Hi Diana
I have a question about Day 10 Exercise- Creatinf Training course schedule.
Are we completing the TS for the 'Cutting-edge internet search techniques' or for 'Finding the evidence'. I ask because the latter is the heading on the TS to be completed. Thanks, Marjory

Hi Diana, So far I am not sure of the level of scholarship expected and preferred referencing style.
Cheers, Claire

Hi Marjory, Thanks for your posting and sorry for this error- Finding the evidence should not have been there.You need to complete the worksheet for the stated "Cutting-edge internet search techniques" If you want to delete where it says "Finding the Evidence" and in its place put "Cutting-edge internet search techniques" that would be great. Bye for now, Diana

Hi Claire, Thanks for your posting. We don't really ask you to reference in a particular style; often people don't include references in their assignments/portfolio. However, using any sources (either provided on the InfoSkills course by the FOLIO team or found by yourself) will certainly score you points when we assess your portfolio on the “Use of sources” section. In terms of the level of work, take a look at http://foliozinfoskills.pbwiki.com/f/groupsupportassessment.doc for a clear idea about how we assess the portfolios and assignment. So, I would say use whatever referencing style you wish as long as it is clear and consistent (we’re not fussy about whether it’s Harvard, Vancouver or something else!) Hope that helps, Diana

Hi Diana, I was wondering what is expected in the way of explanation about our choices of group, course, delivery etc. Is it as simple as doing it a certain way because of the facilities, funding, time available?
thank you, Margaret

Hi Diana, I'm still a bit unclear about writing the 'aim' for my course. Objectives allow you to list the specific topics covered but an Aim needs to be more general doesn't it. Can you give me an example? Also what are the main differences between an objective and an outcome? Thanks, Bernie

Sorry Diana, I didn't login with my name and email address before. Thats me above-Bernadette Royal. Thank you, Bernie

Hi Margaret.

Thanks for your message, it’s a very useful comment. The ideas you have come up with are definitely valid and are all points that need to be considered for any training course.
Other factors that may play a part in your choices may be personal to you. For e.g. if you are using the assignment to design a course you are wishing to implement in your workplace (as opposed to a hypothetical course-which is still a valid choice for your assignment), you may already have the reasons for your choices. For e.g. if you have identified a group of people that could benefit from your training course, a group of people e.g. students have actually requested that you create such a course.

Again in terms of the course you wish to create, is there a specific need you or your library users have identified (anecdotally or perhaps by a library customer service satisfaction questionnaire), does an existing course need an overhaul?

In terms of the delivery method, you are quite correct to point out resources and facilities. The topic of your training course could affect the delivery as well as the demand for the training. For e.g. for a Library induction- in may be entirely appropriate to run this a large-group session for e.g. at the intake of a new group of students or staff. Critical appraisal training tends to work better in small groups, as it’s easier to facilitate group discussion. A literature searching training course may work better in a group in order to facilitate practical exercises but could work equally well as a one-to-one tutorial.

More generally, the Day 8 Designing Information skills training courses briefing gives you a list of advantages and disadvantages you could apply to your Part 1 assignment. http://foliozinfoskills.pbwiki.com/f/Day8_infoskills.doc

Sorry this is a very long answer but I hope it has given you some clarity! Please contact me again if not. Bye for now, Diana

Hi Bernie, Many thanks for your message. The Aim and Objective can be a bit confusing! But your descriptions of the Aim and Objectives are spot on. To look at some examples of aims, objectives and learning outcomes, revisit the Day 7 PowerPoint presentation at http://foliozinfoskills.pbwiki.com/f/Infoskills_day7.ppt

In answer to your last question, objectives are specific activities that will be DONE on the course not what will be LEARNT. Learning objectives are what the student will have learnt and achieved by the end of the course. For e.g.
Objective: Participants will be familiar with the main databases to carry out a literature search
Learning outcome: Participants will be able to develop their own search strategy for their research topic of choice.
So in the sample above, the objective is something that is being explored in the training course itself, the learning outcome is something that the student can go away and perform for themselves as a result of attending the training session. Bye for now, Diana

Hi. Regarding the schedule for our class/es, the examples indicate we should plan for no more than one full day class or two half day classes. Given the situation at my library, I am only able to give one 60min class - student timetabling commitments prevent more. Will this suffice for assignment purposes?

I've made my aims multi-faceted, but wonder if I need to be more generic. i.e. I have a couple of aims but don't wish to put them all into one big long sentence, so have made dot points from them. Is this acceptable?

Hi. What thoughts are there on online instruction? An aspect of this course that particularly took my interest was the online delivery in which it is presented. I have been looking at various online methods (such as 'Wink' for remote demonstrations) in recent months and was wondering whether they can be included in this assignment or later in the course. This similarly links into Sarah's query about brief training sessions to suit our client's busy schedules. I am also interested in your comments in reply to others' queries regarding time and resources limitations for our students. Thanks, Laura.

