Tag Archives: promoting lists

Eight out of ten top Lists from School of History, Classics, and Archaeology

Univeristy of Ediburgh LogoStudents absolutely love it and are doing more reading because of the ease of access.

Academic staff have requested Resource Lists for their honours courses so that more students can benefit.

In semester one 2014/15, eight out of the ten most active Resource Lists were created and managed by the School of History Classics and Archaeology (HCA).

The move by HCA towards adopting resource lists as a tool began in 2013/14  when the School trialled Resource Lists @ Edinburgh on their British History 1 and Roman World 1B courses.

At the end of the 2013/14 semester the following questionnaire was sent out to the students of British History 1:

‘This year there were online reading lists for the British History 1 essays. How useful did you find these lists?’.

Of the 87 students who responded, the vast majority found the list to be helpful with 45 responding that lists were excellent, 20 that it was very good, and 13 that it was good.

Feedback for Roman World 1B was obtained via a class representative. Sandra Bingham, Senior Teaching Fellow in Classics, advised that the class rep. was full of praise for the system and that “the students absolutely love it and are doing more reading because of the ease of access”.

Following on from the successful trials HCA decided to roll out this library service to as many pre-honours courses as possible in 2014/15. Two interns were hired over summer to assist with creation of their lists. HCA also made use of the interns employed by the wider HSS by submitting additional lists for creation.

Margaret Forrest, Academic Support Librarian for HCA, advises that feedback from staff and students in 2014/15 has again been very positive and several academic staff have requested Resource Lists for their honours courses so that more students can benefit.

Margaret’s response on receiving the news that HCA had eight of the top ten most active lists for semester one?

“I’m delighted!”.

The eight lists from HCA to make the top ten were:

– American History 2 (Semester 1: Tutorial Reading Lists)
– British Society, 1650 – c. 1880 (Social History 1.1) – Tutorial Readings
– British History 1 – Essay Readings 1
– British History 1 – Essay Readings 2
– British Society, 1650-1900 (Social History 1.1) – Essay
– Greek World 1A: Essay Readings
– British Society, 1650 – c. 1880 (Social History 1.1) – Assignment
– Medieval Scottish History – Essay Readings

More information on how to make the most of Resource Lists can be found on the Resource Lists using Talis Aspire webpage and the ResourceLists@Edinburgh Blog.

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Stephanie Farley

Library Learning Services Assistant

Sociology 1A Takes Top Spot

Univeristy of Ediburgh LogoAveraging 67.3 visits per student, Sociology 1A took the top spot for most active Resource List in semester one 2014/15.

We asked course organiser Susie Donnelly how the experience of using Resource Lists @ Edinburgh has benefited the class:

I spent less time this semester dealing with issues to do with access to readings.

Particularly helpful for first year students who are getting to grips with university life.

Students have reported that they are very happy with this tool.

The Resource List has certainly made life a lot easier. Sociology 1A is an extremely large course, with approx. 480 students and the numbers are growing each year. This places a significant demand on us to provide the required material for students in an accessible, reliable and responsive way. The Resource List has helped in this regard and once the list was up and running, I believe I spent less time this semester dealing with issues to do with access to readings.

While the initial set-up took some investment of time and energy, I was supported with training and support from staff in the Library Learning Services.

In the Resource List, students are shown multiple ways to access readings and the interface is very straightforward – this is particularly helpful for first year students who are getting to grips with university life.

As the semester progressed I was able to add new and up-to-date resources and material (rather than being limited by what has been published in the course handbook at the start of the semester). In particular, around the assessment period I was able to respond to requests from students for more academic writing support.

However, I should also mention that the use of these kinds of tools raises questions about independent learning and the extent to which library and research skills are being displaced.

For the moment though, the students have reported that they are very happy with this tool…and if the students are happy then I am happy!

Susie Donnelly – Co-convener of Sociology 1A

More information on how to make the most of Resource Lists can be found on the Resource Lists using Talis Aspire webpage and the ResourceLists@Edinburgh Blog.

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Stephanie Farley

Library Learning Services Assistant

 

What makes a good Resource List?

Univeristy of Ediburgh Logo

The content is important, but what about the style and structure? What about length? Can a list be too long? Or too short? In what ways can a resource list interact and engage with students?

A great feature of Resource Lists @ Edinburgh is the flexibility. We have lists created by academics across the University across a wide variety of schools and subjects, each using resource lists in their own specific way.

CertAVP Equine Dentistry by Sharon Boyd at the Royal Dick Veterinary School

Sharon’s list contains just seven items and provides clear instructions on reading expectations for the class. It also advises where to go find additional abstracts and sources. The Vet Schools’ ‘Instructions for using this Reading List’ is extremely useful and has been adapted by Library Learning Services and is used on many of the lists we create for course organisers.

The sources of knowledge: Understanding and analysing research literature by Dr Peter Allison at the School of Education

Featured as one of our ‘Great Lists’ last year, this continues to be an excellent list. What initially caught our attention was Peter’s note at the top of the list encouraging students to contact the course organiser with any materials that may be particularly useful in particular web pages or YouTube clips. These have been collected towards the bottom of the list in the section ‘Useful Websites’ and, by the number of resources in this section, it looks to have been quite successful in promoting self-study and engagement with students.

Peter also uses the list to encourage skill learning. In ‘Session One’  a resource link is provided to the University Library Catalogue and then in the notes students are directed to search for and locate a specific article. Details are also provided on where to find additional guidance via the information skills module in Learn.  

Social History 2.2 The Making of the Modern Body – History, Classics, and Archaeology

History reading lists tend to be quite large as the format of their lists are to provide a wide range of options from which students are encouraged to self select and prioritise.

