Loughborough University Library: Open Journals
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Collaboration between librarians and teaching faculty to teach information literacy at one Ontario university: Experiences and outcomes
Full text linkPurpose: In this study, we sought to describe information literacy success outcomes for students who participated in a university course where university librarians and teaching faculty collaborated in all aspects of the course including; curricular development, assignment development, in-class teaching, office hours for individual student development, and assessment activities. The authors wanted to examine student success in attaining information literacy skills following this one semester course. Further, the authors wanted to determine what difficulties in achieving expected information literacy levels persist even after intensive collaborative instruction. Finally, the authors wished to describe the challenges of these collaborations.
Methodology: The focus of this study was to determine changes in first-year university students’ information literacy knowledge and skill following a thirteen week university preparation course that was developed through strong collaboration between university librarians and teaching faculty. Students entering their first semester of university were tested on their information literacy skills without feedback. They then took part in the required course and were post tested in the last week of the semester.
Findings: Student showed strong increases in information literacy from this collaborative approach. In addition, teaching faculty and librarians felt positive about the collaborative experience. However, some students showed misunderstandings about information literacy that requires further research.
Originality and Practical Implications: Our unique contribution here is our description, experiences and detailed outcomes with a collaborative process to teach information literacy. Based on our experiences here, we believe that collaboration will work best if it is planned at a curricular level, if the librarians are truly integrated into the classroom, if the librarians provide input on assignments and help with student feedback, and if targeted information literacy knowledge is tested. This planning takes time, but the librarians offer unique contributions and insight into issues surrounding information literacy that may not be obvious to faculty instructors. In our study, we also found that students confuse assignment requirements with general information literacy standards and those teaching information literacy need to be aware of these confusions. Finally, integration of librarians into college/university courses has benefits in terms of increases in student information literacy and increases in librarian knowledge of faculty expectations
Gendered Pathways in Design Education: Findings from a Public University in India
Full text linkThe substantive aims of education include equitable learning, which stands for equitable gender access to preferred learning and choice within. These substantive aims can be furthered by pursuing certified vocational courses that equalize the presence of males and females in the job market through competitive skill sets. Design education in India was imagined as a composite field encompassing both technical studies and social sciences, and it was concentrated in metropolitan cities and technical institutions. It has now slowly spread to newer cities and more disciplinarily diverse institutions. Our research posits that the current unstructured growth of design education leads to a lack of emphasis on substantive outcomes. Rather, there is a focus on education for the sake of acquiring a certified competitive skill. We further analyze the distinction that has emerged between 'industrial' and 'communication' domains within design. This distinction is visible in the twinning of industrial design with engineering and architecture, while communication design is seen closer to fine arts and aesthetics as a stream not requiring technical expertise. This perception has precipitated a trend of gendered pathways in design education. This study used an exploratory approach to analyze five years of admissions data from the design department of a public university in a Tier 2 town in India, followed by semi-structured interviews with students and alumni. We found evidence to support the thesis of gendered pathways, attributed to factors like conventions of society, perceived safety, learning styles, curricular expenditure, and course briefs
Exploratory study on the role of institutional frameworks on engineering curricula evolution
Full text linkHumanity’s entrance into the Anthropocene forces us to question the role of technology because of its impacts on the environment. The stake is the viability of the Earth system for humans. Engineers producing a large part of these impacting techniques are not trained in sustainable issues (environmental, social and economic ones - in a systemic way). An exploratory workshop was held at a French University of Technology to study the development of new engineering training courses on issues of strong sustainability. During this workshop, the participants were placed into the current French institutional framework and were asked to develop a new training within this specific framework. The hypothesis formulated at the end of this experiment is that current institutional frameworks can be an obstacle to the production of new training, especially training adapted to the transition phenomenon to respond to the increasing risk of socio-ecological catastrophes. This experiment was conducted as part of a heuristic approach and opens up new perspectives for the evolution of training as well as institutional frameworks in higher education and research
