tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10853513693705307532024-03-19T03:31:39.764+00:00Librarian in TrainingBecause one of the best things about librarians is that we're always learning!Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.comBlogger222125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-46940361842474488852020-10-07T19:28:00.015+01:002021-03-03T20:26:03.023+00:00Creating Teaching Resources: Online Courses<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: justify;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-LZHabaDFl5a0ebRNzbiqnvuA3zS682Ca_6ck57XfetdL_RllVlgq-NXfxtoaLVsUpeHjq-dTAhfXd39aff8eNnzt03mBTfbUMTiXixkiNn5M7kW6FkRinvC7h5gG5OoJMo8BBLg7ufsC/s1920/Online+courses-3.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-LZHabaDFl5a0ebRNzbiqnvuA3zS682Ca_6ck57XfetdL_RllVlgq-NXfxtoaLVsUpeHjq-dTAhfXd39aff8eNnzt03mBTfbUMTiXixkiNn5M7kW6FkRinvC7h5gG5OoJMo8BBLg7ufsC/s320/Online+courses-3.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">This is the sixth in a series of blog posts looking at my experiences of developing online learning materials. Hopefully sharing these experiences is helpful as people work to adapt and deliver their own online training. As always, this blog post only represents my own views and experiences with the tools I used.</span></p><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Building an online course is a huge task and I cannot cover everything you need to know in one blog post so I would be really interested in comments from others on their own experience and how these can help others who are starting to develop their own programmes as we go forward with an academic year focused on online teaching.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><h4 style="text-align: left;">What is it?</h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Online courses are becoming an increasing fact of life for anyone who teaches. Rather than discrete sessions, an online course involves a programme of content designed to be followed over time towards an ultimate goal.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Creating an online course - whether starting from scratch or adapting existing content - is a very involved process and not one that should be rushed. No matter how many times you have delivered a session in-person before, you will need to think carefully about translate this to online delivery. The mistake that a lot of people make it to replicate the content they usually deliver in person without thinking about how this will work in a different format. I speak from experience - the observations below come from my own project and the things I did wrong so please don't think I got everything right straight away. I freely admit that I'm still learning!</span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">How are we using it?</span></h3><div style="text-align: justify;">This post is going to focus on the major online course I have created - the <a href="https://osc.cam.ac.uk/training/training-librarians/research-support-ambassadors" target="_blank">Research Support Ambassador Programme</a>. This has progressed from an intensive face-to-face programme into an asynchronous online course which is open to all (an open educational resource). Over the last four years I have taken this from in-person sessions to webinars, an internal VLE course and now a public facing resource available via a LibGuide.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Aimed at library staff, it introduces the essentials of scholarly communication. It contains a range of formats including text, video and audio as well as activities which learners can use to test their knowledge. I've written a lot before on the development of the programme and you can read about the first few years of development in this <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13614533.2017.1323766" target="_blank">OA article</a> and about the move to an OER in this <a href="https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=2702" target="_blank">blog post</a> from 2019. The course covers six core units which can be taken individually or as a whole programme.</div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">How to...</span></h3><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">There are far too many elements involved in building an online course to discuss in one blog post and it depends a lot on the type of programme you want to deliver. Instead, I'm going to outline some of the key decisions you need to take when planning your course:</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Synchronous or asynchronous? These are terms more of us are familiar with now but as a recap - do you want people to take the course online together or do you want them to work at their own pace. This is one of the biggest decisions you will need to make so make it early.</li><li>What is the outcome you're aiming for? You are likely to want people to learn something but is this theory based or practical based? Think about what people need to be able to do and then work backwards from that when planning. For more information on this you should explore the work of <a href="https://educationaltechnology.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/backward-design.pdf" target="_blank">Wiggins and McTighe</a> on Backward Design. Alison Hicks does great work for librarianship in this area and <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/infolit_group/how-to-do-backward-curriculum-design-inskip-hicks" target="_blank">this presentation</a> from LILAC 2018 (with Charlie Inskip) has some useful information.</li><li>Think carefully about potential platforms. I used LibGuides as this was the best I had access to within the confines of my project. My key concerns were being able to add University branding and have a course that was as open as possible but your considerations may be different so investigate all options thoroughly.</li><li>How will you evaluate success or (more importantly) will you do this at all? This will depend on the nature of your audience. The Research Ambassadors is intended to be an OER (Open Educational Resource) meaning that anyone can take part in any way they like. Assessing this myself wasn't practical in the same way it was when it was a defined audience so I used self-assessment activities instead. If you are working with a smaller group then you may want to use more formal assessment methods.</li><li>How will you ensure accessibility of your materials? Anyone designing online materials needs to make sure that these are available to as many people as possible. You need to think about transcripts for videos, al text for images and alternative formats for content - and that's just for starters. You won't get everything right first time but you should put accessibility at the top of your list.</li><li>Following on from the above, remember that designing a course is an iterative process. Things will change over time as new sources and formats become available and as your own learning develops. Build in feedback to your course and act on it where you can. There will be changes to be made but usually if people are giving you feedback it means they are invested in improving your course in some way so you must be doing something right!</li></ul><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Pros</span></h3><div><span style="text-align: justify;">The main plus point of online courses in the time of COVID is that you don't have to come into physical contact with people and (in theory) these courses can be taken from anywhere which will help learners as well. Taking the time to build a good online course now will mean that when education returns to something more 'normal' you will have tools to offer content in a range of formats which will appeal to different people. Developing an online course is also a really good way to take a step back and evaluate programmes you have been delivering for a while in a new way, something long overdue for many of them (mine included!).</span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Cons</span></h3><div><span style="text-align: justify;">In case it's not obvious from the above - developing an online course is HARD. WORK! It's not something that can be done quickly and it requires a lot of forward planning and thinking around the big questions. Done well it can have benefits for both teacher and learner but it's a big commitment so be sure you're ready for it.</span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;">Next steps</h3><div>Like most people, the last few months have been spent in frantic planning and adapting to changes in the middle of a pandemic and I haven't had much time to think about the next steps I want to take with the Research Support Ambassadors. In the future I would like to make it part of a blended learning programme and create more online courses but first I think I need to take my own advice and plan before I take the next steps.</div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p></div></div>Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-82156568862003094442020-07-07T09:31:00.007+01:002020-10-07T17:04:28.044+01:00Creating Teaching Resources: Podcasts<p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14.850000381469727px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKC25iKluqF3r2M-Njw42sfT1sNrk85oq_TpMPKxk9GqaEsOw1DKSeKF8o1nhzDCX-34CHigZ50WP_sA15-rmR5WkdnfxIsL_0mTcLH3Qdhzm-KInaf0aT1s25N0i-DIdwFTFLMdfWEYkx/s1920/Podcasts.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKC25iKluqF3r2M-Njw42sfT1sNrk85oq_TpMPKxk9GqaEsOw1DKSeKF8o1nhzDCX-34CHigZ50WP_sA15-rmR5WkdnfxIsL_0mTcLH3Qdhzm-KInaf0aT1s25N0i-DIdwFTFLMdfWEYkx/s320/Podcasts.png" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">This is the fifth in a series of blog posts looking at my experiences of developing online learning materials. Hopefully sharing these is helpful as people work to deliver online training at their own. As always, this blog post only represents my own views and experiences. A lot of people will be focused on creating video resources (for more on this area see the previous posts on <a href="http://www.librarianintraining.com/2020/06/creating-teaching-resources-webinars.html" style="color: #004c99; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.850000381469727px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">webinars</a><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14.850000381469727px;"> and </span><a href="http://www.librarianintraining.com/2020/05/creating-teaching-resources-lumen5.html" style="color: #004c99; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.850000381469727px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">making short videos</a><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 14.850000381469727px;">) </span><span>but you can also create other types of resource which are equally as effective. </span></span></p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span>Podcasts and other audio formats are growing in popularity so we decided to tap into this with our training initiative. </span></span></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 14.850000381469727px;">What is it?</span></span></h4><p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif">Many people will be familiar with podcasts - audio recordings usually released in an episodic format. There are thousands of examples available from TED Talks and radio shows through to comedy chats and mystery solvers. Both podcasts and audio books have become popular in recent years as people seek to reduce screen time and/or multitask - people listen on the commute, when doing the ironing or whilst relaxing in the bath. Podcasts tend to be less formal than other communication methods and often work well as a chatty format with a couple of presenters and/or an interviewee. </span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 14.850000381469727px;">How are we using it?</span></span></h3><p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif">At first glance this doesn't sound like the ideal way to offer library training but we have had some success with the format. I first started using it in a previous role as another way to provide access to video content. Although videos work well in certain situations they are not suitable for everyone. There are accessibility issues for those with certain disabilities but also practical issues such as people who are accessing content on handheld devices, in countries which block access to common video sharing sites or in areas where playing a video is impractical (yes, I'm looking at everyone who watches videos in public without headphones!). </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span>We offer video transcripts as standard but there is something about being able to hear a narration which is helpful for some people. There is also a theory that hearing terms spoken about can help learners to better understand the language of their discipline - something especially important in a terminology rich environment such as research support. To begin with we extracted the audio of a video and shared this separately in the form of a podcast but this had mixed success. We need to remember that narration of a video and a podcast are two different formats and what is appropriate for one can sound like the world's most boring audio book in another. There is also the problem of podcasts not coming with slides - something we take for granted when narrating a video. This means that in podcasts using the phrase 'as you see on the slide' is redundant so we found that we needed to adapt content to suit the new format. This led to us taking a more informal, chatty approach which was more suitable for a podcast. You can listen to some of the results via the (now defunct) <a href="https://anchor.fm/osccam" target="_blank">OSC Podcast</a> page.</span></span></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">How to...</span></span></h4><p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span>There are many different tools you can use to record and share podcasts. Most smartphones and tablets come with some form of recording app which usually works pretty well to capture audio. We used <a href="http://Anchor.fm" target="_blank">Anchor.fm</a> which is available as both a website and an app (the app version actually seems more stable). As always, users will need an account but this is free and gives access to most features the novice podcaster will need.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh78Npq1JgMANDrV0WVOGKG2M2a1Em0Nj9v8YbrnoQISsCcotcl33hSSaGGW9kEQFqc3FUvsRD7lXQQy5pXSVRjhX58LgAT3HM0rgTd6oJQyQ9QGbmoYPfTdtoeFtOJ-hpMvHSk11uPBcHa/s1161/Screen+Shot+2020-10-07+at+15.33.07.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Anchor dashboard" border="0" data-original-height="672" data-original-width="1161" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh78Npq1JgMANDrV0WVOGKG2M2a1Em0Nj9v8YbrnoQISsCcotcl33hSSaGGW9kEQFqc3FUvsRD7lXQQy5pXSVRjhX58LgAT3HM0rgTd6oJQyQ9QGbmoYPfTdtoeFtOJ-hpMvHSk11uPBcHa/w320-h185/Screen+Shot+2020-10-07+at+15.33.07.png" title="Anchor dashboard" width="320" /></a></span></div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><br /></span><p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span>Recording a podcast is very simple. Using the website or app you simply record your audio directly into the programme and save it. We recorded the audio in short sections within the episode and then divided these up with jingles (or transitions) which were available on Anchor. Then it was simply a case of drag and drop to position the content in the right order. We made sure to keep track of length so it wasn't getting too long-winded and tried to break up the content at natural points to keep the flow of discussion. Once we were happy we pressed publish and were guided through a very simple process. Anchor allows you to publish to some of the most popular podcast sharing sites including Spotify and iTunes at the click of a button. We created some graphics for the overall podcast and individual episodes (see <a href="http://www.librarianintraining.com/2020/07/creating-teaching-resources-canva.html" target="_blank">earlier post about Canva</a>) and we were ready to go. The podcasts weren't launched as a separate resource but placed alongside the videos as an alternative format. </span></span></p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span>Anchor offers some <a href="https://help.anchor.fm/hc/en-us/sections/360004178272-Getting-Started-with-Anchor" target="_blank">useful FAQs</a> for those wanting to know more.</span></span></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">Pros</span></span></h4><p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span>The main advantage to us of using Anchor was it's simplicity. It was easy to use, easy to record audio and sharing was done at the touch of a button. Podcasting was an experiment and something we didn't have a lot of time to play with so it was great to find a tool which made things easier for us. It is quite simplistic but as novice podcasters who were not in it for the money it did everything we needed it to do.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span>The main advantage of podcasting was that it allowed us to reach out to a new audience with a different format. It also meant that we were making our content more accessible, something which is very important when you're involved in areas such as open access which are all about opening up knowledge to the many.</span></span></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">Cons</span></span></h4><p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span>As mentioned above I found the Anchor web experience a little glitchy, even when using a stable connection. More than once I had to re-record audio which was a little frustrating and one of the main drivers which led to us recording in short segments rather than taking a longer recording and splitting it later. Although podcasting appealed to some, listener numbers were not off the charts. Although the lack of promotion had something to do with this it is an investment of time which needs to be balanced. Finally, we did have to spend time adapting the format of our presentations to podcasts and remembering that people couldn't see the slides. This required a lot of work with some episodes but less for others. It's important to remember that the chatty format of podcasts might not work for all content/audiences so you might need to really think about this beforehand.