My Brain Hurts!

Yesterday I attended an advanced session on Excel. I have worked with Excel before, so I don’t consider myself a beginner but I was hoping that the advanced session would not be too advanced. Well, what I found was a fast paced session introducing many concepts that I had; a) never used before and b) never heard of! I was able to keep up for the most part, but alas, did not have a chance to make notes along the way as I was following along with the demonstration.
From what I can remember, we learned how to do the following [formulas included in the brackets]:

a) How to create a random list of numbers [=RANDBETWEEN(10000,99999)]

b) How to move the list of numbers to another section, using the right click function and then copy here as values only

c) Move or copy a tab to create a duplicate of a worksheet

d) Use the shift key to grab multiple tabs so that the formula or formatting appears on multiple sheets

e) Press the control key and drag a worksheet on your desktop, which is an easy way to create duplicate copies

f) Sum If statements [=SUMIF(E4:E20,"aqua",F4:F20)], which is useful when categories are assigned.  You can add all items within a particular category.  A similar formula is [=COUNTIF(C3:O19,E4)] that allows you to count how many times the entity appears within the worksheet. In our example, we were counting the number of times the word yellow appeared within the worksheet.

g) If/Then Statements [=IF(F5>300000,5000,0)]

h) More complicated If/Then Statements such as [=IF(F5>300000,5000, IF(F5>275000,3000, IF(F5>250000,2000,0)))], which allows you to apply multiple criteria in one formula. In our example, we were assigning bonuses based on YTD sales

i) Summaries, Pivot Tables and Animation of a bar graph from a pivot table in PowerPoint were then discussed.

I cannot get over how smart Excel is. I want to attend the session next year so that I can absorb all of the stuff that I missed yesterday, or at least have a chance to practice it once more. It is hard to retain information when you do not use the tool very often.

Dynamic Discussion

What happens when two people meet and immediately are energized by their conversation and the transference of information from one to the other? They likely both exit the conversation excited and inspired, having been a part of a successful collaboration. This is what happened to me the other day during one of my research interview sessions on distributed learning. The participant ignited a spark which in turn rekindled my delight in the subject matter, simply by looking at the topic from a different perspective than I was.


I can only describe this conversation as awesome!

I love my iPhone!

Slightly under the weather while conducting my third interview, I sluggishly recorded the pearls of wisdom that were being shared with me, commenting that I wish I had a voice recorder.  The interview participant asked if I had an iPhone, which I do, and then pointed out the voice memo app which is a standard feature.  I had noticed it before, but never explored this option.  It was remarkably easy to record our entire conversation and the sound quality was excellent.

When reviewing and summarizing my interview notes, I was happy that I had the print and recorded notes to refer too.  These notes were much more robust and thorough than they had been for the first two participants.

Participant #4 suggested that I look for an app that would allow me to convert the audio file directly into text.  I have not gotten that far yet, but am pondering the wonders of modern technology.

A side point: recording an interview adds an additional layer of ensuring the participant's confidentiality.  In my case, I have agreed to delete the recording once the participant has approved my notes.

One last comment: I am so appreciative of the fact that the interview participants are sharing their knowledge on my research topic, but also are sharing their knowledge on techniques and tools that have real world applicability to my future career as a librarian extraordinaire!

Books

Textbooks are reserved for classes and articles are reserved for research – right? Nope! Again my practicum has exposed me to another way to perform research. And once again, I am realizing that I have not read a book for research purposes because as an undergraduate student I would not have had the time or the inclination. But now as a graduate student, I am interested in reading about this topic and am willing to dedicate hours to the further pursuit of knowledge not because I have too, but because I want too. What – did I just write that?


I stumbled upon a book review while conducting my initial research on distributed learning. The book looked interesting enough to recommend it to my practicum supervisor. We then were able to receive the item through an interlibrary loan (the first one that I have ever requested, I might add). Three weeks quickly expired and I had to beg the ILL supervisor to give me another week. Of course, if you have been following my blog, you realize that I am pressure prompted, so the new due date forced me to concentrate all of my efforts on reading the book.

The book is entitled Teaching Information Literacy Online by Thomas Mackey, published in 2011. The book is broken into two main sections; the first covering hybrid learning and the second looking at purely online instruction. The first section is addressed in 4 chapters and highlights the integration of technology into face-to-face instruction in order to enhance student engagement. As this is not within the scope of our project, I ignored these chapters - - although I must admit they do look fascinating and I would like to return to them at a later date. The second section is also addressed through 4 chapters, 3 of which were relevant to our project. Side note: are you now wondering how it could have possibly taken me so long to read just 3 chapters of a book??? I would if I were you!

