Improving information literacy and academic skills tuition through flipped online delivery

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic forced UK universities to move the majority or all of tuition online. The Library Academic Support Team at Leeds Beckett University used that shift as an opportunity to improve information literacy (IL) and academic skills tuition across the institution. Instruction and support were redesigned on a flipped basis to ensure that online delivery improved on face-to-face delivery rather than simply replicating it. This project report reviews that work with usage statistics, user feedback, practicalities of service provision and discussion of impact. The report extends existing literature with a model of significant institution-level changes to IL and academic skills instruction which could be applied elsewhere. It concludes that the shift to flipped online learning was a qualified success, with the revised approach proving notably more popular and inclusive, also providing other benefits such as more focused in-class discussion.