#ALISE2018 : Innovative Pedagogies SIG

Expanding LIS Education Universe

Suliman Hawamdeh, Univ. of North Texas 

We are anxious about new things and how to incorporate those things into our pedagogy.

He connects data science with knowledge management and LIS.

Challenges facing LIS programs

• Declining enrollment
• Outdated curriculum
• Changing market and workplace
• Technological changes
• Changing roles, tasks and functions of the traditional LIS profession
• Competing discipline (data science, data analytics, knowledge management, etc.)

Expanding curriculum:

• Expanding roles and responsibilities
• Collaboration across disciplines
• Collaboration across areas of expertise
• Emerging competing professions 
• Growth necessitate change 
• Digitization, curation, and sustainability of the digital world 
• Innovative Pedagogies - teachers as facilitators 

The information profession - Rethinking DIKW

Master of Data Science at UNT

Designed to meet the rising need...

Check their web site for a list of core courses and electives.

Expanding thr Creative Side of the LIS Education through Acts-Informed Visual Research 
Anh Thu Nguyen - University of Toronto, hanhthu.nguyen@mail.utoronto.ca

INFI 300 (Foundations) was a mandatory course, but is now an elective.

Students do a visual research project using a draw-and-write technique. (LibSquares)  This follows the idea of the iSquares project. (ISquares.info)

Students learn to conduct original research.

In the end,students can choose to do a paper or a creative arts deliverable (paintings, sculpture, music, etc.). Students write an artist’s statement with the deliverable.  Students also learn to showcase and display their work.

There is an article on this in JELIS.

There is also a traveling exhibit.

Question: if students draw an information professional, would the drawing be different than a librarian?

Deborah Hicks, University of Alberta, Deborah.hicks@ualberta.ca (a continuation of the same topic)

Image and Identity 

Librarians have been concerns about stereotypes since the early 1900s.

Identity Discourses of Librarianship

Image versus identity

Image is how others see librarians

Identity is how librarians see themselves

Professional Identity - five discourses

• Advocacy
• Services
• Insider-outsider
• Professionalism
• Change 

Practical and pedagogical responses

• Counter stereotypes through actions
• Interrogate and reflect on emerging professional identities
• Critical approaches to LIS

Consider having students draw what they believe librarians so and then have them reflect on the difference between the drawing and what they have said about librarians.  For example, did a student say that librarians are involved in technology, but the person drew a person surrounded by books?

From MLIS to MI: Changing a Program to Expand Community and Opportunity.
Lilia Pavlovsky, Rutgers University 

Her school has over 3000 students (School of Communication of Information)

The MLIS is a medium fish in a big pond.

The MLIS

Declining enrollment

Changing job market

Technological change

Call from faculty for new program

They formed a task force in 2013. Final report in April 2014.

• Job market analysis
• Stakeholder analyse
• Curriculum review
• Competitor analysis
• Internal assessment of student community

Undergraduate students were not coming into the MLIS program because of the program name and image.

Key decision points

Flexibility

Inclusiveness

Relevant to broader info landscapes

Collaborative

Maintain core LIS values

They decided not to create a second degree program but to renovate the current degree.  It became the Master of Information (MI).  At Rutgers, you cannot change the curriculum when you change the name. Official state in fall 2015.

MI structure

4 foundation courses - 2 of 4 must be taken

1 technology requirements

3 zero credit courses

7 concentrations - electives

Opened up many more options for students

Notion of curriculum as product

Reorganization  of current assets 

Creation of integrated program that leveraged expertise.  Collaborative.

They now have a dual degree pathway with the undergraduate degree.

Currently 10-20 applicants per semester.

Outcomes:

• Enrollment has gone up. 130% growth.
• Marketing became clearer.
• Diversity in student population.
• More professionals in the program.
• More international students.
• Curriculum became cleaner.
• LIS traditional still the anchor store and a vibrant community.
• Clarity of identity.

Key lessons learned:

• Program improvement never ends.
• Change is the new normal.
• Innovation as practice.
• Complacency should be questioned!
• Review of markets ongoing.
• Assessment/evaluation.

The curriculum committee had 10 people. They met sometimes several times per month.  

In terms of manpower, some of the work was done on-load.  Some course revisions were done with buyouts or additional pay. They had practitioners help redesign courses.  They used adjuncts to fill-in teaching slots.

They see no problems with their upcoming ALA accreditation review.

They communicated frequently with their alumni, and included data.

Comment: Make as many changes in the current structure as possible, then change the formal structure to match it.

Most of Rutgers programs are 100% online and 100% on campus.

Edited for types and reformatted: Feb. 11, 2018