MLA CE Institute: Developing Web-Based Instruction
Submitted by Carol Scherrer, Midwest Chapter Member
Library of the Health Sciences, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL
Three librarians from the Midwest Chapter - Tammy Mays from the Greater Midwest Region, Carol Scherrer from University of Illinois, Chicago, and Linda Walton from Northwestern University - were fortunate enough to participate in the MLA CE Institute: Developing Web-Based Instruction sponsored by the Medical Library Association and the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM), Greater Midwest Region (GMR) during the week of March 12-17, 2006 in Chicago. The purpose of the institute was for the participants to learn to apply instructional design principles and practices in order to convert traditional face-to-face continuing education classes into learner-centered online courses.
Four exuberant, knowledgeable, and personable instructors conducted the class: Mingsheng Dai, Scott Garrison, Alicia Haley, and Tiffany Hebb. The days were stimulating, but exhausting for those of us not used to sitting and learning for eight consecutive hours. The first day we concentrated on creating a good working environment for the adult learner with an emphasis on online teaching, learning, and instruction design – an important foundation for designing effective classes.The second day took a more practical approach with its emphasis on student learning outcomes and creating good assignments. By day three, everyone was becoming more familiar with the course shell they would be using (moodle, Blackboard, etc.) and beginning to create content. The subject matter of day four, evaluation tools, was interspersed with lab time during which we worked on our individual courses. Sharing the classes we had begun to create was the highlight of day five when we each learned from observing the individual ways we had incorporated what we had learned into our class.
All the participants have agreed to have their classes completed within six months of the Institute, so keep your eye out for these new online MLA CE courses:
- A Holistic Approach to Health Sciences Collection Development
- An Evidence-Based Approach to Complementary and Alternative Medicine
- Basics of Electronic Document Delivery
- Caring for the Mind: Providing Reference Services for Mental Health Information
- Collection Development for Health Sciences Libraries Workshop
- Evidence-Based Information Service Delivery: Oh Librarian, Where Art Thou?
- Evidence-Based Librarianship
- From Snake Oil to Penicillin: Evaluating Consumer Health Information on the Internet
- Incorporating Informatics into the Curriculum
- NLM Gateway
- No Comprende?: Spanish Health Information for English Speaking Librarians
- Nursing on the Net: Health Care Resources You Can Use
- Planning & Managing the Consumer Health Library
- Prescription for Success: Consumer Health Information on the Internet
- Public Health Information on the Web
- Surveys Made Easy
- Thinking Like an MBA: Time, Money, Resources and Change Management in the Library
- The Changing Nature of Providing Reference/Information Services
- Understanding Meta-analysis
For more information on the MLA CE Institute and a photo of the course participants visit the website: http://www.mlanet.org/education/institute/.
Reprinted from MIDLINE: the Newsletter of the Midwest Chapter / Medical Library Association, No. 103, Spring 2006, http://midwestmla.org/midline/Midline103.html#MLA-CE. [Newsletter title corrected 07 August 2006.]
