Lindsey Martin

Meeting the challenges of e-learning:achieving and maintaining an e-ethos in an academic library

ALDP April 2007

Aims and Overview

• Focus upon the strategic approach to embedding e-learning within an academic library service and its maintenance:

• Defining e-learning

• Impact of e-learning on libraries and job roles

• The Edge Hill context

• Role of leadership, strategy and vision

• The strategy in action

• Reviewing the strategy

• Next actions

• ‘Any technologically mediated learning using computers, whether in a face-to-face classroom setting or from distance learning’

(University of South Dakota)

Defining e-learning

• Early initiatives not led by librarians

• Largely focused at short-term, local project level

• But offering new opportunities for collaboration across services

• Evidence of increasing involvement in technical support, learner support, discovery & embedding of e-resources, instructional design and e-tutoring

• Impacting on roles across the library – subject librarian, front-line support, collections

Impact of e-learning on libraries and job roles

Role of leadership, strategy & vision

• Organisational readiness for e-learning requires leadership that visibly values and encourages learning

• Dean and senior management team’s vision was to engender an e-ethos that enthuses and equips staff at all levels with necessary skills

• Central is embedding e-learning opportunities within the staff development programme and within everyday working practices of all staff

• Staff would develop their roles where appropriate

• Purpose is the benefit of learners who have access to skilled and knowledgeable support staff at point of need

• Staff development is consciously planned• Inclusive approach - staff at all levels• Introduce e-learning from day 1

• Future needs are identified• Performance review and communication channels• Through restructuring, changing roles and teams

• Providing a baseline of knowledge and skills for all staff• ProVIDE (staff induction and information base)• Supporting Online Learning (4 week online module)

• Beyond the baseline• Customer Care module for all staff• Other staff development opportunities dependent on job role• Experiential learning through small project work

The strategy in action

The Baseline: ProVIDE

The Baseline: Supporting Online Learning

• Staff enthusiasm for e-learning has diminished

• Engagement with e-learning is inhibited by lack of understanding of the demands of e-environment

• Completion rates reduced

• Online products and process remained the same

• Hypothesis: there is a gap between the rhetoric around the e-ethos and the reality for staff across the service

• Action research would enable me to explore this gap and determine how rhetoric and reality might become more closely aligned

Reviewing the strategy

• Review of past e-learning modules and staff development activities

• Qualitative and quantitative data from WebCT use

• Module evaluations and completed portfolios

• Questionnaire to elicit attitudes to e-learning, personal skills assessment and their view of where e-learning sits in relation to job role

• Reflecting on my delivery of an online module

• Maintaining a reflective journal of my experiences during the reconnaissance

Reconnaissance

• Our vision of an e-ethos is unpublished – there is no continuing point of reference

• Supporting material e.g. pre-module information has not been treated as part of the learning process

• Staff perceive e-learning as less effective than face to face

• Little marketing of e-learning staff development

• Baseline skills for e-learning had not been defined

• E-skills and competences for specific roles have not been identified

• Staff complained of lack of time to complete online modules

• Staff report lack of opportunities to follow up what was learned

• Line managers and supervisors not engaging with the notion of e-ethos

Findings

• Marketing and communication: publishing and promoting the vision

• Audio/video/print of vision for ProVIDE

• Review all pre-module communications focusing on value rather than content

• Newsletter for staff

• Face-to-face awareness-raising sessions to explore and improve perceptions

• Marketing to be a rolling programme targeted to various stakeholders

Actions identified: theme 1

• Articulating and communicating e-skills and competencies

• Baseline competencies tested and refined

• Front-line staff competencies tested and refined

• Consultation process prior to implementation

Actions identified: theme 2

• Management issues around e-learning

• Promote value of e-learning to line managers and supervisors

• Senior management to communicate their expectations concerning the promotion of an e-ethos and how staff participating should be supported

• Review locations available for staff to undertake e-staff development

Actions identified: theme 3

• The role of leadership, strategy and vision is essential for cultural change

• Over time sustainability of an e-ethos may wane

• Requires continuing communication of the vision and senior management’s expectations around engagement with e-learning

• Continuing promotion of the value of e-learning is crucial

• Action research can be ‘messy’ but provides a richer insight than evaluation alone

Lessons learned

• Lindsey Martin• Information & Research Co-ordinator (Arts & Sciences)• Learning Services• Edge Hill University• United Kingdom

• martinl@edgehill.ac.uk

Contact