Lollipops for Learning Resources

Leo Appleton & Anthony Beal

March 18th, 2008

Overview

• Information Literacy @ West Cheshire College• Discovering Lollipop• Information Literacy staff development @ West Cheshire College• Project results

Information Literacy @West Cheshire College

• Learner – thorough induction introduce catalogue InfoTrac etc

• Two full weeks during induction for all full time students

• Learning Resources Workshop includes introduction to the VLE and i-skills

• Quiz at end of LRW with prize of an MP3 player• Follow up i-skills sessions publicised by

Springboard

Information literacy in the curriculum

High Profile Curriculum Links• Gatekeepers and regarded as such of:

– i-skills– Research skills– Referencing– E-learning– Intranet– Web 2.0– Digital media

Induction Quiz on VLE

Learning Resources Home Page

Curriculum Area Page

West Cheshire College model

40067 39737 42844 41515 38464 34660 31471 24125

25236

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

45000

Total Heritage issues

96/97

97/98

98/99

99/00

2000/01

2001/02

2002/03

2003/04

2004/05

Declining use of print resources

West Cheshire College modelProof of expanding e-resource use

Full text retrieval

Actively promote information and research skills training

• Bespoke• Springboard

– Planning essays– Research skills (i-skills)– Harvard– Reflective Learning– Presentation skills

• i-skills embedded into assignments

Learning Resources Staff

• Recently converged, multi-disciplinary service• No real overall awareness of information

literacy within curriculum areas• Curriculum liaison and information skills

teaching done by selected staff• Needed a holistic awareness and approach• Opportunity for VLE familiarisation

Lollipop Information Literacy• Prior to the course all staff took part in

Information Literacy discussions• All Learning Resources staff taking part• Blended learning• No charge for the materials that can be

modified as required for hosting institution• All web based• At WCC now built into our VLE, Fronter

Lollipop content – learning materials

Lollipop content - forums

Lollipop content - blogs

Lollipop Staff Development – Results

How important do you think information literacy is?

How knowledgeable are you about information literacy?

What have you found most interesting about Lollipop?

Search terms Opinions of colleaguesBoolean operators SconulE-journals Critical evaluationAuthentication Primary/Secondary sourcesWeb sites Attitudes of curriculumPlagiarism GatewaysCopyright Intellectual property

How much use do you make of the VLE?

How did you find the Lollipop materials and VLE functions?

Lollipop Content – 90%Blog – 68%Discussion – 77%

How familiar are you with the VLE functions?

Overall success

Would you recommend Lollipop for curriculum staff? 77%Would you recommend Lollipop for students? 68%

What worked particularly well?Discussion forums, Different VLE tools, Tests at the end of each section, Group participation

ConclusionsGeneralisationsLollipop increases perception of information literacy as

‘important’ to learningLollipop familiarises staff with information literacyLollipop increases staff knowledge about information literacyLollipop is an effective way of delivering information literacy

contentLollipop can be used effectively as a staff development toolLollipop can be used to increase awareness and familiarisation of

institutional VLE functionality