Now, here comes the challenging part - using a book for research that you do not own yourself. What do you do? You can not mark each page with notes – they would find me and I know they would as I am a branch supervisor and I find those that mark up books! You can not photocopy the book, because that is a violation of copyright. You can not break rules like these when you are an aspiring librarian. So what did I do…? I took a pad of sticky notes and recorded all of my thoughts and questions that way, sticking them to the individual pages; employing the use of arrows so that I would know what section of the page I was referring too. I then passed along the book to my practicum supervisor so that she could review the book as well. Once she has completed reading this book, I plan to transcribe all of our notes into a word document, which I am beating will be a very painful process.

All and all – an excellent book for anyone who is interested in information literacy instruction and finding inspiring ideas for student engagement within an academic institution.

It is a slow moving process...

The most enlightening revelation that I have had throughout this practicum project, is how long everything seems to take. 

As a student facing a deadline, I suppose you limit how much research you conduct, and how detailed your notes are.  I suppose you gloss over articles in search of evidence that you can use in your assignment and then move on - - quickly.  Yes, I am pressure prompted, but I don't think most students have time to dwell on assignments for too long.

But, when tasked with a project that has no fixed deadline, you discover you have the time to explore, to research, to make meticulous notes.  For example, on Monday, I interviewed a participant in the morning and then spent almost the entire afternoon transcribing the notes.  I made comparisons between the opinions shared and the research that I had already conducted.  I referred to the research, and confirmed points that were shared by the interviewee.  It became a labour of love if you will, because I had the time to invest in thoroughly exploring the topic. 

So even though, it is labour intensive... I am loving the time aspect.  I have the time to explore, to discover, to enrich my mind and my thoughts on this subject.

And next we would like to hear from....

Due to the confidential nature of an interview, I will limit my discussion to the information gleaned from experts in the field and further questions that they have inspired for me.

I began the interviewing process just over a week ago. I was delighted that everyone that I contacted initially was more than happy to speak with me and impart their wisdom on this topic.

My first discussion revolved around embedding a librarian within the course management software, Blackboard. Personally, I am very familiar with Blackboard as this is the medium that I have received my entire education. I think the tool is badly in need of an upgrade, but does allow the instructor to provide all course materials, presentations, grades, etc. in one secure location. Blackboard course modules also allow students to participate and engage with their colleagues through the use of a discussion board.

During our interview, we discussed the story behind the library's provision of information literacy instruction for this particular course; what was required of the students; and the student's interactions with the instructor and the librarian. One problem that was noted by the librarian was that there was not a common format required for assignment submission by the students. Consequently, documents were not always compatible with software on the librarian's computer. Another issue that was raised is that there were many facilitators working simultaneously to provide this course, so communication was somewhat strained between all the various parties. It was also difficult to determine when messages came in from students that required attention via Blackboard. The librarian felt that an email would have been much easier to respond too.

The next portion of our time focused on personal preferences and the future direction of information literacy instruction utilizing the distributed model.

Will you participate?

The final task for the week involved scheduling interviews with key liaison librarians over the next couple of weeks. These librarians were selected because they are currently involved with some form of distance education.

I have included the text from my invitation below:
I am writing to invite you to participate in a research project entitled “Information Literacy Instruction in the Distributed Learning Environment”.

The purpose of this research is to review existing distributed learning models and make recommendations to the University Library for the delivery of effective information literacy instruction within a distributed learning environment. In order to more fully understand what is currently happening at the University of Saskatchewan in the area of distributed and distance learning as well as the challenges and opportunities it presents, I will be conducting interviews with individuals, such as yourself, who have significant experience with this topic. I am participating in this project as a requirement for my Masters of Library and Information Science degree through a practicum placement at the University Library. As my practicum hours are limited, I am hoping to schedule interviews on Mondays throughout February and March. If that is not possible, I can certainly accommodate another time that better suits your schedule.

Would you be willing to meet with me for up to one hour to share you experience and knowledge about distributed learning instruction? Please reply to tasha.maddison@usask.ca with your preferred time and location.

I appreciate your assistance.

I have already scheduled interviews with most of the individuals that I initially contacted. I am hopeful that these individuals will be able to recommend faculty within the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Education that we can also contact for interviews.