</span></span></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">Next steps</span></span></h4><p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span>Podcasting is something I want to continue experimenting with as I settle more into my new role but adapting training in a pandemic has forced me to take a bit of a step back. I can see how the format will be useful going forward as we adapt to delivering socially distanced content and how useful it could be for getting a group discussion together to share knowledge. A feature of Anchor that I'm keen to explore is the Recording with Friends option which allows more than one presenter to contribute - something that could turn a recording from a single person drone into an interesting listening experience. </span></span></p>Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-80578589629055626552020-07-01T22:10:00.003+01:002020-10-06T21:45:02.893+01:00Creating Teaching Resources: Canva<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN-hLXQK7kIJBaIn676CiWH7tRmf31BVxHTUxYAtmqgqbOvtec1E3Bl26tCkOyRzlMuS_xqZ4vp_TtNjBQasl45Xj3zP7j2uoqSqSoDkf32dGRrjv1cdWkGJh9EAXm-yXYyUVdnZLKZEMG/" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN-hLXQK7kIJBaIn676CiWH7tRmf31BVxHTUxYAtmqgqbOvtec1E3Bl26tCkOyRzlMuS_xqZ4vp_TtNjBQasl45Xj3zP7j2uoqSqSoDkf32dGRrjv1cdWkGJh9EAXm-yXYyUVdnZLKZEMG/s320/Canva.png" width="320" /></a><span style="text-align: justify;">This is the fourth in a series of blog posts looking at my experiences of developing online learning materials. Hopefully sharing these is helpful as people work to deliver online training at their own. As always, this blog post only represents my own views and experiences. A lot of people will be focused on creating video resources (for more on this area see the previous posts on </span><a href="http://www.librarianintraining.com/2020/06/creating-teaching-resources-webinars.html" style="text-align: justify;" target="_blank">webinars</a><span style="text-align: justify;"> and </span><a href="http://www.librarianintraining.com/2020/05/creating-teaching-resources-lumen5.html" style="text-align: justify;" target="_blank">making short videos</a><span style="text-align: justify;">) but you can also create other types of visual resource which are equally as effective. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><p></p><h3><span style="text-align: justify;">What is it?</span></h3></span><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Canva describes itself as a 'graphic design platform' which allows you to create a range of visual materials including presentation slides, social media graphics, certificates and more. This selection of formats has grown over the years and now includes content such as websites, </span><span style="text-align: justify;">t-shirt prints, videos and worksheets. Canva offers templates for all of these formats meaning that you don't have to possess any great design skills to create something which looks professional and eye-catching. It also includes several images and fonts which you can use to customise the templates as needed. As with most sites there are free and paid for versions but you can do most things with the free version. It offers access to almost every feature although you will have to pay a small amount to use some elements (usually around 99p a time). However it's easy to upload images to the site if needed which usually helps to avoid the need to pay.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">At a time when visual social media sites are rising in popularity and it is increasingly hard to capture our users' attention, creating visual resources which are easy to share online is a definite plus to using Canva.</div><p></p><p></p><span style="text-align: justify;"><p></p><p></p><h3><span style="text-align: justify;">How are we using it?</span></h3></span><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: justify;">We've used Canva for nearly all of our training formats over the last year or so. We have made presentation slides, social media graphics, session handouts and posters - and that's just for a start! The two projects we've had the biggest success with have been our Moore About Guides and our Instagram Stories.</span></span></p><span style="text-align: justify;"><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">
The Moore About Guides are short, four page booklets which can be printed out or viewed online. Each one covers the essentials of a topic our users need to know about such as data management or avoiding plagiarism. They are designed to be both useful and visually attractive so we needed a design that would work for both. As I have no innate design skills (everything I make myself looks worryingly like a 1990s PowerPoint presentation) Canva was really useful here for providing ready made templates. I chose a template for a flyer that I thought would fit and changed some of the elements to make it more appealing and on brand for our library such as the font and colour. Then it was simply a matter of adding the appropriate images and text to complete the guide. </span><span style="text-align: justify;">The hardest part of putting the guides together is making sure that we balance the amount of text with the amount of images whilst still getting across the information we need to. We have intentionally made the resources quite visual so we didn't want to overwhelm this with text. At the same time we are talking about complex topics like copyright and referencing so we need to make sure that we don't simplify things so much that they become confusing or misleading. Given that the guides have proved really popular with both users and other librarians we think we've managed to strike the right balance! You can see an example of a guide in the GIF below:</span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="giphy-embed" frameborder="0" height="240" src="https://giphy.com/embed/75DyyTDKHeX2Aoycle" width="170"></iframe></div><span style="text-align: justify;"><p> </p></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">Our other main use for Canva is to create graphics for Instagram. This is a relatively new area for us but we were keen to reach out to a new audience who might not otherwise engage with our training materials. Given the rise in popularity of image based sites like Instagram we have had to rethink how we present our resources and Canva has really helped with this. We have created a series of simple images overlaid with text which form a mini-slideshow which shares top tips on topics as a way to advertise our other resources. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7HzpaDY0DChwdV0XmEoy4PHki0vNng-l9fwzmwsK8UTPZINq7gnIhcwL6_1Qi5DctY2rswjyi2Xp55_lV3GzTHAcbatpjgGMQPOj4cAVnWsuFpADsPiX3ocoIh3y7w_VhN0Z8vw-60bO0/s1080/Instagram+post+example.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7HzpaDY0DChwdV0XmEoy4PHki0vNng-l9fwzmwsK8UTPZINq7gnIhcwL6_1Qi5DctY2rswjyi2Xp55_lV3GzTHAcbatpjgGMQPOj4cAVnWsuFpADsPiX3ocoIh3y7w_VhN0Z8vw-60bO0/w200-h200/Instagram+post+example.png" width="200" /></a></div><br /><p>These stories are really simple but have proven to be quite effective. Using Canva makes the whole process much less hassle than using other image software and the hardest part is writing the text to overlay the images since, as with the guides, this needs to be both concise and informative. We try and use these graphics to signpost people towards our other resources which have room to expand on the topic in more detail. </p><p></p><h3><span style="text-align: justify;">How to...</span></h3><span style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: left;">The good news is that Canva is really simple to use but makes it look like you have lots of skills in the design department! You will need an account (which is free) but once logged in you will be presented with a range of format options depending on what you create. The list of available formats has grown a lot recently but there is a useful search option where you can find the format you're after (presentation, Twitter graphic, newsletter - the choice is endless). There is also the option to specify a custom size but this can be a bit hit and miss. </div></span><p></p></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Once you have chosen your format you are presented with a blank page and a range of options in the on-screen menu. These include a range of templates (very useful for inspiration), photos, text, videos and background. The most interesting item on the menu is the Elements option which contains all of the images and layout elements that you might need to create your masterpiece. There is also an Uploads tab if you want to add your own images or other elements. Once you have found what you want it's a simple matter of drag and drop onto your blank document. Everything is very easy to position, resize and delete as needed. One word of warning - some elements within the free account are paid for options and those with a crown on are for professional accounts only.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Canva offers an extensive </span><a href="https://designschool.canva.com" style="text-align: justify;" target="_blank">Design School</a><span style="text-align: justify;"> with several courses on everything you could want to know. As well as learning how to use Canva, the lessons here around branding and social media marketing are transferable to other platforms so are worth a look.</span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Pros</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">There are several good points to Canva, the main one being that it is so easy to create professional looking graphics. It offers just about every format you could want and you can always add your own sizing if needed. I also find the templates great for inspiration (even if I do end up moving some things around!). One really handy thing about these formats and templates is that they automatically resize for social media - something I have spent hours trying to do in the past. You can also share many of your graphics straight to social media once you link the accounts, another timesaver.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Cons</span></h3><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">As always with these sites there are also some negatives. An increasing amount of content such as images and photographs have moved to become paid for over the last few years and I've noticed that this is happening with fonts as well. Although there is usually something else to use or the option to upload your own content this does take away from the simplicity of using Canva - its main selling point. The site does offer the option to purchase individual elements at a temptingly low price but this does begin to add up after a while, something I can't help but feel is a trick designed to lure you into a subscription....</span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Next steps</span></h3><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Canva is definitely a tool that we will keep using, especially as social media moves towards image heavy posts to attract attention. We want to keep experimenting with the new options that are being offered such as animated slides and social media graphics to try and make our content more engaging. However, we have to balance this with the need to stay on brand and keep everything to a certain look so it's recognisable for our users. As long as Canva keeps it looking like I have design skills beyond my secondary school experiments with PowerPoint I'll keep using it!</span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span></div><p></p>Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-86726865173359664442020-06-15T11:53:00.002+01:002020-06-15T11:59:39.481+01:00Creating Teaching Resources: Webinars<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBMRlFpdw-46EIsMn2cCHZ7eqb5R6FwD5ZBywrnG7vWmhB9fjEdvOPsWTF4tEeVVs6TTLGtgzl33LLSV6qC4CkO41i4KO58dP7wgBMUdQIZUOYr1dcsuLX7sP-U9zGA7UYwGqlu5TzpRqu/s1600/Webinars.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBMRlFpdw-46EIsMn2cCHZ7eqb5R6FwD5ZBywrnG7vWmhB9fjEdvOPsWTF4tEeVVs6TTLGtgzl33LLSV6qC4CkO41i4KO58dP7wgBMUdQIZUOYr1dcsuLX7sP-U9zGA7UYwGqlu5TzpRqu/s320/Webinars.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is the third in a series of blog posts looking at my experiences of developing online learning materials. Hopefully sharing these is helpful as people work to deliver online training at their own. As always, this blog post only represents my own views and experiences. Webinars have been around for a while but they have taken on an increased significance during the COVID-19 crisis. Suddenly everyone seems to be offering webinars - with varying degrees of success! </div><div>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">What is it?</h3>
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Most people are probably familiar with webinars - certainly more so than before they went into lockdown! There may even be some webinar fatigue starting to set in... </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A webinar is an online presentation which is usually delivered live and/or recorded so other people can catch up later. They are often used to replicate lecture style sessions or conference presentations - anything where a presenter would be talking to an audience. Traditionally this involves talking over a set of slides, much as you would in a traditional lecture. Live webinars increasingly involve elements of interaction such as quizzes and online chats designed to engage learners.</div>
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How are we using it?</h3>
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I first started giving training sessions as webinars in 2017. At the time I was responsible for an educational programme aimed at teaching librarians the basics of scholarly communication and one of the biggest problems was getting people to attend face-to-face sessions. Cambridge is a large university with locations spread both across and outside the city. For some people, coming to an in-person session meant a half day commitment with travelling time and this resulted in a drop in attendance. I introduced webinars to replace the majority of the lecture style sessions meaning more people could attend online and then had more free time to attend the interactive workshop style sessions. Since then I have regularly given webinars to both staff and students, both live and recorded sessions. These typically last between 45 and 60 minutes and you can see a recent example below:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YEQzX58LFKY" width="560"></iframe></div>
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How to...</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">The good news is that most of the popular online meeting tools such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams can also be used to record videos and deliver webinar like sessions using screen screensharing. Up until recently at Cambridge we have used a paid-for tool called Adobe Connect but unfortunately that is being discontinued by the University so I've had to get up to speed on other methods quite fast! One thing I've learnt is that you don't get a lot for free and most of the true webinar features of these tools such as chat boxes are only available via paid accounts (often as an extra cost add on). However, you can still deliver online presentations to a live audience and record them using the free versions. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are many how-to guides available so I won't reinvent the wheel:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><a href="https://itld.psu.edu/training/host-zoom-meeting-or-webinar-quick-start-guide" target="_blank">Host a Zoom Meeting or Webinar Quick Start Guide</a></li><li><a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-live-events/what-are-teams-live-events" target="_blank">What are Microsoft Teams Live Events?</a></li><li><a href="https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9848784?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en" target="_blank">Live Stream a Video Meeting - Google Meet</a></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I will add a few top tips I've learnt from hosting webinars on different platforms over the years:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li>If possible have two people to host a webinar, one to deliver the content and the other to moderate. This helps to deal with any chat messages and technical issues without distracting the presenter.</li><li>Send out joining instructions a few days before the event, even if you think people know how to use the software. It can help to answer many questions and deal with last minute problems.</li><li>If possible, mute participant microphones when the main presenter is talking. This helps to stop pets/children/noisy neighbours making background noise that can make it hard to concentrate on a webinar. You can always unmute people if they have questions. To eliminate your own background noise invest in a set of headphones with a microphone. I bought some for about £25 when I first started hosting webinars and they really help the audio quality.</li><li>Run through the webinar first without an audience. If you're recording the session, a rehearsal can sometimes be a good time to do this. It allows you both to practice what you're going to say and allows you to create a recording with no identifying attendee information/questions. This obviously depends on how interactive your webinar is intended to be.</li><li>For live sessions try to include some level of interactivity which makes it worth the audience taking the time to attend. One of the negative pieces of feedback I got from my sessions was that there was little incentive to attend the live session if it would be just as easy to watch the recording later (a fair point).</li></ul></div>
