Learning to blend in
Schools in the Diocese of Cairns have found that blended learning combines the best of face-to-face and online learning, enabling students to develop digital skills in relevant contexts. As a consultant for libraries, Anna Seidl investigates how this shift towards digital learning can be used to increase the integration and effectiveness of libraries.
Amidst the innovations in education occasioned by COVID-19, blended learning has risen to prominence in F-12 education, with Forbes labelling it an educational ‘revolution’. Blended learning simply means combining elements of traditional, face-to-face teaching with elements of online learning. Blended learning can take many different forms, including station rotations, where students rotate through face-to-face and online activities, or flipped learning, where students absorb content through videos or readings outside the classroom, freeing lessons for interactive activities and discussions. This provides students with greater flexibility and some control over where, when and how they undertake tasks. These principles can also be applied in the school library, through learning management systems, resource guides, and blended library instruction.
A learning management system (LMS) is core to our schools’ blended learning strategy. LMS’s, such as Canvas and Google Classrooms, are online learning environments where teachers undertake many teaching duties online. LMS’s allow staff to collaborate in creating lessons, uploading resources, communicating with students and seeking feedback.
From a library perspective, the key benefit of a LMS is as a platform for collaboration with teaching staff. Library staff have found it rewarding to develop an expertise with their school’s LMS, as this enables them to value-add to learning in the digital space. Strategies implemented by our schools include:
• Obtaining administration or access rights to classes: This enables library staff to view curricula and assessments for each class, facilitating collaboration with teachers. For example, library staff use the LMS to track topics being taught, and in consultation with class teachers, shares links to relevant online resource and catalogue records directly onto the topic page.
• Creating a strong library presence: We have ensured that icons for key electronic library resources, such as the catalogue and eBook platform, appear in the course template. Icons are then reproduced on each course page, making library resources easily accessible. Some schools have created a dedicated library page inside their LMS, where they provide library information, resources, podcasts, virtual tours and competitions.
• Maximising integrations: Many digital resources, such as ClickView, TurnItIn and Britannica Online, integrate with numerous LMS platforms, which increases resource usage.
• Assisting colleagues: Library staff can support their colleagues in areas such as technical skill development, design considerations and copyright advice.
We used LearnPath to create online curated resource guides on curriculum topics and information literacy topics. We included print resources in online guides, by including links to catalogue records. Resource guides have proven popular with teachers and are particularly effective when linked directly into students’ courses. Other products such as LibGuides or even free website builders may also be used for this purpose.
Our next challenge is to consider how to blend our own library classes, using a mix of in-library and online activities. This will help us deliver more library instruction to more students. Online quizzes and discussions, videos, screencasts and shared documents – these are just some tools we will use to achieve an effective blend.