To help make this large volume of reading options easier to navigate, Social History 2.2 has been split into three separate lists. One for Lecture and Tutorial readings (226 items), one for the Essay Title readings (141), and one for the Group Project readings (62 items).

 

If you would like to create a resource list but are unsure how to best format a list for your course please get in touch, we’re more than happy to sit down with you and come up with a solution together.

More information on how to make the most of Resource Lists can be found on the Resource Lists using Talis Aspire webpage and the ResourceLists@Edinburgh Blog.

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Stephanie Farley

Library Learning Services Assistant

Edinburgh’s Zombie Resource List is a winner

The University of Edinburgh has won Talis Aspire’s Reading List challenge!

Congratulations to Stephanie (Charlie) Farley creator of the winning list, which beat 26 other entries from across the UK at this week’s Talis User group meeting at the University of Leicester. #taug2014

Do Not Feed the Zombie

Zombie Apocalypse Guide – How to access resources during a zombie outbreak or other event generated quite a buzz, with many other universities keen to use Charlie’s list as an example in their own institution.

Charlie, now infamous for her marketing genius and zombie knowledge, created this list to provide information on accessing e-resources on and off-campus. She used the theme of a zombie apocalypse to brighten up what can be a fairly dull, and often confusing, subject for students.
Many of the items on the list link to existing Library webpages or services, pointing students in the right direction for any help they might need.

The resources (books, articles and webpages) used on the list are intriguing and fun and encourage you to explore the Library’s e-resources: Zombies and mathematical modelling, the epidemiology of a zombie apocalypse……who’d have thunk it??

Of course, there is a serious point to all this, and Charlie has included a lot of informative notes on the list which format well when exported to a PDF file, providing students with a useful and easy to follow guide to accessing e-resources. There is also guidance within the list to show how users (both academic and student) can make the most of Resource Lists features such as notes and read status.

This Resource List is one of the Library Guides which you’ll find on ResourceLists@ Edinburgh (search for ‘ ‘library guides’) : http://resourcelists.ed.ac.uk .

Angela Laurins, Library Learning Services Manager.

Promoting great lists – EDCMOOC

Univeristy of Ediburgh LogoEDCMOOC
Created by Jeremy Knox
Moray House School of Education

 

Jeremy created this resource list to complement the University of Edinburgh MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), E-Learning and Digital Cultures.  To our knowledge this list was one of the first, if not the first use of Talis Aspire for a MOOC.

We love the way that Jeremy has combined the use of Pages to include extended explanations and discussions around the resources! He has also made great use of Talis Aspire’s ability to embed YouTube clips.  The list is clearly structured by the four weeks of the MOOC, each week containing a Page with four embedded YouTube clips including information and discussion prompts for each of the clips.

My favourite of the included YouTube clips is Film 1:  Bendito Machine III on the Popular Cultures Page for Week 1: Looking to the past.

In addition to this, Jeremy has used Student Notes to provide substantial commentary on each of his resources. The notes make very clear what is the purpose of each resource and are written in a lively conversational tone. He has also used this space to pose questions and promote thought and discussion among participants of his MOOC.

Although we don’t have access to the exact student numbers for this MOOC, according to the Dashboard this list was successfully viewed 1266 times with 161 total clicks. A very successful list!

If you are interested in creating your own Resource List more information is available on the Resource Lists using Talis Aspire webpage and the ResourceLists@Edinburgh Blog.

We are also running ‘Hands-on’ introductory sessions to Resource Lists @ Edinburgh this June & July. Sessions are bookable via MyEd.


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Stephanie Farley

Library Learning Services Assistant

Promoting great lists

Univeristy of Ediburgh LogoThe sources of knowledge: Understanding and analysing research literature [SV1-FLEX] 
Created by Dr Peter Allison FRGS
Senior Lecturer Values and Experiential Learning / Depute Director of Postgraduate Studies

What initially caught our attention about Peter’s list was his note at the top encouraging students to contact the course organiser with any materials that may be particularly useful for inclusion with the list, in particular web pages or YouTube clips. These have been collected towards the bottom of the list in the section ‘Useful Websites’ and, by the number of resources in this section, it looks to have been quite successful in promoting self-study and engagement with students.

Another way Peter’s list has encouraged skills learning is his use of resources. In the section ‘Session One’ instead of simply linking directly to a journal article, Peter has instead opted to provide a resource link to the University Library Catalogue and then in the Student Note has directed students to search for the article themselves. Peter has also used the Student Note to provide information on where to find help on how to search if they have difficulty with this task.

The list has a very focused purpose, each section has a study note explaining what it contains and who it may be relevant to, and many of the resources have student notes describing the resource and including instructions on how the student is to use it, e.g. “Please read Chapters Six and Seven of this book and bring notes to the workshop this week”.

Peter has also made use of Talis Aspire’s ability to link and embed YouTube clips, adding a number of these to the list, including upbeat and engaging clips such as ‘Conspiracies, Mind Control and Falsifiability‘.

Many of the resources themselves are quite interesting and eye-catching:
– Statistics without tears: a primer for non-mathematicians – Rowntree, Derek 2000
– How to read journal articles in the social sciences: a very practical guide for students – Shon, Phillip C. 2012 Book Essential Read and take notes on: Chapter 1: Serial Killers and Book Reports

Peter’s list was created as part of the research courses for all postgraduate students at the School of Education, covering approximately 650 students. According to the Dashboard this list was successfully viewed 1937 times with 1810 total clicks and 28 notations.

If you are interested in creating your own Resource List more information is available on the Resource Lists using Talis Aspire webpage and the ResourceLists@Edinburgh Blog.

We are also running four ‘Hands-on’ introductory sessions to Resource Lists @ Edinburgh this June & July. Sessions are bookable via MyEd.


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Stephanie Farley

Library Learning Services Assistant