Lightning Round: Online Learning

3:20 PM - 3:33 PM
A 3D Rubric for Creating and Auditing Online Courses: Criteria and Methods to Guide Course Development Efforts
Stephen Gance, Portland State University
This presentation will introduce a rubric-based method of auditing online courses for their maturity on three dimensions of development. These three dimensions represent the extent to which the course meets standards of navigation, learning, and accessibility. The results of the audit can be used to plan efforts to redevelop courses or course content to meet standards. Developed as an alternative to the Quality Matters Higher Education rubric, it offers fewer standards—3 versus 8 (general) and 18 versus 41 (specific)—and greater efficiency while providing more targeted course improvement strategies.

3:34 PM - 3:47 PM
Collaborating with Wikipedians, "the Weirdest People on the Internet"
John Farquhar, Western Washington University
Wikipedians have been called the "weirdest people on the internet." According to one study, Wikipedians are generally less agreeable, less open, and less conscientious than those who endorse the encyclopedia's core principles. Students in a first-year critical-thinking seminar at Western Washington University were asked to join the Wikipedia community with the specific task of negotiating the editorial process, defending their contributions, and applying Wikipedia's core principles when writing on controversial claims in paranormal topics. This showcase will discuss the challenges and successes of assigning first-year students the task of engaging in an established online community regarding controversial topics.

3:48 PM - 4:00 PM
Digital Learning: Teaching Information Literacy through LibGuides
Gretchen Trkay, Andy Herzog, and Boglarka Huddleston, University of Texas at Arlington
Academic librarians endeavor to build collaborative teaching relationships to better integrate information literacy into curriculum discipline areas, but time constraints often dictate that structured student/librarian interaction is limited to a single in-class session. To address this problem, librarians at UT Arlington Library have built instructional content into course- and subject-specific LibGuides. This presentation will focus on the methods we have used to increase the effectiveness of LibGuides as a teaching tool and how these guides can put students at the center of their own learning experience. These methods include developing curriculum collaboratively, Kuhlthau's information search process, and usability testing.