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LAMS, e-learning & Information Literacy: possibilities &

practicalities

Margaret Wright, Macquarie UniversityHeather Cooper, University of the Sunshine Coast

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What is LAMS?

LAMS is a new tool for designing, managing and delivering online collaborative learning activities. It provides teachers with a highly intuitive visual

authoringenvironment for creating sequences of learning activities. These activities can include a range of individual tasks, small group work and whole class activities based on both content and collaboration.

Source: http://lamsinternational.com/CD/

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LAMS also…

• Purpose built for online teaching

• Supports student-centered learning

• Enables sustainability through sharing and reuse of sequences of learning activities

• Provides strong support & ongoing product development

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Teaching Information Skills in EDUC261

Previous practice and outcomes• Practice

– Teacher-centered approach - focused on covering content & practicing skills

• Outcomes– Limited opportunity for student collaboration– Low levels of student contribution in class

<15%– Limited student engagement in the learning

process

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Our objectives in using LAMS

1. Explore the potential of LAMS as a tool to teach information skills

2. Assess the implications for libraries and librarians in using LAMS

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EDUC261 LAMS tutorial

Aim That students build a collective knowledge and understanding of the planning phase of the research process

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Designing the LAMS sequence

Objective• Develop a sequence that encouraged students to use

higher orderlearning processes and engage in “deep learning”

Supported by learning activities that:• ensured active participation and student engagement• facilitated collaboration • developed critical analysis, critical thinking and reflection

Supported by assessment activities that:• were relevant to the learning

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LAMS sequence design – author view

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Monitoring student progress

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Student evaluations

Collaborative activities

…loved the forum activity where people gave opinions and it gave me definite/crucial point of view on how to do research…

The most useful thing I guess was that this is a good way to actually learn, you view info and are able to discuss your view with others…

I

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Student evaluations

Instructions

For most students the instructions were clear and well structured The instructions overall were clear and well structured. The activities were good especially the outside sources such as the encyclopedia

A few students indicated that they were a little bit lost at times …it took me (for) a while to understand (the) what the sequence

is all about.

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Student evaluations

Timing and content

Many students commented that the content was just rightOverall it was a good, clear lesson, without any redundant or irrelevant information given.

I appreciated the ability of the sequence to actually give you appropriate skill without immersing you in “nice to know” information – it “cuts to the chase”.

A few disagreed…the amount of info to digest is too much in the space of 1

hour.

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Student evaluations

Accessibility

A number of students commented on accessibility Most meaningful thing I learned was the importance of accessibility for all students – ie the encyclopedia site was frustrating and caused a block in the middle of the learning/research process. Other things were forgotten and the focus became jus(t) getting into the site.

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Outcomes

• Despite the fact that some students did not have a good grasp of LAMS and were at different phases of their learning the sequence achieved the objective of engaging them in building a collective knowledge

• What we were trying to achieve was difficult but was a success in that students were able to participate in each step of the sequence

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Critical elements to success

• Ability to navigate LAMS effectively • Aims & objectives linked to curriculum outcomes• Clear & explicit aims & objectives• Clear & explicit instructions• Descriptive sequence titles to enable navigation• Uninterrupted access to external resources• Appropriate use of colours and fonts• Appropriate match of tool & activity• Effective sequencing of activities

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Conclusions

LAMS design and flexibility:• supports embedding Information

Literacy into the context of the learning experience

• facilitates student engagement• enables a sustainable IL solution

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Implications for libraries and librarians

New skill sets for librarians• LAMS program • Learning design - principles and practice

New ways of working• Partnerships and collaboration

Resourcing• Training and development• Staffing

Library resources and LAMS• Adaptability and Compatibility

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Final thoughts• Limited research has been undertaken

by the library community into the use of LAMS to teach Information Skills

• Further research and testing of LAMS is required to determine its full potential and application in teaching Information Skills