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Pros</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">For teachers, webinars are one of the easiest ways to replicate the content of a face-to-face session, especially if there was minimal interaction involved. You will already have some slides and a script/notes so all you really need to do is to choose the right tech and you're ready to go. The webinar format really forces teachers to think about their slides and general presentation style - something I see as a positive although I can appreciate that others won't! Getting the design and content right is always important with a presentation but I think it's even more vital when giving online sessions as this is the main thing people will have to focus on. Students find webinars useful as a way to review topics they might want to go over again as they can access the content on demand. It can also be nice in these times of social isolation for both the teacher and the student to have some interaction during a live session and many good webinars start or end with some general chat. Of course one of the main benefits of webinars is that it means those who wouldn't be able to attend a face to face sessions have a chance to get some of the same experience - something particularly important at the moment. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
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Cons</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">The big mistake people make with webinars is assuming that they will be a straight replacement for a face-to-face session. You can replicate the content but not the experience in a webinar and you need to treat it as a different type of reaching session. For teachers delivering content online it can be really hard because it feels as though you are talking to no one (and I've held webinars where this has literally been the case!). This can make your delivery quite stilted which in turn makes the session boring for attendees. It can be hard to keep attention over a long session so shorter is better. I'm rethinking the length of the webinars I deliver as I think that even 45 minutes is too long in my context. It might be worth thinking about chunking up the content into several shorter sessions or at the very least including a time-stamped index to content. It's harder (although not impossible) to include interactivity in a webinar. You need to consider both your own and attendees technical capabilities including access to broadband. It's great to plan a highly interactive session but not much point if this causes everything to freeze. It's impossible to find a time to suit everyone who might want to attend so just go for the best you can and make a recording if possible. Again, this impacts on interactivity as those watching the recording are unlikely to get the same benefits as those attending live. Finally, remember that your attendees are likely to be suffering from webinar fatigue. Since lockdown began and sessions began to run online there has been a dramatic increase in webinars covering all sorts of topics and it may be hard to convince them to attend yet another one. Consider whether a webinar is really the best format to deliver your session and consider looking for alternatives that might be better suited for both you and your students.</div>
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Next steps</h3><div style="text-align: justify;">Webinars are definitely something I'll continue to deliver as we move into the new academic term but I'm going to need to rethink exactly how I deliver them and what I include. So many of our students and researchers have returned to their homes across different time zones that it is going to be impossible to find a time to suit everyone. This means that I'll be relying on recordings and so I need to balance this with including interactive elements. I also want to shorten the length of the sessions in order to encourage higher attendance. Not everyone is experienced with delivering or attending online training and a successful webinar can be a good introduction into moving towards online learning. </div><div><br /></div>
</div>Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-17323416844981254292020-06-02T15:57:00.000+01:002020-06-02T15:57:16.874+01:00Creating Teaching Resources: Lumen5<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_npErpF3PttlTqEXTVx0GhleoksBPHotB4kr_aZ0Juy2aHtm1BrZrohgZ6fgv25tXONYA8lsPV9V0K83_RaHl_CTNdShWDTY-apD9Gl207FofWMTf1I8FAstorEHOrrwXb0p9DgZibg4S/s1600/Lumen5.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_npErpF3PttlTqEXTVx0GhleoksBPHotB4kr_aZ0Juy2aHtm1BrZrohgZ6fgv25tXONYA8lsPV9V0K83_RaHl_CTNdShWDTY-apD9Gl207FofWMTf1I8FAstorEHOrrwXb0p9DgZibg4S/w320-h181/Lumen5.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is the second in a series of posts discussing my experiences of creating online learning materials. I've had some successes and some things which haven't worked so well but I get asked about them a lot so I thought that now was as good a time as any to share what I've learnt! As always, this blog post only reflects my opinions and experiences and I'd be open to hearing from anyone else who has tried similar tools and wants to add their own thoughts in the comments section below. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">This post will talk about my experiences of making short videos using <a href="https://lumen5.com/" target="_blank">Lumen5 </a>- an online tool which lets you create short videos with images, music and onscreen text. This is one of the most popular tools we have used and the resulting videos have been viewed thousands of times across a range of platforms - a great result considering how simple they were to create. They were also one of the most fun things to put together and offered a nice distraction when other forms of training got a bit heavy!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><h3>
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What is it?</h3><div style="text-align: justify;">As described above, Lumen5 is an online tool which lets you create short videos. It's entirely web and app based which means that it can be accessed anywhere - a definite bonus when working across multiple sites/machines/working from home. There are lots of tools for video creation out there but one thing that makes Lumen5 stand out from the crowd is that you can paste text straight into the editor or add the URL of a blog post and it will create a video for you. It does this using AI to select 'appropriate' images but this can be a bit hit and miss! However it can sometimes save a lot of time or provide inspiration if you don't know where to start. You can also just enter your text and create a video from scratch using the media within the site or uploading your own. I find the short videos it creates a great way to present text heavy content in a more engaging way. Videos can have static images, videos or a plain background with on-screen text. There is no real option to record a voice over unless you upgrade to a professional account and add your own audio track but this isn't really a problem for most videos. Like other sites there are paid-for account options which give you extra features like removing the Lumen5 branding and using a wider range of stock images but the free version hasn't let me down yet.</div><div><br /></div>
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How are we using it?</h3><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ4d3fNuxul7eOdeH2vhU0GSzc1iJqniri8qHsImUzBHBcOaODU_pYoKzfGyQOXwXwSgYd3lK-c20HmH3OJ_p9RK5ZBag-o3LCnRlurTL3EzJE29iUUUSPlrt6r2xgq1sf1r-x8AkpKeLh/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Lumen5 video title cards" border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ4d3fNuxul7eOdeH2vhU0GSzc1iJqniri8qHsImUzBHBcOaODU_pYoKzfGyQOXwXwSgYd3lK-c20HmH3OJ_p9RK5ZBag-o3LCnRlurTL3EzJE29iUUUSPlrt6r2xgq1sf1r-x8AkpKeLh/w320-h180/Lumen5.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I've used Lumen5 in both my current and previous roles to make short videos explaining key research topics. These started as a series of videos called <a href="http://bit.ly/ResearchIn3Minutes" target="_blank">Research in 3 Minutes</a> but because condensing topics such as open access into three minutes wasn't enough of a challenge these have evolved into the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhfavEHU74fr-vACbuyh5uYMCn92VXrLr" target="_blank">Moore Minute</a> series which are roughly 60 seconds in length. They cover a range of scholarly communication topics from across the research lifecycle such as OA, data management, copyright and publishing. I find that most people (including busy researchers) have short attention spans and although video is an increasingly popular way to reach out, only the most dedicated will watch a video for more than a couple of minutes. </div></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Moore Minutes in particular have been successful in reaching out to a new audience who might not otherwise engage. They can be shared on most social media sites and function almost as an advert for our other training and resources. The videos are also useful tools to embed in other online training resources such as Moodle or <a href="https://www.librarianintraining.com/2020/05/creating-teaching-resources-using.html" target="_blank">Sway</a>. As the videos are so short they are a really good reflective tool for me as a teacher as they force me to think about what the audience really needs to know about a topic. There isn't much room for error and there have been hard decisions about what ends up on the cutting room floor to get some videos to time but overall I'm happy with the results. You can see an example video below:</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ESo_zs30gPA" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<br />How to...</h3><div>Lumen5 is a fairly intuitive tool. You will need to register for an account to use it and although paid for options are offered I've always been able to do what I need to on the free version. </div><div><br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs9t_4DlipRpYd3uAQ6lfdEneJMK3GNjJppmGUFou5WcqsOXACbeVQYunuWfToRab1Mp9x0j8pSFr7pduJwDDacmJtZb45O4ZjQbLiid8AWU_qWojmVG-TlwEJlEVUME-VjSC5A0oZXO51/" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Lumen5 main menu" border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="1418" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs9t_4DlipRpYd3uAQ6lfdEneJMK3GNjJppmGUFou5WcqsOXACbeVQYunuWfToRab1Mp9x0j8pSFr7pduJwDDacmJtZb45O4ZjQbLiid8AWU_qWojmVG-TlwEJlEVUME-VjSC5A0oZXO51/w320-h126/Lumen5.PNG" title="Lumen5 main menu" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lumen5 main menu</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">When you first log in you will be offered a choice of options depending on how you want to build your video. You can copy text directly from a blog and let the AI do the work, add your own text, upload your own media or skip any of these options to go straight to the editing tool and get to work. A range of templates are also offered if you are new to using the tool or lacking inspiration. Whichever option you choose you will be sent to an editing page to begin changing or creating your video. You can alter the text (known here as the story), add media like videos or images from the built in library, or change the style or format of the video. You can find a lots of media on the in-tool database but I would be careful when choosing and double check any of the copyright restrictions. You can also upload your own media which is useful if you want to use screenshots or in-house branding on any of the videos. Constructing a video is a matter of planning out the content, finding the appropriate background to suit and then altering the times so that people have a chance to read the text on screen. I find it easier to plan out what I want to say first as a short series of bullet point and then create a video straight in the editor but otherswill have different ways of doing things.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the most useful features is being able to alter the format of a video at the click of a button. This means that you can change things like the orientation, making it more suitable for a different social media sites, without having to create a whole new video. There is sometimes a slight rearrangement of content needed but it saves a lot of time. Once completed, videos can be downloaded to add to YouTube or shared directly via social media sites. Even with fast download speeds the videos take a short time to render once published but I just use this an excuse to get a well-deserved cup of tea after my hard work!</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3>Pros</h3><div style="text-align: justify;">As mentioned above, although Lumen5 offers paid options I've always been able to do everything I need to in the free account. This is listed on the sign-up page as 'forever free' but you never really know with online tools! The main advantage is that you can create engaging videos really easily as everything is provided for you. You can even set it up to automatically create videos from blog content (although double check the output before sharing!). Although it's an online tool you can download your videos and store them where you like which is good if like me you've lost content before when a site has disappeared or changed hands. Personally, a major advantage for me is that you can create something which looks good without having a lot of design skill. The templates are a little limited but it's easy enough to find something that will work without spending hours agonizing over a concept.</div><div><br /></div><h3><font size="4"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></font><br />Cons</h3><div style="text-align: justify;">The major disadvantage comes from using the AI to construct videos automatically as some of the choices are just bonkers! Many of the stock videos/images used as backgrounds are also a bit cheesy so sometimes it takes careful hunting to find what you want. I would also recommend triple checking the copyright of any media you add to your video, especially music. We have been caught out when uploading a completed video to YouTube and having it held for copyright infringement due to the music we used (which claimed to be available). The accessibility of the finished videos is another concern. Although having the text appear on screen allows the videos to be viewed without sound making them easier to access for some there are concerns around how this works for those using screenreaders and other software. I am not an expert in this area but it's something to think about with all online training. Finally, the free account limits you to creating five videos a month which are watermarked with the Lumen5 logo. I've found that this is more than enough and that the logo is unobtrusive but it might be a block for some people depending on circumstances. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Next steps</h3><div style="text-align: justify;">Using Lumen5 to create videos has been one of the most successful of my experiments in online training. The videos have been really popular and they are very versatile which means I can use them in other training resources such as presentations and LibGuides. If anyone else is using Lumen5 and has tips they want to share please feel free to share them in the comments section so we can all benefit.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">You can find some helpful guidance on how to use Lumen5 in their online <a href="https://lumen5.com/learn/" target="_blank">Learning Centre</a> which seems to be accessible to all even if you don't have an account.</div>
<br /></div></div>Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-38319771572629187712020-05-30T16:57:00.000+01:002020-05-31T20:16:03.584+01:00Creating Teaching Resources: Microsoft Sway<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhknVcE8uGAVeYrWDs2e7YaBy6FZ-d8G4i_rQrRwjegSjRMw3wN7IfR3Qjawqu8fifoEIvdSEqQNvGWiVwXdn63LquRhzoRCGWD1H8anz4AV50Q1apKlKFCT0LVa1fCjL-tn9LlQbbzV8AN/s1600/Know+Moore+About_.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhknVcE8uGAVeYrWDs2e7YaBy6FZ-d8G4i_rQrRwjegSjRMw3wN7IfR3Qjawqu8fifoEIvdSEqQNvGWiVwXdn63LquRhzoRCGWD1H8anz4AV50Q1apKlKFCT0LVa1fCjL-tn9LlQbbzV8AN/s320/Know+Moore+About_.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Like many people I've been thinking about how I can pivot the training I offer students to a fully online format. Although I've had plenty of practice creating online resources in recent years I decided that I wanted to try something different. I was looking for something that could replicate the information delivered in a face-to-face session but without having to record a long webinar that I wasn't sure people would watch! I had come across <a href="https://sway.office.com/" target="_blank">Microsoft Sway</a> in the Office package that Cambridge subscribes to and although I had looked at it briefly I had never had the chance to fully investigate it until now. It's been a useful tool and one I will be using as we move into the next academic year. I know that other academic libraries have used Sway but I struggled to find many examples online so wanted to share some thoughts in case other teaching librarians were looking for a new tool.<br />
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What is it?</h3>
Billed as an 'online presentation package' and a successor to the much derided PowerPoint, Sway enables you to build an interactive presentation which users can navigate through. The end result is a professional looking site which brings together a range of content including text, images, video and links to more information. I've seen Sway described as a narrative tool and this is a good way of thinking about it. You can create a narrative to guide your learners through a topic, including other content and building on it as they move through.<br />