Hi Sarah, This is entirely acceptable as you have to factor in the time you have for training and the resources available. Even a 60-minute training session needs planning down to a tee! And it can sometimes be harder to organise as there’s so much knowledge you’d like to pass on to your students but a lack of time to do so. Whereas for a day or half day course, you’d be creating a schedule for items you’ll cover every hour or so, your training schedule will be broken down into perhaps 10-minute slots or there-about. So as long as your training schedule shows how you’ve planned the 60-minute session in this manner, (for e.g. how long the intro to your course will be, how much time may be given for practical exercises etc) that’s fine. And I think this will give other InfoSkills participants a different type of training course to look at when I create the gallery of courses later on. Please make a note in your portfolio to say that I agreed to the 60-minute training sessions for your assignment (so that whoever marks your portfolio at the end of the course is aware). Thanks, Diana

Hi Beth, It’s really hard to come up with a general aim for a course and I find the objectives much easier; as you say you can create a list of bullet points. However, it would be better to have a general aim in the form of one or two sentences. If you look at the Day 7 PowerPoint (http://foliozinfoskills.pbwiki.com/f/Infoskills_day7.ppt), this may give you an idea for your aim (we’ve listed some examples). If you’re still stuck, email me at efolio@sheffield.ac.uk with your bullet points and I’m happy to take a look. Bye for now, Diana

Hi Laura, It’s tricky when you have limited time and resources and of course these have to be taken into account. There’s no point in creating a training course that you can’t feasibly deliver! And I’m quite keen for you to be able to design a course for the assignment that you can actually go away and deliver at your place of work if you so wish. For that reason, I’d be happy for you to incorporate an online element/or create an online course- bearing in mind that it might be a bit trickier to do so. The hardest part I would think is in developing the course training schedule but if you anticipate how long you think it might take your course participants to complete parts of the online course that’s fine. For e.g., we say at FOLIO that we anticipate it will take 2-4 hours/week to create a good portfolio. You could take this further by spelling out how long it would take for your course participants to read each individual component of your course or carry out any exercises associated with it. As this course doesn’t deal with online courses, there are no sources/references listed in the course material. In fact, you may be interested to know that we have another FOLIO course that is focused on the topic of e-learning. I’m not sure at present if the course is scheduled to run in Australia. Please make a note in your portfolio to say that I agreed to you incorporating online training sessions for your assignment (so that whoever marks your portfolio at the end of the course is aware). Thanks, Diana

HI Diana;
I have two questions
1. I have just noticed as part of assignment 1 that we must provide details of how we will evaluate and benchmark our training course. Could you please tell me where we have covered this? I can not find any notes on this section.

2. In the assignment, in my course schedule I have stated that for one of the activities that students will answer questions on a worksheet- Do I need to mock up this worksheet? Like wise I am using a powerpoint demonstration- do I need to create this and include? Just not sure how much detail for the delivery methods is required.

Cheers
Nadine

Hi Nadine,

Please see http://foliozinfoskills.pbwiki.com/f/Part1_Assignment.doc for details of how to fulfil Part 1 of the assignment. At first this document gives an
overview of what content is expected for the whole assignment. However, for
Part 1 of the assignment (due 27th April), we are only expecting:
• A title for your course
• Aims, objectives and learning outcomes
• A course schedule including the delivery methods for your course (please
limit your course to a maximum of one full day or two half-day sessions)

It is not until Part 2 of the Assignment when we expect you to provide details
of benchmarking the course (amongst other things) and this material will be
delivered in Week 5 and Week 6 of the course.

It is not necessary to mock-up your course materials as part of the assignment.
(Part 2 of the assignment is available at http://foliozinfoskills.pbwiki.com/f/Part2_Assignment.doc in case you wish to look at this). Part 2 of the assignment is not due until 25th May.
However, if you wish to mock up such material and include this you could do and you wouldn’t be penalised for it. Obviously this is extra work but feedback could be given on these materials. Hope this helps, Diana

Hi Diana,

Could you please clarify if Part One of the assignment need only be given to my buddy for assessment and then we exchange feedback by 4th May? If this is so, is it right to assume that the FOLIO Team does not actually get to see our completed assignments until the end of the course (ie when copied and pasted into our portfolios and submitted at teh end of May?).

Also my buddy is going on holidays 30 April (away for a week)and will not be back to give me back my assessment of Part One of the assessment (4th May) - is there a problem with this? or is it ok to wait till she returns from her vacation?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards,

Ruby Lindberg

Hi Diana
I am in a similar position as Sarah, from last weeks comments re the duration of the course. I would like to limit my session to 2 hours as I have found it is very difficult to get busy clinical staff to attend, let alone for half a day, so the shorter the better. I found even with 2 hours some make apologies and have to leave early.
regards, Marjory

Hi Diana,
I would also like to only do a hour presentation as this is reality for us for the type of class I am planning on presenting. I am really hoping that the class I plan as my assignment will be ready to go for use in my work environment. Can you please let me know if this is going to be acceptable.
ShirleyAnn

