448I n a model that has developed over the past few years, instruction librarians at the University of Vermont sought to create better opportunities to talk with one another about teaching, observe each other's classes, provide constructive feedback, and engage in reflective practice. In order to achieve these goals, a small group of us began to work as a team to learn from each other and our students.Our group recognized that by working in a small community of practice, we could break down instructional barriers and could create a valuable learning experience for ourselves, as well as a replicable model for our colleagues. The model that grew out of this experience is grounded in examining our teaching and work in the classroom from multiple directions: peer observation, self-reflection, and student evaluations.The specific goals of the project were to improve teaching among cohort members by providing a venue for discussing teaching among colleagues, creating a safe space for using unfamiliar teaching techniques in the classroom, developing a method for engaging in reciprocal peer-observation, and engaging in post-classroom self-reflection of our teaching practices. An underlying goal of the project was to demystify teaching observations as they had previously existed at our institution. In the past, observations had been closely associated with evaluation and with the reappointment and promotion process, rather than being a normal and valuable part of our teaching experience.
Setting context with a common lesson planWe implemented the 360° Feedback Model while teaching a series of integrated oneshot class sessions to support students enrolled in an introductory writing and information literacy course. The class, ENGS 001: Written Expression, shares common readings and a common assignment sequence across all sections of the course. The three participating librarians taught, in total, 17 sections of ENGS 001 over two-and-a-half weeks, and each section was also observed by a peer from our cohort. We were aware that teaching and observing this many sessions would demand most of our time over the two-week period, but we felt that this intensive environment would provide us with more opportunities for observation and to make adjustments to our teaching in a truly iterative manner.After developing learning outcomes for the class, we collectively decided upon
Campus portals are one of the most visible and frequently used online spaces for students, offering one-stop access to key services for learning and academic self-management. This case study reports how instruction librarians at the University of Vermont collaborated with portal developers in the registrar’s office to develop high-impact, point-of-need content for a dedicated “Library” page. This content was then created in LibGuides and published using the Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for LibGuides boxes. Initial usage data and analytics show that traffic to the libraries’ portal page has been substantially and consistently higher than expected. The next phase for the project will be the creation of customized library content that is responsive to the student’s user profile.
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