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How are we using it?</h3>
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As mentioned above, we are using Sway as a way to offer what would have been our face-to-face sessions in an asynchronous online format. As a multinational university our users are all over the world and even with the best planning in the world it would be hard to replicate our content as live webinars which all attendees would get the most out of. I produce detailed presenter notes for any sessions I give (online or in person) and these have formed the basis of the text you see in a Sway.</div>
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You can see an example of our first Sway on responsible metrics at the link below:</div>
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<table aria-label="Know Moore About: Responsible Metrics" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="visualLinkTable" role="group" style="border: 1px solid rgb(210, 210, 210); color: black; margin: auto; text-align: center; width: 600px;"><tbody>
<tr aria-hidden="true" class="visualLinkImageRow"><td align="center"><a href="https://sway.office.com/E7YNDLXyAGprQxyI?ref=email" rel="nofollow noreferrer" target="_blank"><img class="visualLinkImage" height="180" src="https://sway.office.com//sway/v1.0/E7YNDLXyAGprQxyI/thumbnailImage?imageId=HHZZG-QKJ_S24c&width=600&height=180&isPreview=false" style="border: none;" width="600" /></a></td></tr>
<tr aria-labelledby="visualLinkTitle" class="visualLinkTitleRow"><td aria-hidden="true" class="visualLinkTitleCell" style="padding: 13px 20px 0px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://sway.office.com/E7YNDLXyAGprQxyI?ref=email" rel="nofollow noreferrer" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span class="visualLinkTitle" dir="ltr" style="color: #424242; font-family: "segoe ui semilight" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "tahoma" , "geneva" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 21px; line-height: 28px;">Know Moore About: Responsible Metrics</span></a></td></tr>
<tr aria-labelledby="visualLinkDescription" class="visualLinkDescriptionRow"><td aria-hidden="true" class="visualLinkDescriptionCell" style="padding: 13px 20px 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: top;"><span class="visualLinkDescription" dir="ltr" style="color: #424242; font-family: "segoe ui regular" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "tahoma" , "geneva" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">Welcome to this interactive module focusing on responsible metrics. It’s a term many will have come across thanks to the growing development of open research practices but what does it invo…</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td align="center" style="background-color: #008272; border-collapse: collapse; padding: 3px 20px; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word;"><a href="https://sway.office.com/E7YNDLXyAGprQxyI?ref=email" rel="nofollow noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 130, 114); display: block; font-family: "Segoe UI Semilight", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Tahoma, Geneva, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: white;">Go to this Sway</span></a></td></tr>
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If you look at the start of the Sway itself you will see a set of learning outcomes which deliberately mirror those you would find in one of our face-to-face session. I have also identified the section of the research lifecycle where the topic best fits. As more resources are built up the plan is to map these to each stage of the lifecycle so that researchers are supported whatever stage of their work they are at.</div>
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For me one of the major benefits of using Sway is that it allows me to bring together some of the existing online training formats I've been developing such as the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhfavEHU74fr-vACbuyh5uYMCn92VXrLr" target="_blank">Moore Minute videos</a> and the <a href="https://libguides.cam.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=32834324" target="_blank">Moore About guides </a>on various topics. These have usually been produced in conjunction with face to face sessions and the replacement Sways will allow this practice to continue with new content produced for the Sway which can then be repurposed to a different format/audience. </div>
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Finally, each Sway will contain activities throughout the module and at its conclusion. This offers users a chance to think about how they can put into practice what they are learning in their own work. This applied learning approach was something that worked well when I used it for the <a href="https://osc.cam.ac.uk/training/training-librarians/research-support-ambassadors" target="_blank">Research Support Ambassador Programme</a> (aimed at library and administrative staff) and I wanted to give learners the same opportunity here. In a classroom situation this might be a time when we had a small discussion about some element of the content or a hands-on exercise to try something out. Obviously in the Sway these activities are optional and I have no way of knowing if people have engaged but in this context that is less important to me. The activities are there if people want to do them and hopefully they will at least offer a moment to stop and reflect.<br />
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How to...</h3>
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I always find it helpful to have some how-tos when I'm trying out a new tool. Sway is pretty intuitive to use once you have had a chance to play with some of the features. It is essentially made up of two main sections - the storyline and the design.<br />
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Storyline is where you add your content such as text and images. This is done by defining presentation sections and then adding 'cards'. Each type of content has it's own card and these can either be static or dynamic - for example a static paragraph of text or a dynamic slideshow of images. As with PowerPoint there are templates which you can use of you can start from scratch. My top tip: plan as much of your content as you can first before seeing how it will work in Sway otherwise it is easy to get sidetracked.<br />
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Design is much like the design option in PowerPoint and offers some different ways of presenting your information. Here you can select colour options, change the font and most importantly decide how your content will be presented. There are three main options: horizontal scroll, vertical scroll or slides which operates as a scrolling slideshow. My top tip here: choose a design concept fairly early in the design process. You can toggle between them fairly easily but you might find that your content is displaced if you do this too often.<br />
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It is worth noting that you can also convert an existing PowerPoint to a Sway although you might find that you have to play around with the content quite a lot to make it work in the new format. I tried this but on balance decided I would spend less time if I started from scratch!</div>
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Pros </h3>
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There are several positives to using Sway. It is an easy to use tool which makes it relatively simple to create an engaging, professional looking product with little technical expertise. The Sway can be embedded easily either as a static link (as above) or a dynamic view of the presentation itself. Again, this is done through a simple link provided by the tool which seems to work well with existing library tools such as Moodle and LibGuides and means that learners don't have to leave the space where they are to access the resource. Sway allows easy embedding of dynamic content such as videos and images, something which works well for us as we already have these and can just include them in the new format which saves time. Being a relatively new tool it was designed to work with mobile devices and some thought has been given to accessibility. There is the usual facility to add alt-text to images and Sway also offers an accessibility view of the resource as a whole - essentially a PDF which retains the dynamic content (a 'normal' PDF can also be downloaded for printing). Although not perfect, it does go a long way in making the resource available to as many people as possible.</div>
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Cons</h3>
Obviously there are also some downsides. Sway is a Microsoft product and so ultimately works best with other Microsoft products. For example, it is much easier to embed a Microsoft Form rather than a Google Form which may be an issue for some and limits what you can include in terms of interactivity. As a Cloud based tool it might be hard for some creators to use, especially with current strains on broadband capacity. Although it offers choices in layout and font these are fairly limited which might not fit with existing branding. In replicating a 45 minute session there is a lot of content to go through and even after careful editing and adaptation of some content the resulting resource is longer than I would like and requires a lot of scrolling. However this may well be my fault rather than the tool itself! The biggest problem that I have come across so far is an inability to link to a specific section of a Sway. So for example in the responsible metrics resource it would be great to be able to link straight to the section on 'metric limitations' for use in other resources. A quick Google reveals that despite being one of the most asked about features there is as yet no way of doing this on Sway which is a real disappointment.<br />
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Next steps</h3>
Although there are issues with Sway this is true of any tool and in the current environment it is something which I can use to replicate my face-to-face sessions without resorting to a webinar. Time will tell what the researchers it is aimed at will think but the responses I've had so far have been positive and it offers a way to make the best use of the materials we already have.<br />
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I've put together a list of some of the main resources I've been using to educate myself about Sway:</div>
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<li><a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/404119/what-is-microsoft-sway/" target="_blank">What is Microsoft Sway and what can I do with it?</a> - How-To Geek.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-sway-presentation-program-your-story-needs" target="_blank">How to Use Microsoft Sway</a> - Windows Central.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcg6DGO9hpI" target="_blank">What is Sway?</a> [video] - Microsoft Tutorials.</li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/DsXXostVZY8" target="_blank">Sway Pro Tips</a> [video] - Microsoft Tutorials.</li>
<li><a href="https://blogs.umass.edu/onlinetools/community-centered-tools/sway/" target="_blank">Online Tools for Teaching and Learning: Sway</a> - University of Massachusetts Amherst.</li>
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Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-46703712305419224502020-05-18T21:54:00.002+01:002020-05-30T19:05:26.381+01:00Moving Your Teaching Online<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Many of us are having to adapt to delivering training and other interactions online instead of face to face. This is a situation likely to continue for some time and it can be daunting to know where to start if you are new to developing online materials.</div>
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I have recently joined a team running a teaching course for librarians at Cambridge and my first task was to curate a list of resources on how to move training materials online. It's far from exhaustive and mainly represents what I have come across on Twitter or online but I'm sharing it here as a starting point if you are looking for similar resources. Please add any others you have found useful in the comments section and I can add them to the list.</div>
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The current circumstances mean that there is an increased emphasis on the development of online educational materials. With traditional face-to-face training unlikely to resume for some time, many teachers will be thinking about how they can adapt their existing content for online delivery. This process is not as simple as just replicating the physical environment online or copying and pasting the content. It is worth spending some time thinking about the best way to deliver the training you can with the resources you have. The most important things to consider are the needs of your students and how you can meet these online.</div>
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<b>General guidance on moving teaching online</b></div>
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Many teachers and trainers with experience in online teaching have shared their insights over the last few months. The following sources are particularly useful:</div>
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<a href="https://www.cctl.cam.ac.uk/files/cctl_moving_classes_and_seminars_online_v1.0.pdf" target="_blank">Moving classes and seminars online</a> - Cambridge Centre for Teaching and Learning. </div>
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CCTL has prepared a comprehensive guide to many different aspects of online teaching including accessibility concerns, dealing with interactions and how to prepare online materials.</div>
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<a href="https://thelibrarianerrant.wordpress.com/2020/03/25/working-remotely-delivering-online-training/" target="_blank">Working remotely: delivering online training</a> – Veronica Phillips.</div>
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Excellent blog post from Veronica Phillips from Cambridge Medical Library on her experiences of adapting her training for online delivery.</div>
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<a href="https://blogs.city.ac.uk/learningatcity/2020/04/24/teaching-online-learning-in-a-time-of-crisis/#.XsLzES-ZO9a" target="_blank">Teaching online in a time of crisis</a> - Jane Secker and Kathryn Drumm.</div>
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Blog post from City University detailing their experiences of moving training online and including top tips for others looking to do similar.</div>
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<a href="https://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/JIL/article/view/PRJ-V13-I2-2" target="_blank">Developing online instruction according to best practices</a> – Ashley Lierman and Ariana Santiago.</div>
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This article from the Journal of Information Literacy contains a useful literature review and outlines some best practice for developing asynchronous online instruction.</div>
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<a href="https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-difference-between-emergency-remote-teaching-and-online-learning" target="_blank">The difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning</a> - Charles Hodges et al.</div>
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A longer read but contains lots of thought provoking questions to encourage readers to consider how you can make the best use of moving teaching online.</div>
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<a href="https://www.edugeekjournal.com/2020/03/10/an-emergency-guide-of-sorts-to-getting-this-weeks-class-online-in-about-an-hour-or-so/" target="_blank">An emergency guide (of sorts) to getting this week’s class online in an hour (or so)</a> - Matt Crosslin.</div>
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Useful guidance on what you need to do to move to online sessions in a hurry.</div>
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<b>Recording lectures</b></div>
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Creating videos is one of the easiest ways to adapt existing content, especially if you are presenting a lecture style session. All you need is a slide deck, your notes and some type of recording software. Many of the tools you will have been using for online meetings can be used to record lecture videos. These often use screen sharing to show slides whilst the teacher adds a narration. The teacher can choose to be seen on camera or hidden as they wish.</div>
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<a href="https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/record-a-meeting-in-teams-34dfbe7f-b07d-4a27-b4c6-de62f1348c24" target="_blank">Recording a meeting in Microsoft Teams</a></div>
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<a href="https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362473-Local-recording" target="_blank">Recording a meeting in Zoom</a> [<a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lZHSAMd89JE?rel=0&autoplay=1&cc_load_policy=1" target="_blank">video instructions</a>]</div>
