WISE Pedagogy Update
On Tuesday January 20, 2009, WISE Pedagogy held a half-day
face-to-face workshop at the Association for Library and
Information Science Education (ALISE) conference in Denver,
Colorado. Anne McKinney and Linda Smith led the planning for
this workshop, during which the recipients of the 2008 WISE
Excellence in Online Education Awards were recognized. The third
annual workshop, Community in Online Learning: Preparing WISE
Scholars, drew a diverse crowd of nearly 50 faculty members and
doctoral students from LIS programs around the world. Overall,
the workshop created brilliant discussion and enthusiastic
interest in online pedagogy.
The meeting breaks to watch the Presidential inauguration.
When we began planning the ALISE workshop last summer, we
were unaware that the time slot would overlap the historic U.S.
presidential inauguration of Barack Obama. Fortunately, we were
able to adjust our scheduling to allow for a break, during which
time we broadcasted coverage via CNN’s live online feed. We are
truly living in an age when technology makes many things
possible! Our workshop room filled to standing-room only as
other conference-goers came in to watch the coverage with us. We
did not merely make time for a news event, but shared in a
cultural memory.
WISE online pedagogical training has enjoyed continued
success, with 137 participants taking part in Moodle workshops
from summer 2007 through fall 2008. In January 2009, WISE
launched a free, on-demand online training workshop designed for
faculty and doctoral students in library and information science
with little or no experience teaching online who wish to develop
their skills in teaching online courses. A component of this
workshop includes a series of ongoing forums addressing topics
in online pedagogy; these forums are open to both participants
new to distance learning and more experienced instructors who
are interested in continuing their education in the field. Check
out the
WISE on-demand
pedagogy workshop for more details.
Updates and additions to the WISE pedagogy website,
www.wisepedagogy.org, are ongoing. The site features
resources from both the online and face-to-face workshops, best
practices compiled from the recipients of the WISE Awards for
Excellence in Online Education, and links to other online
education associations and consortia websites. Also included on
the website are direct links to the WISE discussion forums and a
new
WISE Pedagogy blog.
WISE Recognizes Outstanding Faculty
WISE is proud to announce the recipients of the 2008 WISE
Excellence in Online Education Awards.
2008 Excellence in Online Education Award Recipients:
Linda Braun – Simmons College
Ellen Detlefsen – University of Pittsburgh
Shirley Giggey – University of British Columbia
Meredith Farkas – San Jose State University
Bernadette Callery – University of Pittsburgh
Terry Bennett – University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Mary Kay Biagini – University of Pittsburgh
Faculty selected for the award received nominations from one
or more WISE students at an institution other than the
instructor’s home institution, based on their instructional
style in one or more WISE courses taught between Spring 2008 and
Fall 2008.
“The Excellence in Online Teaching Awards are unique because
they are the first awards where students from one program vote
on a teaching award for faculty at a different university,” says
Syracuse University Associate Provost Bruce Kingma, who
co-founded the consortium. “Cross-institutional initiatives like
this show the growth of WISE as a consortium and provide a forum
for the faculty winners to share success stories across all of
the member institutions.”
The WISE Excellence in Online Education Awards were presented
at the WISE pedagogical workshop at ALISE, Community in Online
Learning: Preparing WISE Scholars. Award recipients have
contributed their own ideas for best practices on topics like
organization, communication, and use of multimedia formats.
These
best practices were shared as part of the annual workshop,
which took place on January 20, 2009 at the Grand Hyatt Denver.
The session also included presentations and discussions on
student communication technologies beyond the course management
system, building learning communities, and preparing students
for successful careers.
WISE+ Grant Winds Down; Partnerships Continue
This summer, as the WISE+ grant comes to close this summer,
the professional association partnership initiative is still
going strong. With generous support from the Institute of Museum
and Library Services, as of summer 2009 WISE schools will have
partnered with fifteen unique LIS organizations to develop and
offer specialized courses suitable for graduate and continuing
professional education since 2006. As of spring 2009, 75 WISE
students and 47 professional association members have
participated in these courses, in addition to 192 students from
the host institutions. Four of these courses have been added to
normalized program schedules; they will continue to benefit
students long after the WISE+ grant concludes. In summer 2009,
five new WISE+ courses and two repeat offerings will be
available for students of the WISE Consortium and professional
organization members.
WISE co-founders Linda Smith (University of Ilinois at
Urbana-Chamaign) and Bruce Kingma (Syracuse University) are
pleased with the contribution the WISE+ Initiative has made to
the LIS field. Smith notes “WISE+ has been successful in
extending the WISE course sharing model in two ways. WISE+
courses meet the needs of both degree-seeking students and
practitioners seeking continuing professional development; and
WISE+ course partnerships include professional associations in
addition to higher education institutions. The experience gained
through development and delivery of WISE+ courses will provide a
foundation for ongoing collaborations between LIS schools and a
variety of LIS professional associations.”
Kingma expands upon the benefit of strengthened partnerships
among LIS graduate programs and professional organizations,
commenting on the increased diversity of available specialized
LIS courses resulting from the initiative, “LIS graduate
students will benefit from new online courses in Theological
Librarianship, Latin American Library Resources, and
International Librarianship, among other courses for specialized
populations.
WISE+ participants are impressed by the ability of faculty to
meet the needs of graduate students as well as practicing
professionals with a single course. Students note that “courses
are extremely well designed, and cover all aspects of the
profession, presented from multiple points of view.” WISE+
encourages networking and sharing of experience among a faculty
subject specialist, experienced practitioners, and future
members of the profession. The result is a dynamic virtual
classroom where professionals are energized to innovate in their
chosen field, and students are introduced to specialties in a
welcoming and informative environment.
A summary of the initiative, including partnership models,
best practices for cooperative education, and a complete
overview of the courses developed by WISE+ will be available on
the WISE
website at the completion of
the grant. WISE will continue to seek collaborative
opportunities for member schools and partner associations,
leveraging the power of the online network to better educate the LIS field.