Hi Ruby
Thanks for your query regarding the assignment. You are right in thinking that Part One needs to be sent to your buddy for feedback (we will ask you to do this on Day 20 – Friday 27th April). The idea is that your buddy will feedback to you by 4th May and then you will have chance to amend Part One of your assignment in light of your buddy’s comments and then send it to us. We are then going to compile a “gallery” containing the course participants’ work on Part One. There is no official deadline for submitting Part One to us, so if your buddy is unable to feedback by 4th May that is fine, but we would advise that the two of you complete this work as soon as is possible. When you submit Part One to us, this is for publication in the gallery only, we will not be providing any assessment or feedback at this point, Part One will be assessed along with your other work when you submit your portfolio at the end of the course. I hope this answers your questions. If you need any further clarification at all, please email us at: efolio@sheffield.ac.uk.
Best wishes from The FOLIO team

Hi Marjory
Thank you for your query regarding the assignment. In answer to your question, yes we are happy for you to plan a 2-hour course if that is what will be most useful to you. As in our reply to Sarah above, you will just need to make sure that you outline in detail how that 2 hours will be made up – for example by breaking the course down into 10 or 15-minute slots. Also, please note in your portfolio that you have confirmed this with us so that whoever marks your portfolio is aware of the situation. Let us know if you have any further queries on this at all.
Best wishes from the FOLIO Team.

Hi ShirleyAnn
Thank you for your query. This is to confirm that yes, we would be happy for you to plan a 1-hour training course for your assignment if this is what is going to be of most use to you in the future. You just need to make sure that you cover in detail how that hour will be made up – e.g. by breaking the session down into 10-minute chunks and describing what will happen in each of these. Please see our response to Sarah Evans above for further detail. Also, please make sure you note in your portfolio that we have confirmed this just so that whoever marks your portfolio is aware. Hope this helps.
Best wishes from the FOLIO Team.

Hi Diana, I just want to clarify that we are only sending Part 1 of the assignment to one of our buddies tomorrow? Do we just work out amongst ourselves who will swap etc? Then after feedback we copy it into our folio and submit it altogether on the 25th May? Is that correct? Thank you, Bernie

Hi Bernie
Thanks for your question. You have got everything absolutely right. Tomorrow (Friday 27th April), you will send Part One of your assignment to one of your buddies – you will decide as a group who is sending to who. Your buddy will send you feedback by the 4th May. You will then have time to revise Part One in light of your buddy’s comments if you wish. We will then ask you to send Part One to us as we are going to compile a “gallery” of all the course participants’ work on Part One. In addition you also need to copy and paste Part One into your portfolio. Please note that the gallery will be for information only, we will not provide any assessment or feedback at this point, your assignment will be assessed along with the rest of your work when you submit your portfolio on 25th May. I hope this clarifies everything for you. Let us know if you have any further questions.
Best wishes from the FOLIO Team.

Hi Diana,
What is the rule of thumb regarding the number and combination of different components or activities that are included in a course?

Hi Margaret.
Thanks for your query. Unfortunately there is no rule of thumb to follow as such, it all depends on many factors such as the course topic, how long you’ve got, who you’re training etc. Keep in mind that you don’t want to overwhelm your students with too many activities and not enough time spent on them but at the same time you need to provide enough variety to keep their interest. We suggest referring back to the relevant briefings: “Designing information skills training courses”, “Choosing the individual components for course delivery: Mini-Briefing” and “Creating training course schedules” to help you. Best wishes from the FOLIO Team.

Hi Diana, Can you please clarify the process for the quiz? Do we send our answers to you prior to them being released on 9 May, or do we just add it to our portfolio?

Thank you, Helen

Hi Helen,
No it's not necessary to send us your quiz answers...we trust that you won't amend your answers in the portfolio when we release the results on the 9th May;-)!! It's just an exercise for you really to test how much you've learnt from the course already so just add your answers to your portfolio. Best wishes, Diana

Hi Diana, I find, upon checking with teaching staff, that the training session I hope to present to the students at our college must be limited to 1 hour. I have completed the Assignment Part 1 using this 1 hour time frame.I noticed that participants were requesting permission to conduct a session of this length, may I also do the same? Thanks, Diane

Hi, I am assuming that we can take Diana's 'permission' to do our assignments on short training sessions as OK for all of us. I have a time limit at my organisation of only 1/2 hour! This seems to be more of a challenge to get anything done in such a short time, than it is to do a full or half day training session. Cheers, Heather

Hi Diane and Heather,

Please go ahead and plan your courses around 1-2 hour sessions as I appreciate limitations of time in your organisations- I'm really keen that your assignments will have a functional purpose in your organisations once the InfoSkills course has finished and it would seem silly to plan a course for the purposes of your assignment that you can't deliver in real-life. As long as you structure your courses in a similar way as you would do for a half-day/day course i.e. splitting your schedule into 5-10 minute blocks and stating what you will cover in each session, that's fine. Please do make a note that I agreed to your individual requests- I am not the only FOLIO team member who is marking your completed portfolios and I wouldn't want you to be penalised when in fact I had agreed for you to do this. NB: A 1 hour time period is the limit for this assignment (any shorter time period than this for your course isn’t acceptable for course assignment purposes). Any problems- please email me directly at efolio@sheffield.ac.uk. Best wishes, Diana