Definitions

At my weekly meeting with my supervisor, we discussed the scope of the project in more detail. My supervisor wanted to ensure that our research reflected our focus on distributed learning, so that our recommendation would be specific to the needs of the liaison librarians at the University of Saskatchewan. In other words, we are setting up best practices for instructional modules that are unique and different from what is current practice. Through our discussion, we determined that distributed learning meant that students were receiving instruction via some form of technology. These students may be anywhere - on campus, outside the city or province or country. Our focus is on forms of online training, such as, embedded librarians in course management software (Blackboard), training videos or materials delivered via the library's web page. The most important point to consider is that the library is providing a consistent approach for information literacy instruction to all students who are affiliated with the university.

Marked Up

This week, I am slowly starting to move beyond the literature review and research process, as I have read all of the materials that we initially retrieved. While reading each article my process includes:

• highlighting key points within the text


• jotting down any thoughts and/or questions that come to mind


• marking any points that are shared or in common with other research that has been completed


• rating the article usefulness for future reference

Once completed, I summarize my notes in a Word document. I try to elaborate on the points as I complete this summary - or at least correct some of the spelling and grammar!

Note To Self... While Researching Implement the Following...

Monday found me working away on the research summaries for all of the articles that I had read up until that point. I have a meeting with my supervisor on Wednesday where we will review the summaries and decide on the next stages of the research process.

Wednesday began with an awesome meeting with my supervisor where we discussed what we had completed thus far and looked ahead to our next steps.

In my previous research sessions, I concentrated on the databases provided by H.W. Wilson and EBSCO. On Wednesday, I utilized ProQuest’s Library database for my latest search as I am very familiar with the advanced search options. As I am nearing the completion of my research, I wanted to set up a focused search to ensure that I retrieved all remaining items on the topic of distributed learning. I have included my search string below:

SUB(information literacy instruction)
AND (distance OR distributed OR off campus)
AND (education OR learning)
AND (utilizing the drop down menu for date, I choose the last 3 years)

While executing my search and linking to the individual articles through the SFX Link Resolver, I noted the suggested articles that are provided through the University of Saskatchewan’s catalogue (similar to a suggestion link in an online shopping site). I was able to find a couple of additional articles that way. Note to self: continue to pay attention to the suggestions!

Once the research component was finished, I decided to set up an alert for myself through ProQuest so that I would receive all new articles on this topic based on my search string above. I have it set to expire in 6 months.

From there, I created an EndNote Library of all of the articles that I have retrieved thus far. Yes, it makes more sense to create the citation library as you are conducting your research… but I tend to do it all at once as a final step. Normally, I probably would have manually recorded the citations into the paper for an ordinary research paper. One of the goals for this project is to publish our research, so creating a citation library will give us the ability to change from one citation style to another with relative ease. Note to self: create a citation library utilizing EndNote or RefWorks to manage citations while conducting your research.

Finally on Wednesday, I drafted an email that would be sent out to participants that we will request an interview with.

When is enough, enough?

A major portion of my discussion with my practicum supervisor on Monday revolved around determining when the research portion of the project is complete and the actual doing part can begin. In the past, I have only had to conduct research in a simulated setting to discuss features and benefits of a ProQuest product during my time working there OR as a student where time was of the essence. As a student I would generally gauge how many items were required by the length of the paper that was assigned. If it was a 10 page paper, generally 10 journal articles (each over 5 pages long) from peer-reviewed journals would suffice. Typically, I rely on a couple of articles for the majority of my quotes and support for my argument and supplement the rest of the paper with the other seemingly less relevant articles.

But what do you do when you have ample time to conduct research and no fixed deadline. How do you know you are done?

My guess is you are never really done. There will always be something new to read on any given topic. Some rock that remained unturned, some resources undiscovered! But then how does the researcher make this process manageable? Here is what I was able to ascertain upon discussing this issue with several librarians...
- you are done when you start to read the same types of things over and over again
- you are not learning anything new
- you set the parametres of time for yourself in order to define the research that you are conducting. For example, only documents between this and this date were used
in this paper. Typically you would define the date range as appropriate to the topic. If you were discussing distributed learning like we are, than the last four years of information is probably enough. In fact, I have already found this to be true as a lot of the older articles are speaking of obsolete technology.
- you give up? No, but at a certain point, I would guess that you would get sick of reading about the same thing
- you need to starting "doing"