I Can’t Draw
Full text linkIn examining the relationship between drawing as mark making and creative thinking, ‘I can’t draw’ is often cited by students in the Foundation Studies drawing classes we conduct at the University of South Australia. This is perceived as a lack of confidence in undertaking what is seen as a talent activity, the domain of only a privileged few. The same is often said for creativity, thus creating a challenge for academics in how they can assist students to overcome their lack of ability. In building a creative dimension into the drawing experience of students, this lack of confidence and uncertainty reflects a narrow view of drawing as a skill in realistic representation, rather than as a process of thinking and idea generation that utilises speculative exploratory processes that rely on uncertainty and what can be described as a lost state
Witnessing Loss
Full text linkThis paper is a practice-led account of the relationship between lost city spaces, post-war redevelopment in London and drawing as a method of witnessing. The motivation and purpose of this paper is to critically analyse and reflect on the connection between selective British post-war drawing of the destroyed and regenerated urban environment and my own practice as an artist. I have used as a case study my on-site drawings of Elephant and Castle in south-east London, an area I have lived in for the last twenty years. Recording and making visible what is destroyed, forgotten and lost in the repeated rupture and transformation of the area, during the latest cycle of regeneration. I have combined my practice as a research method with urban theory, cultural geography and writing on drawing.
 
Creating new 3D forms in collaborative product design
Full text linkIn collaborative design settings, designers communicate and explicate their ideas visually and verbally in order to reach a shared understanding. The verbal exchanges of group members engaged in a joint design task provide rich data regarding the design activities being undertaken by the group members. In addition, sketching and modelling are recognized as essential for designers to examine and produce design ideas at the very beginning of the design process. This exploratory case study focuses on collaborative design activities and problem–solution co-evolution among the various design disciplines that students engage in during their product design processes. Nine students from three design disciplines (interior design, product design, and graphic design) participated in a workshop providing knowledge about 3D modelling, following which they undertook a re-design task to develop a new 3D form of a detergent bottle. The research data consisted of video recordings and sketches, and the analysis focused on the progress of the design processes and the differences between the groups. The results highlight that the creation of new 3D forms was based on intensive reformulation activities such as setting new problem expressions or modifying existing ones. This kind of re-design task, which presented constraints in terms of developing a new 3D form within the prescribed requirements, served as a good exercise through which to practice co-evolution because it drove the design activities towards a balance of transitions in the problem and solution spaces
Bearing Witness To Dying
Full text link‘Bearing witness to dying’ is a personal account of how a drawing project, based in sketchbook drawing, which began as a simple exercise in maintaining my drawing practice, shifted in emphasis to become the observation of my husband’s final fight with cancer. As the months passed, it developed into a support system for living with the threat of impending loss, and finally helped me to survive the subsequent bereavement. Unconsciously, I was simultaneously creating a lasting record of precious and painful memories. The drawing practice is juxtaposed against a relationship with social media, which also became important as a support, and contrary to the usual manner of publishing intimate information, managed to reveal the events that were unfolding without ever revealing anything explicit
Audio feedback in distance design education
Full text linkThis paper reports on the use of feedback as part of a tuition strategy applied in a distance design course at The Open University in the United Kingdom. A blended feedback model (audio and summary text) was compared to the existing written-only feedback model in terms of student attainment, use, and perception. Comparison of feedback models confirms findings in the literature around the affective and interpersonal qualities of audio feedback, primarily in developing the relationship between student and tutor in a distance design education setting. The blended model demonstrated no major differences in student assessment outcome but differences in student activity and approach to feedback were observed, specifically that students engage in a series of extended and unexpected feedback opportunities beyond simple models of feedback normally assumed. It is proposed that a blended model, as part of a suite of approaches in a learning design, is more effective than either written or audio alone, allowing far richer student-tutor interactions and outcomes in distance settings