Librarians in the Lead: A Case for Interdisciplinary Faculty Collaboration on Assignment Design

Abstract

Assignment design provides a potential niche for librarians to fill in improving research assignments and in providing opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration on teaching, but this can be difficult work to claim as librarians. In the 2016-2017 academic year, a team of three librarians at Utah State University, a mid-size research university, piloted an assignment design workshop for faculty. Based on a model developed by the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA), our workshop's core component was a structured, librarian-facilitated small group discussion among three to four faculty members from a range of academic departments. Interdisciplinary conversation about teaching research skills thrived in these discussions (called "charrettes"), with librarians uniquely positioned to encourage knowledge sharing in service of student learning and success. This article presents three iterations of our workshops as a case study in information literacy intervention outside traditional classroom instruction sessions, extending and redefining the role of the academic librarian as a partner in teaching and learning.

Training the trainer to embed IL into curricula

“…essentially 'training the trainer' to enable groups of instructors to integrate information literacy into the courses they teach (Fister, 2009;Iannuzzi, 1998). While academic libraries have been slow to offer programs where librarians act as faculty developers to help integrate IL strategically into curricula, there are notable exceptions (Hartman et al, 2014;Li, 2007;Maybee, 2018;Millet et al, 2009;Wishkoski et al, 2018;Witt & Dickinson, 2003).…”

“…To address a large-enrollment undergraduate biology course, librarians at the University of Kentucky developed workshops to help graduate teaching assistants teach undergraduate students how to effectively use databases and citation tools (Hartman et al, 2014). Librarians have also developed assignment design programs to engage instructors in conversations about how their students use information in individual courses (Wishkoski et al, 2018;Wishkoski et al, 2019) and across all undergraduate levels of a specific program (Millet et al, 2009). Assignment design programseven those not specifically about information literacy, like the librarian-led workshop at the University of Utahcan offer instructors opportunities to improve the way they teach students to use information or how they teach students research skills (Wishkoski et al, 2018;Wishkoski et al, 2019).…”

Academic Librarians’ Experiences as Faculty Developers: A Phenomenographic Study

“…A small number of academic libraries are already participating in or leading faculty development opportunities, such as workshops, librarian-faculty assignment design, and the IMPACT program in which the authors are involved (Hartman, Newhouse, & Perry, 2014;Li, 2007;Maybee, 2018;Millet, Donald, & Wilson, 2009;Wishkoski, Lundstrom, & Davis, 2018;Witt & Dickinson, 2003). Many of these examples from the literature, however, focus on librarians' strategies and considerations for creating these development programs and their efforts to establish or strengthen relationships with faculty to integrate IL into courses.…”

“…Following a series of assignment design workshops hosted by the libraries at Utah State University, librarians examined participating faculty's experiences with the assignment design process (Wishkoski, Lundstrom, & Davis, 2019). Faculty described the need to overcome initial feelings of vulnerability before they were able to benefit from the conversations about teaching and designing assignments with librarians (Wishkoski et al, 2018;Wishkoski, et al, 2019). Librarians involved in the IMPACT program have also learned through first-hand experience working with instructors that librarians must strive to empathize and build trust with the faculty with whom they are working to integrate IL into courses (Flierl, Maybee, Riehle, & Johnson, 2016).…”

Faculty Teaching and Librarian-Facilitated Assignment Design

“…A forthcoming article in Communications in Information Literacy details the logistics and discusses the advantages and challenges of claiming a space for librarian leadership in assignment design. 6 This paper will present a qualitative exploration of faculty approaches to teaching via interviews with members of our first workshop cohort. What did we as librarians glean from talking about teaching with our faculty in a new way?…”