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SpringyNews: Inspired Instruction

September 2015

5 Tips for Using LibGuides in the Classroom

This year, challenge yourself and enlighten your users by bringing inspiration into the classroom. 

Inspiration can come in many forms, and even the smallest change can have a huge impact. 

Start your year off with better service, improved communication, deeper learning, and more!

Get inspired with this edition of Springy Tips & Tricks in the classroom.

There's no limit to what you can do. 


1. Personalization Matters - Creating Targeted LibGuides

Inspiration is catching, and nothing gets faculty, teachers, authors, policy-makers, and workshop instructors inspired more than hearing that you're going to create a personalized LibGuide just for them.

They'll feel special, and feeling special fosters feelings of community. They'll feel more connected to you and to the library. 

It's a win-win.

Targeted LibGuides Examples:

Academic/K-12 Libraries

Public Libraries


2. Customizing Guide Type

Inspiration can come in the smallest form. Change things up a bit by customizing your guide type labels. Make it easier for users to find guides they need and keep your guides organized on the back end.

LibGuides can be assigned a type and those type labels are completely customizable by you! If 'Course Guide' doesn't work for you, change it to anything at all.

Here are some ideas:

  • Class Guide
  • Workshop Guide
  • Assignment Guide
  • Tutorial Guide
Guide Type Language Options

To change Guide Type labels, go to Admin > Look & Feel > Language Options > Language Customization Bar > Global > scroll down to Labels 173 - 178.


3. Forget PowerPoint - LibGuides for the Win!

Turn on Prev/Next Links in your LibGuides to transition through your presentation!

LibGuides previous next links

Using LibGuides as your presentation tool is a great way to communicate information to users during your presentation.

So forget about PowerPoint or Prezi, and think inside the (LibGuides) box when building your next presentation.

Here's why:

  • All Together Now - Bring all your resources together into one place, organized and displayed beautifully.
  • Easy Updates - Last-minute changes to your presentation? Update your LibGuide in seconds before, or after, the session.
  • Print & Mobile Friendly - Users can print your LibGuide to follow along or follow along on their smartphone/tablet devices.
  • Reinforce Learning - After the session, users can visit your LibGuide and access the resources you just mentioned.

4. Keep Discussions In Context with Discussion Boards (LibGuides CMS Only)

Collaboration on LibGuides is inevitable - and normally those discussions take place over email. Conversations are hard to find, are easily lost, and can go on and on. Final decisions can be hard to, well, finalize. 

Get out of the email rut, and keep your LibGuides discussions contextual with internal discussion boards. Internal discussion boards are only available on the backend, to logged-in account holders.

Need to discuss several LibGuides at once? Create a system-wide discussion board instead. 

Coming SoonPublic discussion boards will be coming to LibGuides CMS subscribers! Create guide-level public discussion boards to foster real-time classroom feedback and interactive discussions centered around your LibGuide! 

I Haz Question

Create a question-style post if you want colleagues to give feedback. Got your answer? Vote on the best reply by selecting 'Best Answer.'

Best Answers automatically close the thread so you don't have to worry that a conversation will continue on, forever. 

Discussion Boards Best Answers

Instruction Tag Ideas


  • 'Assessment Goals'
  • 'IL Standards'
  • 'LibGuides Curriculum Alignment'
  • 'Instruction Rubric'

Tag, You're It!

Keep your finger on the pulse of threads with tags. Guide-level internal discussion boards can have their own group of tags, and system-wide discussions have a separate tag library. 

Click a tag to view all posts, and replies, on that topic.

Post as many discussions as you'd like; replies are automatically threaded.

LibGuides CMS Discussion Boards

5. Embedding Course Specific E-Reserves @ Point-of-Need

 

Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action,
which makes it the architect of accomplishment.

- Zig Ziglar

 

Showcasing relevant E-Reserve materials during a library instruction session is a great way to ensure usage and strengthen the library/user relationship. Plus, the perceived value of the library is higher; students' success in this class is directly correlated to their navigation of library-managed readings.

How can you ensure easy findability of library resources post-instruction? And moreover, how do you ensure faculty buy-in? 

Repetition is the mother of all learning! Students will learn how to use E-Reserves if they encounter readings seamlessly and easily, from multiple access points.

With LibGuides E-Reserves, embed relevant course-specific content right inside a Blackboard, Moodle, Sakai, Canvas, or any LTI-compliant learning management system. Natively.

With LibGuides content right in their courses, faculty don't have to hunt around to find their E-Reserves. And the E-Reserves layout & display will be the same, whether they're accessing it from the online course or from a LibGuide. Faculty can even connect readings to an assignment and their online gradebook per curriculum standards. Plus, the library retains all usage statistics.

Adding E-Reserves to LMS via LTI

It's a win-win for everyone.  

Setup:

Work with your LMS-Admin to connect your course management tool to your LibGuides system.