Modern-Day Expats

U.S. Professionals Working Abroad

An Information Literacy Training Approach

Agenda

• Expats User Group:– Key Traits – Information Needs

• Training Approach:– Key Skills Needed– Lesson Plan – Activities for Different Learning Styles

• Skills & Competencies Rubric • Other Resources

Expats – Key Traits

• Expats: U.S. professionals who are living and working abroad for a work assignment in another country

Tech - savvy Eager for information Experiencing a change in their life, need help managing the change May be experiencing feelings of anxiety or nervousness Key information sources: employer and other expats

See Blassingame, 2003; Peppas, 2004; and Meijer et al, 2012 in the bibliography for more background traits.

Expats – Information Needs

See Peppas, 2004; and Meijer et al, 2012 for more details.

Country & Culture Topics

Political, Econ,

Business

Safety & Security

Language Customs Etiquette

Visa / Work

Permits

Health Services

Leisure activities

Training Approach – Key Skills

1. Ability to research (search, find) and apply information on a range of topics, with different levels of complexity, using resources available

2. Ability to produce and share information, using one or more online communication tools, to keep in contact with friends and family back home

A lesson plan was developed to address two key skill areas for information literacy for U.S. expats:

Training Approach – Lesson Plan

A workshop was developed to reach these learning outcomes:

Gain Understanding Apply Learning

• Resources available to U.S. expats working abroad

• Technologies, mediums, formats of online communication tools available

• Ability to search and use the resources to complete pre-departure tasks

• Ability to create and post to a personalized instance of an online communication tool (such as a personal blog or web page)

See Lesson Plan for more details.

Training Approach – Activities & Learning Styles

Activity What If What How Why

Lecture Brainstorming Create Blog/Site Testimonials

Activity Attention Relevance Confidence SatisfactionIntro – Map & Name Tags

Pre-Departure Demo Class Discussions

McCarthy’s Four Learning Styles

Keller’s (as described by Small) ARCS Model

Skills & Competencies Rubric

Skill to be Assessed Beginner Intermediate AdvancedKnowledge gained about information resources for expats

• Identifies resources from employer

• Identifies resources provided externally (websites, blogs, etc.)

• Ability to teach others about all types of resources available

Ability to search and use/apply knowledge & resources to complete pre-departure tasks

• Signs up for simple alerts & notifications by email, identifies key greetings in local language

• Searches medium complexity information resources to identify required inputs for preparation tasks (i.e. list of health vaccines)

• Navigates complex information resources; identifies inputs & outputs for multi-step processes from those resources, and completes complex tasks (i.e. visa / work permit process)

Familiarity with online communication tools

• Identifies a list of online communication tool options

• Describes format/medium and technology for one or two online communication tools

• Describes format/medium, technology, & differences & similarities between blogs, websites, Twitter, & other social networking/online comm tools

Ability to create and post to a personalized instance of an online communication tool

• Writes a posting and upload post (and/or photos) to Facebook

• Creates a Wordpress online blog (incl. layout, design, and posting)

• Creates webpage (incl. design, layout); links photos, video, & other URLs to webpage; sets up RSS feeds to stream postings

Other Resources

• See the website for these additional resources:– An evaluation/assessment guide for instructor and survey

for attendees– Skills & competencies rubric handout– Lesson Plan (for activity examples)– A bibliography with a list of sources

• http://moderndayexpat.wordpress.com/