groupings of institutions, professional associations, etc.

The future

Those that completed the course felt they had learned new skills that they could apply in the work environment. As final participation drew to a close they were, indeed, creating teaching modules for their own clientele that they would be able to use after the course was finished.

The Committee for University Teaching and Staff Development was the funding body which enabled the TSISL program to get to this point. Without that funding the program would probably have remained a good idea. Considering that most members of the TSISL team experienced considerable development themselves in migrating the face to face program of 1996 to the web based course this was money well spent.

We developed TSISL (Teaching Skills for Information Skills Librarians) as something with the potential to be a prototype core curriculum for one aspect of information skills librarians’ professional development. It is a foundation, and just a foundation, useful in its present form, but able to be developed into a program of even greater use. The technology of TSISL can also largely defy the tyranny of distance and provide equal opportunities for librarians isolated by workload or by location across the city, across the state, across the nation and, with a little imagination, across the oceans as well. We hope very much that the momentum can be maintained and the product improved so that information skills librarians everywhere have a chance to access this opportunity. With training of this type in place there should be fewer information skills librarians producing the electronic equivalent of Betty Wilson’s youthful set speech which sent so many young men to sleep so long ago.

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