Blended Learning; A Model for Instruction

Introduction Library instruction methodologies are evolving with the changing nature of the educational process. Students now have demands and expectations: the ability to work when they want, to choose how and what they want to learn and when they want to learn it. Changing student demographics – distant learners, part-time registrants, working parents, lifelong learners – are creating a demand for information at their time and place of convenience. Technology is providing the possibilities and opportunities for revolutionizing the way people learn and how information is presented to them. In most instances students learn from an instructor-led approach. In a traditional classroom setting, they have access to expertise, questions and discussion, are exposed to the energy of social interaction, and have the opportunity to learn from others. Other students prefer an individualized or less structured environment. They need self-paced learning in a less disruptive setting and time to absorb, privately reflect, and study content. Educators are now faced with the challenges of integrating traditional and emerging teaching formats while balancing students’ varied learning styles. It is in the educators’ best interests to provide as many opportunities as possible for the learner to achieve goals, absorb content and learn new skills. We need to rethink our current teaching practices and presentation models and improve the quality and diversity of the students’ educational experiences. Both corporate and educational institutes are now looking to a combination of traditional face-to-face training integrated with technology - a concept defined as blended learning. Although this may seem like a relatively new term, the idea has been around for some time. How many of us went through school attending classes and then reading a textbook? Today’s technologies provide choices. Blended learning can involve any union of delivery mechanisms – conventional lecture in a face-to-face setting, self-study workbooks, web modules, CD-ROM, teleconferencing, asynchronous online courses, satellite course broadcast. Background These developments and this kind of thinking have changed the way we are providing library instruction to undergraduate students at the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. The Business Library serves approximately 3000 on-campus students as well as distance programs and corporate courses. Blended model instruction was designed for a marketing class, a human resources course and a Management Essentials program (a mini-MBA for executives). “Foundations of Marketing” is a mandatory class for all business students. The major assignment is a group project in which students are expected to create a marketing plan for a local entrepreneur in the private or non-profit sector in the city of Calgary. This includes examining the company; gaining knowledge of the trends, growth and value of the industry; identifying key marketing issues; clearly defining the required marketing mix (product/price/plan/promotion); and, promotion alternatives. The final report is the production of a detailed marketing plan which can ideally be implemented by the company as a result of recommendations. Past businesses have included: natural pet food store, tea room, audiology laboratory, women’s theatre group, a university drama dept., alternative uses of the City’s main sports stadium, entertainment coupon book marketing, a triathlon equipment store. Needless to say, the chosen businesses are not mainstream; resources not easily available on each topic. For our blended project, a total of 300 students were divided into 5 classes with groups of 4 students each preparing a separate report. In a 4th year human resources class “Lifelong Learning and Career Assessment” 30 undergraduates were required to individually prepare a paper on a variety of career paths, information related industry trends and overview, skill sets for specific occupations and best practices in the work environment. The Management Essentials program, a 4 month mini-MBA for corporate executives, required all participants to examine a process, conduct a feasibility analysis or undertake a strategic assessment of their organization. As these students were not familiar with library resources, neither print nor electronic, it was a challenge to determine how to ensure they had enough knowledge to complete their projects. Traditionally, the Business Library is allocated one hour of instruction time to present resources specific to the company or topic the students have been assigned. Focus of the instruction is a demonstration of relevant full text databases which the students use to locate industry background, trends and forecasts and an explanation of where to find marketing or career ideas for similar businesses and competitors. Information is provided on how to find statistics and demographics as well as a demonstration on how to “properly” search the web and evaluate findings. In addition to the electronic products, discussion on reference books and other useful monographs is presented and basic information on how to search the online catalogue is also reviewed. What we found, however, was that when the time came to actually conduct research and write the paper, students had difficulties remembering library tools, the access points and appropriate search strategies. We decided to augment the traditional instruction methods by incorporating options in the blended learning model and adopted a web-based online tutorial as instruction enhancement for the marketing, human resources and the Management Essentials programs. Software Development Dreamweaver authoring software was used to create the online tutorials for each specific course and company. This software allows for ease of tutorial construction, off-site availability at any time, direct access to electronic resources and consistency in information presentation. It provides flexibility for font color, and images; ability to add class discussion points and searching tip notes; easy updates as new resources are discovered; seamless links to other web resources; and, most importantly, easy web authoring. (Slide 1) The tutorial consisted of introductory notes, learning objectives and separate sections for specific subject areas of each course – marketing, statistics, search engines, helpful reference and circulating books, and bibliographic citations styles. Direct connections in the tutorial were provided from both on and off-campus to a variety of full text databases and useful authoritative web sites. (Slide 2). It listed appropriate subject headings and terms pertinent to the specific business as similarly discussed in the in-class presentations. The tutorial was added to the Business Library web page as a direct connection access point by students anytime they wanted to use it for the full term of the course. (Slide 3) In addition, it should be noted that the University of Calgary recently migrated from WebCT to Blackboard as a course development tool for e-learning efforts. Blackboard enables customized online course management. Students in each course are expected to check the Blackboard course page each day for announcements, class notes, course documentation and messages posted by faculty. For us, it offered another point of access to the online tutorial. For wider exposure, the tutorial was also posted on Blackboard for the full term of the course. (Slide 4) Lessons Learned From the positive usage comments and the high percentage of students who preferred a combination of instruction methodologies, it is clear that tutorials enhanced the classroom instruction and that the blended model assisted students in their work. Several issues need to be addressed to further improve the service: - The online tutorial clearly needs to be demonstrated in the class following the library instruction presentation - A chat line or discussion module should be added to the online tutorial to facilitate questions and answers related to specific projects throughout the term - Addition of search tips and help screens should be considered - More reminders on the use the tutorial as well as lists of new resources added throughout the term should be incorporated on the Blackboard pages checked daily by students - An electronic version of the survey should be incorporated to easily access data and track student responses - A study of the assignment grades from students who did and did not use the library resources and tutorial as well as implementation of pre-and post-test studies, could further prove the effectiveness of delivery methods A majority of the Management Essentials students had been out of university for a number of years. They suggested that lack of computer literacy and unfamiliarity with electronic databases and web sites were a problem with using the tutorial. A basic introductory module and more detailed information on the tutorial could assist the students. Conclusion Technology has provided the impetus to explore teaching strategies, create an integrated learning experience and move the blended learning concept along a continuum of best practice. Any model of blended learning should maximize learning opportunities; whatever is prepared must be relevant, not just an “add-on”. Regardless of which formats are combined, instructors need to understand the strengths of each style and recognize how different learners learn. In the case of the Business Library, the limited survey results indicated that we are on the right track. A majority of students preferred the tutorial for research assistance “at their leisure”; others found it suited their learning styles better. Our experiment with blended learning yielded a training package that with revisions and enhancements should continue to strengthen our information literacy program.