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Webinars can be a little boring for the listener so try to make them as engaging as possible. This <a href="https://inspiringlearning.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2020/03/webinars-from-yawn-to-yay/" target="_blank">advice from Jisc</a> is a good place to start if you are new to developing or delivering webinars. People have shorter attention spans online so consider recording a long webinar as shorter sessions e.g. four fifteen minute videos rather than an hour long session. If you do create a longer session consider adding an index to topics in the description. You can see an example on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEQzX58LFKY&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">this YouTube video</a> from the Moore Library (you will need to click on See More in the description section). This creates a clickable index so that viewers can go straight to the appropriate section.</div>
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<b>Shorter videos</b></div>
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You can create effective videos outlining key concepts which can be used either on their own or as part of a larger resource/session. The advantage is that these videos can be viewed again if learners want to refresh their knowledge. There are many tools available to produce short videos, depending on the feel you are aiming for. Some suggestions to investigate are <a href="https://www.animotica.com/" target="_blank">Animotica</a>, <a href="https://lumen5.com/" target="_blank">Lumen5</a>, <a href="https://www.powtoon.com/" target="_blank">Powtoon</a>. You can find more details of some of these tools in this CILIP MMIT <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbe3mRvHtTY" target="_blank">webinar</a> (<a href="https://www.slideshare.net/MmITGroup/using-video-in-your-library-and-information-service" target="_blank">with slides</a>).</div>
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In order to produce successful videos it’s important to understand how students learn online. This article on creating <a href="https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/effective-educational-videos/?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Vanderbilt+on+Effective+Educational+Video&utm_campaign=SWH_HE_OLS_PostWebinar2&WT.mc_id=SWH_HE_OLS_PostWebinar2" target="_blank">Effective educational videos</a> by Cyntia J. Brame explains some of the theory behind developing good videos that help people learn.</div>
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<b>Screencasts</b></div>
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Where your sessions involve live demonstrations of software or websites it might be a good idea to think about recording screencasts which can be included in online training. This involves capturing a recording of your screen as you perform a task (such as finding an item in the catalogue) and can be narrated if you feel this is needed. If you’re new to screencasting <a href="https://screencast-o-matic.com/lp/screen-recorder-uk-3/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=uk&utm_term=screencast%20software&gclid=CjwKCAjwwYP2BRBGEiwAkoBpAqM1CRiFPg7xFDeEwMb2ftkrE0dyFFs9YNp4fZ6EzUGyYI6nYYF-ShoC-KUQAvD_BwE" target="_blank">Screencastomatic</a> and <a href="https://www.screencastify.com/" target="_blank">Screencastify</a> are easy to use tools.</div>
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It is a good idea to keep these screencasts short if possible. Software and web platforms frequently change and it is easier to update shorter videos than re-record long ones, especially if you don’t have access to video editing software. This <a href="https://lumen5.com/learn/youtube-video-editor/?platform=hootsuite&utm_campaign=Social" target="_blank">guide to free online video editing tools</a> is useful if you want to investigate editing.</div>
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<b>Interactivity</b></div>
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It’s important to think about how you can build interactivity into your sessions. This may be led by you as the teacher, students talking to other students or it may just be a reflective activity which students complete themselves. This interactivity can help students to relate otherwise abstract concepts to their own circumstances and help to embed learning. This <a href="https://twitter.com/joboaler/status/1262056307172892674?s=20" target="_blank">graphic</a> from Jo Boaler from Stanford University outlines some of the key principles for making online teaching interactive in small and easy to manage ways whilst the article <a href="https://www.macmillanihe.com/page/6-steps-to-effective-online-groupwork-peter-hartley/" target="_blank">6 steps to effective online group work</a> by Peter Hartley and Mark Dawson has some great tips on getting people to work together as well as a useful table comparing common tools that learners may have access to.</div>
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<b>Top tips</b></div>
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There are plenty of lists with top tips for online teaching. Here are just a few:</div>
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<li><a href="https://www.teachthought.com/technology/virtual-teaching-tips-for-beginners/" target="_blank">10 virtual teaching tips for beginners</a> - Pippa Davies.</li>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jNUvlaNVXfXxVzSdCIkzM6BG60EUOHUf/view" target="_blank">8 tips for teaching online</a> - Neil Mosley</li>
<li><a href="https://psyarxiv.com/qdh25" target="_blank">10 simple rules for supporting a temporary online pivot in higher education</a> - Emily Nordamann et al.</li>
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<b>Edited 30/5/20</b></div>
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Since I wrote this post I've found additional links which might be useful. These are included below:</div>
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<li><a href="https://youtu.be/v1dzU7eQvfo" target="_blank">Universal design for online learning</a> [video] - CIRTL UCC.</li>
<li><a href="https://libguides.hull.ac.uk/diverselearners/home" target="_blank">Designing for diverse learners poster</a> - University of Hull.</li>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/joboaler/status/1262056307172892674?s=20" target="_blank">Principles for online teaching</a> - Jo Boaler.</li>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/joboaler/status/1262056307172892674?s=20" target="_blank">Boom! Shake the Zoom: Tips for sparkling video presentations and pitches</a> - First Create the Media. </li>
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Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-49557234830205281522020-03-15T20:04:00.001+00:002020-03-15T20:04:46.754+00:00Online training in a hurry - please help yourself<div style="text-align: justify;">
I've thought long and hard about posting this. There are many more important things in the world to worry about right now and I don't want to be accused as cashing in on problems (although as I'm making no money from this that might be hard!) but I do want to do my small part to help.</div>
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Over the last few years I have been working on producing online training to compliment the face to face sessions I regularly deliver on scholarly communication and research support. As a result I have a bank of materials on this area ready to go including videos, slides and handouts. I know a lot of librarians are either moving to online instruction or thinking about it, something that will hopefully make both teacher and student safer whilst still getting the message across. Putting together even the most basic of sessions takes time so if it's useful please feel free to help yourselves to any of the resources below as a starting point.</div>
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I've compiled most things I've produced on a <a href="https://researchsupport.hcommons.org/" target="_blank">single website</a> as even I have trouble finding it occasionally! Everything is organised by subject and then format within that e.g. presentations, webinar etc. There are slide decks and presenter notes for most sessions and I'm working on adding more as they are developed. Most of the content is aimed at librarians but it's pretty transferable for students.<br />
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There are also some resources for ready to go webinars:<br />
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<li>Plan S - <a href="https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/290576" target="_blank">slides</a> and <a href="https://osc.cam.ac.uk/files/mem_planswebinartranscript_v1_20190320.pdf" target="_blank">transcript</a></li>
<li>Responsible metrics - <a href="https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/291974" target="_blank">slides</a> and <a href="https://osc.cam.ac.uk/files/hnd_responsiblemetrics_v1_20190416.pdf" target="_blank">transcript</a></li>
<li>Copyright - <a href="https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/292702" target="_blank">slides</a> and <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/19HnAtieHrf8d6xJuRN_e0DeN1Aq7Vtmv/view" target="_blank">transcript</a></li>
<li>Mirror journals - <a href="https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/293645" target="_blank">slides</a> and <a href="https://osc.cam.ac.uk/files/mem_mirrorjournalswebinartranscript_v1_20190613.pdf" target="_blank">transcript</a></li>
<li>Creative Commons - <a href="https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/295797" target="_blank">slides</a> and <a href="https://osc.cam.ac.uk/files/mem_creativecommonscookbooktranscript_v1_20190819.pdf" target="_blank">transcript</a></li>
<li>Predatory publishers - <a href="https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/296915" target="_blank">slides</a> and <a href="https://osc.cam.ac.uk/files/mem_predatorypublisherstranscript_v1_20190923.pdf" target="_blank">transcript</a> </li>
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I'm working on adding the current online content I'm developing for students and currently have slides and notes for <a href="https://researchsupport.hcommons.org/know-moore-about/" target="_blank">predatory publishers and data management</a> with more coming in the next few weeks.<br />
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Alternatively if you're self-isolating and want to use this time for some self education feel free to have a look at the online <a href="https://osc.cam.ac.uk/training/training-librarians/research-support-ambassadors" target="_blank">Research Support Ambassador Programme</a> which covers the basics of library support around the scholarly communications lifecycle. It's an introduction but it's a start! </div>
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If you are looking to develop your own online teaching materials then you could do worse than this guidance from Alison Yang:</div>
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This is the most brief and appropriate guidance I’ve seen for moving courses online quickly. Please remember that your students’ lives have all been turned upside down as well. <a href="https://t.co/V2mMeNTUpY">pic.twitter.com/V2mMeNTUpY</a></div>
— Steven Cain (@stevenacain) <a href="https://twitter.com/stevenacain/status/1238862518216507395?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 14, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Whatever approach you take during this time above all stay safe, stay healthy and wash your hands!</div>
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Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-41034749180739013932019-11-17T21:17:00.000+00:002020-01-13T21:19:10.811+00:00The New Normal? Reflections on the Charleston Library Conference 2019<span id="docs-internal-guid-29d79aaf-7fff-058d-d857-093148325415"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiODHwkq8KqsKWywwayylpRspjs4cKT1PymGx0tIMUuya9buta8XWsRvRaLw3crwT5Wd4vIPJ_jw78NLvu-I8kpq2M88otilwLrQd_7szAcIIvecPH0sUnd1SyNOrmzRTy4EbT3Mb0PjAHt/s1600/charleston-4036370_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiODHwkq8KqsKWywwayylpRspjs4cKT1PymGx0tIMUuya9buta8XWsRvRaLw3crwT5Wd4vIPJ_jw78NLvu-I8kpq2M88otilwLrQd_7szAcIIvecPH0sUnd1SyNOrmzRTy4EbT3Mb0PjAHt/s320/charleston-4036370_1920.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last week I was lucky enough to attend the Charleston Library Conference in the US. This annual event is about to celebrate its 40th anniversary and it's easy to see why. Sessions on multiple topics mean there is something for everyone, there are plenty of social events to meet new people and the atmosphere is very welcoming - especially to someone attending the conference from another country. I can't possibly comment on everything I covered in my two and a half days but below I'm going to pick out some of my highlights.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Building bridges?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There were several keynotes over the course of the conference including the opening session from Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive. Brewster's talk looked at how we as librarians can fill the various gaps in the information landscape in order to create a more complete picture for our learners. There are two main ways in which we can do this: access and preservation. As with most things today, digital is the default and this is where they gaps start to become apparent. The average webpage only lasts for 1000 days before it is changed or deleted and this can make linking to permanent references difficult. Linking sites such as the ever popular Wikipedia to resources such as the Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine can help to offer stable access to the resources that are cited in articles and build a reliable network of knowledge. Linking to directly to digitised copies of book pages enables users to check the references and quote directly from the source, but this is obviously not without copyright issues. Brewster also made the point that it is important to help preserve our shared history through digitisation. We are at a time when we are losing the survivors of many of the most important events of the last century and that soon recorded accounts are all we will have left. We need to take this chance to preserve this knowledge and the keynote was the ideal chance to announce a partnership between the Internet Archive and Better World Books which aims to use digitisation to create an online library of knowledge. You can read more about the project </span><a href="https://blog.archive.org/2019/11/06/for-the-love-of-literacy-better-world-books-and-the-internet-archive-unite-to-preserve-millions-of-books/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The other keynote which struck a chord was given by Kumsal Bayazit, the new CEO of Elsevier. Working in scholarly communication can mean a somewhat difficult relationship with the Dutch publishing company and I was pleased to see Kumsal acknowledge the problems that exist and Elsevier's role in them. However, the scholarly publishing process involves a lot of different players (including libraries) and there is never only one party to blame for issues. The theme of the keynote was building bridges, something that is going to be important as we move forward. Kumsal certainly came across well I her speech and there were a mixture of reactions from the audience. I will reserve judgement for now as I prefer to judge on actions rather than words but hopefully this new appointment marks a turning point. You can watch the </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF3yDj-I9Mw&feature=emb_logo" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">keynote</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> via YouTube and draw your own conclusions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Common research problems</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Working in a research support role, I was obviously interested in attending many of the scholarly communication sessions on offer. There were too many interesting take-aways to mention in one report but one of recurring theme was that of predatory publishers. This is a phenomenon that </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/predatory-publishers-problem-business-model-claire-sewell/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I've written about before</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and one that still continues to be a problem for researchers at every career stage. Researchers are now more aware that there are unscrupulous publishers which can target them for content and the potential consequences of using them. These consequences vary in seriousness depending on individual circumstances but for most researchers the worst thing that will happen is a wasted opportunity for publication elsewhere. However, we should not underestimate the impact that this can have. Researchers are under ever increasing pressure to publish and make an impact with their work and we need to remember the effort that goes into each output they produce. To have this effort wasted can be a major blow with unexpected consequences to the mental health of the individual. I was also pleased to see the role that librarians can play in educating their community on these problem publishers discussed. As researchers themselves have identified this as a problem they are often engaged with finding a solution and several presenters offered up tips and tricks that had worked for their community. Adapting</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JyfnpU9-w0" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> my session on predatory publishers</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is something I will be making a priority in my new role as this is obviously something researchers want help with. Many presenters noted that working to help researchers with the predatory publisher problem is a great way to showcase how the library can support the research process so I'm hoping this builds a strong foundation for future partnerships.