Research Strategies

Having spent a good portion of time on Saturday thoroughly reading two articles on ILI for distance students; I started to notice that relevant research resources were quietly appearing right before my eyes. I have never looked up articles cited as a references before, but often recommend this as a search strategy for masters and doctoral students in the College of Engineering, as they conduct research for their theses. Based upon the the quality of the quotations or research methodology used, and the seemingly relevant titles of the additional articles - they were just too irresistible to ignore. I retrieved the additional articles through USearch and reviewed the abstract. The ones that appeared relevant based on their abstract, I then quickly pursued the first couple of pages of text. From here, I plan on printing off these articles and marking them up with thoughts, questions and possible directions.

I found seven additional articles this way and also started compiling a list of related articles that may be of interest to us at a later date (technology, tools, students perspectives of distance ILI training, etc.)

Literature Search

I began the literature search for my practicum project by looking at the thesaurus in Wilson's Library database. As the first step in an "actual" research project, I thought that a "real" librarian should start with a thesaurus search. I quickly abandoned that methodology in favour of an advanced search using keywords and limiters. What can I say - I am just more comfortable searching that way!

One item is worthy of mention from the thesaurus search: the thesaurus did not recognize my requested term of distributed learning, instead recommending the term distance learning. So I guess the thesaurus search was not completely wasted, as I did use distance learning as a subject term to limit my query. Later in my searching, I found an article entitled distributed learning from a Canadian author, so I wonder if this is a Canadian term; which could examine the lack of recognition in the thesaurus? I am eager to explore this concept a bit further, inquiring whether distance education is simply the preferred term OR is there a difference between the two concepts.

My first successful search involved looking for Information Literacy Instruction (ILI) and limiting it by the subject of distance education. I surmised that ILI is a library concept, so I should retrieve results only from a library perspective. I did in fact retrieve 12 useful articles. I am currently reading two of the articles, hoping to find some clues into other paths that I could explore!

Meanwhile, my practicum supervisor was hard at work drafting the research proposal for the Ethics Board. Looking at the draft was an exciting experience! It made the project feel very real, but it also helped to ground the research process into concrete and measurable goals.

First Day!

My first day of my practicum officially started today. Coincidentially this is also the first day of my last semester at WSU!

My practicum supervisor and I met at 9:00 to discuss the first steps of the project and outline some of the deadlines that we have immediately before us. She will work on the research proposal to the Ethics Review Board tomorrow. The proposal will be submitted shortly, so that we can perform our research in a timely fashion. We will likely be conducting interviews as part of this project; so the board needs to review the type of information that we will be seeking, its purpose and the ultimate product.

I began the day by completing a draft of a project charter. Having just participated in LLDP, I have had experience with the usefulness of this document but have never written one myself. It was a lot harder than I had anticipated! It took me the majority of the morning to expand on the projects goals, objectives and scope. These are incredibly useful statements to make as they define the entire project, yet they are often difficult to articulate from the onset.

I also felt it necessary to purchase a print agenda as I suspect my life will quickly escalate to the unmanageable!

Library Practicum

On Monday, I had my first meeting with my practicum supervisor where we began discussions on our project. The project will target deliverables from the University Library's strategic plan in the client services portfolio.

More specifically we will be concentrating on item number CSP 1.1 which is entitled Review delivery of library education through distributed learning. This item looks at methodology of effective ILI delivery to distributed learners. The details of the initiative are as follows: In addition to library instruction at the University, the library must ensure that distributed learners have access to quality library instruction. With the development of a smart classroom in the Murray Library, the tools will be in place for distributed library education. It is important that instructors in library education have the skills to deliver instruction in a distributed manner and that is delivered consistently and in a relevant manner. Library education to distributed learners is raised in the Murray Library Unit Plan and library education delivered online in some capacity is raised in the Health Sciences, Murray, Law and Education and Music Libraries' Unit Plans.

Ensure development of standards for delivery of library education for distributed learners

Determine partners across province for delivery of library education via video conference

During this meeting we discussed the deliverables for this project, which we identified as a report, guidelines, recommendations and actionable items to be included in the strategic plan going forward.

My first steps will be to conduct a literature review during the month of January. By the end of January, my supervisor and I will identify individuals with a vested interest in this topic. We will interview these individuals with the hope that they will be able to identify other individuals to speak with.

I am so excited to get started!