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Copyright was another theme running through many sessions. Obviously copyright law differs between the UK and the US but many of the same issues were under discussion and researchers seem to struggle to understand the law no matter where in the world they are. One of the highlights of the conference for me was the 'Long Arm of the Law' session. It came highly recommended and I can see why! It was informative as well as entertaining and I definitely learnt a lot about both the US approach to copyright and an effective way to get the message across. Among the topics under discussion were the ones of Katie Perry and whether you can copyright the design of a yellow plastic duck (you can't!). As many library colleagues will know, copyright can often be a dry subject and anything which makes it more relatable and engages learners is a plus. I will definitely be using more fun examples in my copyright training in the future - hopefully it will help to get the more serious messages across!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Plan S and transformative agreements have been some of the biggest developments in scholarly communication in recent months and it was no surprise to see so many sessions focusing on both aspects. They were both a major element of discussion and I was pleased to see that they were so well attended (many were standing room only). This indicates that there is significant interest in these areas, both from library staff and those they represent. It was also interesting to hear about this from a US perspective as a UK librarian. We all fall into the trap of thinking that these changes happen in a vacuum and it was good to see the wider implications of these developments acknowledged and discussed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Does motivation matter?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another important part of my role will be developing information literacy instruction. This is something I'm fairly new at so I took the opportunity to learn more in Charleston. One particularly memorable session was Snake News or Fake News. This interactive quiz-show style session showcased the results of research undertaken by staff at at the University of Florida into how students identify the content they find online. Can they tell if a resource is a blog or a journal article? How likely are they to trust content from these sources are will they cite what they find online? The insights gained from the simulation project were really interesting and showed that brand recognition was one of the most important elements for students when identifying resources. Students trusted materials from sites such as Nature and Springer as they recognised the brand names but were often confused about what the materials actually were for the same reason - Springer are known for journals so everything they produce must be a journal, right? This (lack of) brand recognition is something that I find really interesting and I will definitely be thinking about this as I plan my info lit training moving forward.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Having worked with early career researchers I was interested to attend a session looking at their motivations for using ResearchGate. As librarians we can sometimes be tempted to tell our users not to sign up for these sites but this is pointless (and potentially incorrect) advice. As the session pointed out, those who are critical of these sites are not usually the ones using them! The session offered some interesting insights such as the fact that researchers were very concerned about their future digital footprint and wanted to use ResearchGate as a way to establish that. Even more interesting was the fact that although they liked having a way to create their own digital repository of works, they were not completely sure how to make the best of ResearchGate and tended to check it when prompted rather than actively use it. At the end of the day, having a presence on the site showed that the researcher was active and they felt that this would be important for their career development. These are all lessons that I will be taking back to my interactions with my own research community when talking to them about their online presence. I don't caution against use of particular sites but rather give them the tools to make their own choices and understanding their motivations is an important part of this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is Open Access the new normal?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perhaps the biggest takeaways for me came in the wrap-up session at the end of the conference. As part of the closing Poll-a-palooza, attendees were asked to participate in a number of online polls about the conference including the terms which summed up the event for us. One reflection that was made was that Open Access was a less prominent term than it had been in recent years. This led to the question of whether we have reached a situation where Open Access is now so much the norm that we have moved on to discussing other things? This mirrors discussions I have been having with colleagues recently. Our researchers largely accept Open Access as a concept so is it time to move on to discussing the wider issue of Open Research? I think so and it appears that others at the event agreed, The point was made that there are many factors involved in moving towards an open future but the key is people. We might all have different opinions on how it should be done but we are now (mostly!) moving towards the same goal when is comes to Open Research. There will be bumps along the way but hopefully at a future Charleston Conference we will be talking about Open Research as the new normal and moving on to the next big topic.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">You can find more information on sessions at the Charleston Library Conference on the </span><a href="https://charlestonlibraryconference.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">conference website</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
</span></span>Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-24100119547670188802019-07-29T10:24:00.000+01:002019-07-29T10:24:44.727+01:00Research Support Training Resources<div style="text-align: justify;">
Over the past few years, both within my role and outside, I have been lucky enough to develop a range of training materials. Most of these are related to scholarly communication and research support although other areas also creep in from time to time! I try my best to upload all of my content to Apollo - the University of Cambridge repository - but sometimes life gets in the way. All of my content ends up somewhere and as people are often asking for copies of materials I have created a site on Humanities Commons to keep everything in the same place.</div>
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<a href="https://researchsupport.hcommons.org/" target="_blank"><img alt="Research Support Skills Training Logo" border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="560" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-HwmoD6ulumESewhj9TgcyWdnnxrdoHIMA1N47WW7w96YoaNuysUJdfxSioS5MF7go1ydr6cryO_GD-DTgxHPIDk_p3mCjeEOOGoGNfuii19qWIgdGeFD1S9b58yw2Qniud_sKt-uJpLk/s320/Research+Support+Blog.png" title="" width="320" /></a><span id="goog_1845610889"></span><span id="goog_1845610890"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div>
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I have compiled all of my training materials to date at the imaginatively titled <a href="https://researchsupport.hcommons.org/" target="_blank">Research Support Training</a> together with lists of conference presentations and publications. All of the materials are available under a CC-BY 4.0 licence meaning that they can be used and adapted as needed as long as the original author is credited. </div>
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Topics covered include Open Access, data management, the publication process, copyright, metrics and librarians as researchers. There are a variety of formats to choose from including printed materials, online courses, podcasts and webinars so there should be something for everybody.</div>
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Further training materials will be added as and when they are developed but for now please help yourselves! </div>
Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-82920476580259678302019-05-08T15:30:00.000+01:002019-05-08T15:30:10.333+01:00Literacy Lessons from LILAC<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
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The annual <a href="https://www.lilacconference.com/lilac-2019" target="_blank">LILAC Conference</a> took place a couple of weeks ago in Nottingham and I was lucky enough to attend (mainly thanks to Jane Secker who asked me to speak as part of a panel discussion!). This is likely to be my last LILAC Conference for a while so I tried to make the most of it.<br />
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I find blogging a good way to bring my thoughts on the conference together - although there was really too much to try and fit into one post. I always come away from LILAC full of enthusiasm and ideas and the 2019 conference was no exception. If you want to read my thoughts I have written a post for the CILN (Cambridge Information Literacy Network) blog which can be found <a href="https://camiln.org/2019/05/07/literacy-lessons-from-lilac/" target="_blank">here</a>. I've also collected the tweets I sent during the event in an archive <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zO5P1KZMXfJb-wnPg8tNyWLepJjLUqqg_1-iQZsiKSM/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">here</a>. I use Twitter as a note-taking tool at events so hopefully I've managed to capture everything there that I was unable to in my post.</div>
Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-41989648423911562112019-01-08T20:28:00.001+00:002019-01-08T20:28:21.315+00:00Moving Online: Training Librarians in 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This blog has been a little neglected of late as I have had several projects to work on which sadly leaves limited time for blogging. Hopefully many of these projects will be wrapping up soon and then I can get back into writing. In the mean time you can catch up with some of what has been keeping me busy via the blog post below which was originally published on the <a href="https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Unlocking Research</a> blog and is reposted here via a CC-BY license.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Moving Online: Training Librarians in 2018</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(20, 20, 18); color: #141412; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we move into 2019 it is a good time to look back at another year spent training the library community, both in Cambridge and more widely. Over the last 12 months, the Office of Scholarly Communication has held nearly 50 training sessions for Cambridge staff on topics ranging from navigating copyright issues to the mechanics of the publishing process. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(20, 20, 18); color: #141412; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Face to face</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have continued to deliver high-quality face-to-face training sessions on many topics. Sometimes sessions just work better when participants are all together in a room, especially if there are a lot of activities. For example, our sessions looking at <a href="https://www.training.cam.ac.uk/osc/event/2536984" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #bc360a; text-decoration: none;">Research Data Management</a> and <a href="https://www.training.cam.ac.uk/osc/event/2536948" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #bc360a; text-decoration: none;">Data Management Plans</a> are designed to be interactive and so wouldn’t really work in any other format. Feedback from sessions tells us that participants really value the chance to meet other librarians and hear their perspectives on things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cambridge has more than 100 libraries including faculties, departments, colleges and connecting institutions. Many staff do not get to meet each other unless working on a specific project and even working in the same university it can be hard to avoid becoming too focused on local issues. Attending workshops and other training sessions allows conversations to happen and several people have told us that they really value the chance to connect with their colleagues.<span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Webinars to the rescue!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, librarians are very busy people so sometimes it’s just not possible for them to attend sessions in-person. Working in small teams often means that staff are unable to leave the library to go to training, especially when travel time and family commitments are factored into the equation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To help with this we <a href="https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=1861" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #bc360a; text-decoration: none;">introduced webinars</a> as a delivery method in 2017. This means that staff can either attend training sessions remotely or catch up with a recording. Because of the success of this project we have continued to deliver sessions via webinar in 2018 and feedback from attendees tells us we are doing something right! Several people have commented that they have attended sessions online which they would otherwise not have been able to make but others have had some suggestions for improvement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It can be hard to carve time out a busy schedule to attend even an hour-long webinar so there needs to be some incentive like an activity so people get the benefit of attending live. We have taken this on board and tried to build in interactive elements where appropriate. The main lesson we have learnt about webinars is that they are particularly useful for information delivery sessions which would usually involve someone standing at the front of the class delivering a talk. People can easily listen to this at their desk and/or ask questions through the webinar chat box without having to leave work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most of these webinars are shared with a Cambridge audience only but a few have been released more widely such as our talk on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2yZ-pD8poc" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #bc360a; text-decoration: none;">How to Spot a Predatory Publisher</a>. As discussed in our previous post on <a href="https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=2308" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #bc360a; text-decoration: none;">advertising videos</a> we have discovered that naming our content something that people are likely to Google is a great way to increase hits!<span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Increasing discoverability</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we offer more and more webinars we are starting to think about the best way to collate and share these. Although they can be useful resources, people need to know where to find them without having to hunt around. One of our priorities for 2019 is to gather both our webinars and online resources together to create a mini-hub where library staff can go to find more information.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These resources include webinar recordings but also the results of two other training projects from 2018: our Research in 3 Minutes videos and our Scholarly Communication Information Booklets. Research in 3 Minutes in a series of short videos which outline basic concepts in scholarly communication. Most of these areas can be quite complicated and terminology laden and these videos aim to provide an accessible introduction. They can also be uploaded for display on screens around the library or on other webpages to engage users. We started to create Information Booklets when we realised that all librarians love a handout (at least in our experience!).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These four-page booklets can be viewed online or printed out and offer a more in-depth look at areas we are often asked about, for example what exactly is a Creative Commons license? There are six booklets in the series so far, covering everything from the publication lifecycle to academic social networking and we aim to add more in 2019.<span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Online learning</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of our biggest forays into online learning took place with the <a href="https://osc.cam.ac.uk/training/research-support-ambassador-programme" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #bc360a; text-decoration: none;">Research Support Ambassador</a> programme. This is an annual programme aimed at educating library staff on the core elements of research support and in previous years it has been run both face-to-face and via webinar.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This year we decided to do something different and used Moodle to create a completely online course. Participants were able to work though modules including video content, quizzes and discussions to test their understanding of the concepts. Each module was assessed by an activity which allowed learners to put their new knowledge into practice by undertaking a research support task. Examples of this included assessing a data management plan and attempting to spot a predatory publisher.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Overall the course was completed by 20 participants who gave us a lot of positive feedback on the format as well as suggestions for improvements. In the next few years this is something we would like to expand on, perhaps to those outside Cambridge…<span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Beyond the University</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">T<span style="caret-color: rgb(20, 20, 18); color: #141412;">hat doesn’t mean we have neglected non-Cambridge librarians this year. In March our Research Support Skills Coordinator delivered two well-attended sessions on </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(20, 20, 18); color: #141412;">Moving </i><i style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(20, 20, 18); color: #141412;">Into</i><i style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(20, 20, 18); color: #141412;"> Research Support</i><span style="caret-color: rgb(20, 20, 18); color: #141412;"> with CILIP. The original session was so popular that we had to add a second and attendees came from around the UK to hear how they could get involved in this exciting new area. There was also a return visit to CILIP HQ in London for their 2018 Careers Day where attendees were introduced to the wonders of working in research support (including </span><a href="https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/274827" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(20, 20, 18); color: #bc360a; text-decoration: none;">dealing with penguin poop and breaking the internet</a><span style="caret-color: rgb(20, 20, 18); color: #141412;">).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We also contributed to a range of other events such as LILAC 2018 and <a href="https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/278648" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #bc360a; text-decoration: none;">Dawson Day</a> held in the summer – both of which gave us a chance to talk about the need for training in scholarly communication literacy for library staff.<span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All in all 2018 has been a very busy year for training but we will not be slowing down in 2019. We have plans to expand our online training offer and deliver even more face-to-face sessions for our community. Who knows what this blog will contain this time next year? Readers had better stay tuned to find out!<span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Originally published 8th January 2018 on the <i><a href="https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=2322" target="_blank">Unlocking Research</a></i> blog.</span></div>
Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-44051474735674925722018-10-08T13:37:00.000+01:002018-10-08T20:28:35.760+01:00No Nonsense Guide: Chance to Contribute a Case Study<div style="text-align: justify;">
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The blog has been through a quiet period recently for several reasons but perhaps one of the biggest is that I have been writing my first book! The <a href="http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/title.php?id=303939&category_code=37#.W2dP_tJKjIU" target="_blank"><i>No Nonsense Guide to Scholarly Communication and Research Support</i> </a>will be published by Facet in early 2019 and aims to offer an introduction to the main areas of research support that librarians will deal with. Hopefully it will offer a pain-free introduction to the work of scholarly communication for those new to the area or planning to move into it.</div>
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Perhaps one of the most important chapters will look at the career paths available for librarians in research support. Because of my current day job I spend a lot of time talking to people about training for library staff and it worries me to hear that they are often unable to recruit for research support roles from within the library profession. Sometimes this is because of a lack of skill and other times a lack of confidence which means that people perfectly qualified to apply don't. One of the aims of my book and this chapter in particular is to encourage people to get involved in this area and that is where I would like to use the expertise of the community. </div>
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As part of the chapter I want to include some case studies from people in the library and information sector who work in roles with some element of scholarly communication or research support. By talking about their careers so far, what they really do in their roles and the skills that they use I hope this will demystify some of the roles and encourage librarians to apply. If you would like to contribute to a case study then please fill in the Google form below, answering as many questions as you are able to. I'm happy to receive case studies from colleagues in a variety of roles around the globe at different levels. Depending on the amount and range of case studies I receive I may not be able to include all of them in the book and there is no financial incentive for contributing. The chapter will be made available via Open Access upon publication and by contributing you consent to both publication of the case study in the book and wider open sharing.<br />
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Contribute a case study here: https://goo.gl/forms/I4IWldaEunkA9DMi1<br />
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The deadline for case studies is Friday 16th November.<br />
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If you have any questions about this or would like to know more please feel free to contact me via the blog or at claire@librarianintraining.com.<br />
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Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-75029444720607495612018-09-10T08:49:00.000+01:002018-09-10T08:51:30.020+01:00Demystifying Peer Review: International Peer Review Week 2018<div style="text-align: justify;">
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This week is <a href="https://peerreviewweek.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">International Peer Review Week</a> which highlights and celebrates the role that peer review plays in scholarly communication. The theme of Peer Review Week 2018 is <i>Diversity</i> and aims to encourage more people from a range of different backgrounds to get involved in the process. Peer review as a process is changing - the introduction of open peer review aims to make it a more transparent process for both reviewers and reviewees. Hopefully by demystifying how and why peer review is carried out and arguable changing it for the better, more people will be encouraged to take part.</div>
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Much of my work this year has focused on developing online resources so I thought I would add to those this peer review week. Below you can find the first in a series of guides produced by the OSC which look at different aspects of scholarly communication. These first three titles look at different areas related to peer review - the publication lifecycle, avoiding predatory publishers and of course the peer review process itself. These booklets can be viewed <a href="https://issuu.com/cambridgeosc/stacks" target="_blank">online</a> or downloaded and printed <a href="http://bit.ly/OSCResearchSupportBooklets" target="_blank">here</a>. All of them are available under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license which means they can be shared and adapted as needed.</div>
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Enjoy!</div>
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<div class="powr-slideshow" id="ddcc0284_1536437842"></div>Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-6131888139551792382018-08-22T16:18:00.000+01:002018-08-22T21:44:35.336+01:00Less is More: Introducing Research in 3 Minutes Videos<div style="text-align: justify;">
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I'm now well into the third year of my job and finally starting to feel somewhat settled. I've done a lot of face to face training in the last couple of years but it can often be hard for staff to get away from the demands of their day jobs to attend sessions - however much they might want to! As a result I've been experimenting with more online training and I'll be sharing this on the blog over the coming months. </div>
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At least locally there seem to be two main problems with learning about scholarly communication and research support: a lack of time to learn about something that may not be directly relevant to their role and not understanding the terminology (and therefore not knowing if particular training sessions are relevant). To help with this I've put together a series of short videos covering <i><a href="https://osc.cam.ac.uk/training/supporting-researchers-21st-century-programme/research-3-minutes" target="_blank">Research in 3 Minutes</a></i>. Each video looks at a research support topic such as peer review, metrics and predatory publishers (click the image below for more). </div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7OxKMOjSTyH-MpfHConTkKcfCkhXtMn4" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRQAPnKlCjSCQGLZkdKZGJeTR9Fn0Vd_22qfZowIF0isI3PR5HOYrlm0ErVaAqZG610gpcLI_AELL6lYNiXikCn3DEYTJ36OE0tZ9dObrAWW7lSaaH-hmpXjsDUhucvkkgBj2z8-jSqap9/s320/IMG_Researchin3MinsBanner_V1_20180713.jpg" width="320" /></a><span id="goog_14252632"></span><span id="goog_14252633"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div>
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The videos themselves were easy to put together using a site called <a href="https://lumen5.com/" target="_blank">Lumen5</a>. This was something I saw mentioned on Twitter as a way to create short videos easily so having little or no design competency I thought I would give it a try. Designed as a way to make blog posts and other content more visual, the site takes text and automatically turns it into the videos you can see above. It also automatically selects CC0 images for each slide although the algorithm which does this didn't always get things right! This can all be changed along with moving the text between slides, highlighting certain words and selecting the (copyright free) music. I just used a free version which allows you to have forty slides and this was plenty.</div>
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Some top tips for creating videos like this:<br />
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<li>keep them short and sweet. Keeping the videos to roughly three minutes each allowed me to get my point across without going overboard</li>
<li>plan out what you want to say beforehand. The site allows you to copy and paste text from a word file and I found this to be the easiest method to make sure I stayed within my slide/word limit</li>
<li>always check your finished video, even if you have taken the time to prepare the text. Some things worked well in the Word document but didn't have the right flow in the video</li>
<li>the site offers both still images and video and I recommend trying to mix these up. Having both keeps the video fresh but having too many videos followed by a static image can be a little distracting</li>
<li>I used the same music on each slide for consistency but looking back I would change this. If someone was to watch more than one or even the whole sequence it can get pretty annoying! </li>
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The videos were a nice distraction from some of my more intense work over the last few months and are helping to build up a solid bank of online training materials. I hope to release more in the future so watch this space! </div>
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Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-28390287674893839452018-08-13T08:30:00.000+01:002018-08-13T08:30:01.349+01:00New Skills, New Challenges: CPD in the Information Profession<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Readers of this blog will know that I have always been interested in professional development for library staff. Recently I was asked to put together a special virtual online edition of the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/racl20" target="_blank">New Review of Academic Librarianship</a> looking at the way CPD has evolved over the years, as reported in the literature. The result can now be found online <a href="http://explore.tandfonline.com/content/pgas/vsi-career-and-professional-development" target="_blank">here </a>with all articles made openly available for a limited time. As part of this exercise I also wrote an introductory editorial on <span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">New Skills, New Challenges: CPD in the Information Profession which can be found with the articles</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #454c54; font-family: "Open Sans", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; text-align: start;">. </span>But don't worry if you don't get a chance to read it now - there is also a <a href="https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/275039" target="_blank">version of my editorial</a> available in the Cambridge repository. Currently under an embargo it will be available to read early next year. </div>
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Putting together this editorial was an interesting exercise. I've never been a big fan of literature reviews and even choosing publications from a defined list was hard. It was also difficult to get the balance and tone of the actual editorial right but I think I managed it in the end. It really helped me to focus and gave me a new perspective on some of the other writing projects I'm working on.<br />
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I've written a lot in the past about librarians getting involved in the publication process and I can recommend literature reviews as a route to try. They are often more helpful to readers than the original articles as all the hard work has been done for them! </div>
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Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-91907597094597457552018-04-24T09:35:00.000+01:002018-04-24T09:35:02.846+01:00All the Acronyms: LILAC, ICEPOPS and IFTTT <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The last few weeks have been busy for me conference wise. Perhaps the biggest event I have attended was <a href="https://www.lilacconference.com/" target="_blank">LILAC 2018</a> and its satellite event <a href="https://copyrightliteracy.org/upcoming-events/icepops-international-copyright-literacy-event-with-playful-opportunities-for-practitioners-and-scholars/" target="_blank">ICEPOPS</a>. </div>
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For those who don't know, LILAC is one of the larger conferences in the library calendar with a special focus on information literacy. As usual there was a great selection of speakers and the keynotes can now be <a href="https://www.lilacconference.com/lilac-archive/lilac-2018-1" target="_blank">viewed </a>online (I especially recommend watching David White's talk on Posthuman Literacies). The first ICEPOPS - International Copyright-Literacy Event with Playful Opportunities for Practitioners and Scholars - was held the day before LILAC and provided a chance for those interested in learning more about copyright education to get together and learn about different approaches. Both events were really useful and I ended up tweeting so much that Twitter thought I was a bot and briefly suspended my account!</div>
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I usually write a reflective blog post on events I attend but this time I decided to try something different - sharing my notes and tweet archive from the conference. Partly this is in the spirit of openness and ensuring that those who couldn't attend the event got a chance to see what was said and partly this helps me to justify to myself the huge amount of money I recently spent on a MacBook Air! In all seriousness I thought it would be good to share the full picture that I took away from the events. Usually when I blog I end up leaving a lot out as otherwise posts would be about eight pages long. This way you can see everything that I thought worth writing down (although it is of course my own personal interpretation of what was noteworthy). People seemed to enjoy reading these during the conference itself so I've collected them together here as a record. </div>
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<a href="http://bit.ly/ICEPOPS2018Notes">http://bit.ly/ICEPOPS2018_Notes</a></div>
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<a href="http://bit.ly/LILAC2018_Notes">http://bit.ly/LILAC2018_Notes</a></div>
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I also shared my collected tweets from both events. Setting up a personal archive of tweets is something I try to do from most events I attend as I use Twitter as a form of note taking and find this an easier way to go back through my own notes.</div>
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<a href="http://bit.ly/ICEPOPS2018_Tweets">http://bit.ly/ICEPOPS2018_Tweets</a></div>
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<a href="http://bit.ly/LILAC2018_Tweets">http://bit.ly/LILAC2018_Tweets</a></div>
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A few people have since asked me how I created these archives so I've included the instructions below. I find it a really useful way of keeping notes but I'd be interested to learn about the different methods other people use.</div>
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Setting up a tweet archive with IFTT</div>
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<li>Create an account on <a href="https://ifttt.com/discover" target="_blank">IFTTT</a></li>
<li>Connect your Twitter and Google Drive accounts</li>
<li>Go to My Applets - New Applet</li>
<li>Under IF select Twitter</li>
<li>Select New tweet by you with hashtag </li>
<li>Specify the hashtag of the event when prompted then select Create trigger</li>
<li>Under Then that select Google Sheets</li>
<li>Select Add row to spreadsheet. At this point you will be prompted to select an existing spreadsheet or set up a new one. You can also alter the way that the tweet is collected at this stage (IFTTT will guide you through it)</li>
<li>Select Create action and you're ready to go. The applet will run automatically</li>
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IFTTT is quite an intuitive site which guides you through the process of automating things quickly and easily. Remember that these archives only work if they are set up in advance as they collect information as it happens rather than retrospectively. If anyone knows a way of creating an archive retrospectively then I'm open to hearing about it! </div>
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Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-45507047322662310582018-04-18T10:16:00.000+01:002018-04-18T10:22:25.375+01:00Inclusivity, Technology and Assessment : CCTL Teaching Forum 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For the last few years a highlight of the spring at Cambridge has been the <a href="https://www.cctl.cam.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Cambridge Centre for Teaching and Learning</a> Forum. It provides a chance for all those with teaching responsibilities (at any level) to learn about best practice, new techniques and how we can improve our offer to our students. The 2018 event was held on a sunny day at Murray Edwards College with the highest number of attendees ever (including many librarians). I've picked out a few of my key themes of the day below: </div>
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<b>Inclusivity</b></div>
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The opening panel focused on how to make teaching more inclusive. It pointed out that the term <i>inclusivity</i> is an easy one to use but it requires careful unpacking into its many different facets. Like any other university Cambridge caters to many students with disabilities. The panel focused on moving away from a model where changes are made to accommodate someone with additional needs and towards an affirmative model where changes can be made for the good of all. Lecture capture was cited as an example of this - it can hugely benefit students with certain learning issues but can be used to great advantage by all (more on lecture capture later).</div>
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There was also talk of decolonizing or decentralizing the curriculum. This is again an issue that many universities face but perhaps the pressure is more intense at an institution like Cambridge. As well as looking at what we teach (which topics are covered and which readings are assigned) we were encouraged to think about <b><i>why</i> we teach the way we do</b>. Most teachers used their own teachers as models of good practice because that's what they know but is this just perpetuating the problem? We need to think about what influences our decisions to teach they way we do by asking ourselves some hard questions. This is something I know I need to think about as I reflect on my own teaching practice so this was one of my top takeaways from the day.</div>
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<b>Lecture capture</b></div>
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The issue of lecture capture was one of the big themes of the day and cropped up in multiple sessions. he process involves recording a live lecture and then making that recording available to students on the course. At the moment this has been done as an opt-in pilot project at Cambridge but it has been very popular with students. Formal permission was sought from lecturers to record their sessions and students were made aware that any contributions or questions from them could be edited out of the recording (although to date no one has taken up this offer). </div>
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There were several concerns raised about capturing lectures:</div>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><b>copyright </b>- part of the formal permission sought from lecturers included a copyright statement asking them to agree to sharing their presentation. Personally I would have liked more information on the copyright issues brought up by the <i>content</i> of the presentation as this is the most common issue I deal with. Something for me to investigate further I think!</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><b>attendance at lectures</b> - several people were understandably concerned that having a recording of the lecture would mean students were less likely to attend the live session. Evidence from the pilot project and its student survey actually suggests the opposite, with only a tiny percentage unlikely to attend </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><b>use of material</b> - some lecturers were concerned about the possibility that students would upload lecture captured content to online platforms such as YouTube. Students specifically agree not to do this when accessing the video but many pointed out that if they really wanted to there was little to stop them. Lecturers also worried that something they said during a lecture could be taken out of context and posted online - possibly leading to embarrassing repercussions. They wondered if this would impact their presentation style and lead to a level of self-censorship which could do a disservice to the students in the room</li>
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Some advantages of lecture capture were also highlighted:</div>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><b>catching up</b> - students who are forced to miss the live session due to illness or other commitments used the recordings to make sure they hadn't missed important content</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><b>revision tool</b> - many students were using the recordings as a revision tool before assessments. Some event attended the lectures just to listen and then watched the recordings to take notes</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><b>reduced stress</b> - levels of stress and anxiety were reduced among all students as they knew that they would have the opportunity to review the material</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><b>questions </b>- one slightly unexpected outcome was that students were spending less time asking their lecturers trivial questions about the content as these could be answered through the recordings. Instead they were able to use their tutorial time more effectively by exploring deeper questions around the content</li>
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The theme that <i>technology </i><b>doesn't need to be a foreign thing</b> was echoed in other presentations, including a very entertaining session from Dr Hugh Hunt from the Department of Engineering which showcased a marvelous bit of kit called a visualizer which lets you project what you are doing on the screen - ideal for conducting experiments and bringing in outside experts over Skype!</div>
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<b>Assessment</b></div>
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The final theme was the issue of assessment - how do we ensure that students have learnt what they need to know? Many presenters made the point that assessment should be less about measuring performance and more about making sure that students are reaching their potential. There was also a lot of discussion about the <b>authenticity of assessment</b>. We need to make sure that we use assessment methods show students are prepared for whatever they do next. At the moment we are great at assessing their ability to write an essay in exam conditions but what about skills they will use in the workplace such as writing reports or making a great presentation? Do we even need two different streams of assessment depending on the next steps the student will take - one for those going on to employment and another for those pursuing further study?</div>
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There were also calls for greater levels of <b>assessment literacy</b>. We need to inform our students what they will be working towards before they start so that they know what is expected of them, for example what knowledge and skills are they expected to develop in order to earn a first or a 2:1?</div>
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I think one of the most important messages on assessment for me was that we need to move away from <b>learning objectives </b>and instead focus on <b>learning outcomes</b> by focusing less on what we want to teach but on what our students need to learn to operate effectively. This is something that I will be thinking about as I plan the 2018 run of the <a href="https://osc.cam.ac.uk/training/research-support-ambassador-programme" target="_blank">Research Support Ambassador Programme</a> at Cambridge.</div>
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Overall the day was really inspiring and gave me a lot to take away and think about - I'm already looking forward to the 2019 Teaching Forum! </div>
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Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-55845142925934534892018-04-09T09:00:00.000+01:002018-04-16T08:28:30.106+01:00The Unexpected Side of Working in Research Support - CILIP Careers Day<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioO8cU6E-pcwpMa-_fjMjcH49QrDKqf0u8J9RaEMVV6ACwpYpq4GZj0mHFNhdlxeCIPS82u2qwIhaSL3pnpwbcpQqodweDMznB3sC3eSLP_HnbIDz6LHbldSYf7Bxhcf28YgeqE5295Wip/s1600/stairs-3297014_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1001" data-original-width="1600" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioO8cU6E-pcwpMa-_fjMjcH49QrDKqf0u8J9RaEMVV6ACwpYpq4GZj0mHFNhdlxeCIPS82u2qwIhaSL3pnpwbcpQqodweDMznB3sC3eSLP_HnbIDz6LHbldSYf7Bxhcf28YgeqE5295Wip/s200/stairs-3297014_1920.jpg" width="200" /></a>Last week I traveled what is starting to become a familiar route down to London to speak at the CILIP Careers Day. This annual one day event started in 2017 as a way to reach out to those who have been working in the information profession for a while and were looking for a way to take the next step or refresh their career. The sessions included both talks and practical workshops from people working in a variety of different sectors. We also heard about valuable techniques such as networking, reading a job advertisement and how to move on if you are stuck in a career rut.</div>
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I was asked to speak about working in research support, an area which is becoming increasingly important in libraries as evidenced by the number of job advertisements that keep cropping up in this area. Librarians sometimes get nervous about the language that is used in these adverts and worry that because they are not experts in areas such as Open Access and Research Data Management that they shouldn't apply for these roles. However, if you actually look at the skills that are being asked for then hopefully it should become apparent that librarians know a lot about this area already:</div>
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<li>We are used to dealing with and describing data in order to open it up to a wider audience</li>
<li>Librarians tend to be very adaptable and good and problem solving - ideal for dealing with publishers who change their policies (and consequently your department workflows) at a moments notice</li>
<li>We know about different methods of publishing and the differences between them - for example that journals often appear in print/online faster than books. This is the kind of advice we can pass on to our users</li>
<li>We are accustomed to explaining sometimes complex procedures and rules to our users in a way that makes sense to them which comes in handy when trying to explain various Open Access policies!</li>
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The point that I (hopefully) made on the day was that librarians often expect to be baffled by research support roles but once they start digging a bit deeper then they realise that they know more than they think. As with any librarian role the subject knowledge can be learnt, it is much harder to be the sort of person who has the aptitude to work in research support but I think librarians have all of the necessary traits already.</div>
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Every day working in research support is different, even if the tasks can sometimes seem a little bit routine. In my own department there is always something to make the day go faster - like the time that someone uploaded multiple images of <a href="https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/262981" target="_blank">penguin guano</a> as the data supporting their publication, the day my office<a href="http://theconversation.com/stephen-hawkings-phd-thesis-crashed-its-host-website-heres-what-it-says-in-simple-terms-86351" target="_blank"> crashed the Cambridge University server</a> by publishing Dr Stephen Hawking's <a href="https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/251038" target="_blank">thesis </a>or the fact that I have a Krispy Kreme loyalty card for work purposes! </div>
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As well as getting to meet a great bunch of people (and hopefully not putting them off a career in research support!) I learnt a lot from the other sessions. I've always been a bit nervous of networking but the excellent session by <a href="https://twitter.com/JoWood04" target="_blank">Jo Wood</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/ThatLibraryMan" target="_blank">Michael Jones</a> helped to boost my confidence so will probably be my top takeaway.</div>
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For those interested in either working in research support or what colour penguin guano is, my slides are available below:</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="485" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/zmUhwLM0mwKu31" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="595"> </iframe> <br />
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<strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/ClaireSewell/penguin-poop-breaking-the-internet-and-doughnuts-what-its-really-like-working-in-research-support" target="_blank" title="Penguin Poop, Breaking the Internet and Doughnuts: What It's Really Like Working in Research Support">Penguin Poop, Breaking the Internet and Doughnuts: What It's Really Like Working in Research Support</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/ClaireSewell" target="_blank">Claire Sewell</a></strong> </div>
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Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-16356865024647228512018-03-26T13:39:00.000+01:002018-03-28T09:40:34.342+01:00Skills in Scholarly Communication – Needs & Development<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This post is reblogged from <i><a href="https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=1943" style="color: #004c99; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Unlocking Research</a></i>, the blog of the Office of Scholarly Communication, Cambridge.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This blog post is part of the write-up of an investigation into the background of people working in scholarly communication, with a specific focus on skills.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Introduction</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Library staff need to have a wide range of skills in order to undertake their roles. Whatever type of library they work in and whatever their individual role there is a range of both generic and specialist skills which staff need to acquire over the course of their career. In the Office of Scholarly Communication our focus is on making sure library staff are equipped to work in research support roles but we also have a wider interest in who makes up the global scholarly communication workforce.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In late 2016 we conducted a survey to find out more about this issue. We were slightly overwhelmed by the popularity of the survey which gathered over 500 responses from people who self-identified as working in scholarly communication which we defined as:</span></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The process by which academics, scholars and researchers share and publish their research findings with the wider academic community and beyond. This includes, but is not limited to, areas such as open access and open data, copyright, institutional repositories and research data management.</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You can read a summary of some of the findings from this research <a href="https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=1313" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #bc360a; text-decoration: none;">here</a> but we wanted to delve a little deeper and look at which skills scholarly communication staff felt they needed and how they developed them. This blog post looks at that question.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Which skills?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Rather than come up with yet another list of skills that staff should or could have we made the decision to use an existing list from UKeIG – the</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><a href="https://www.cilip.org.uk/members/group_content_view.asp?group=201314&id=692156" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #bc360a; text-decoration: none;">UK eInformation Group</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of CILIP. This list is comprehensive in its coverage and we felt that it would provide a good basis for future comparisons as well as providing a list with which the community would be familiar. The list is of course not exhaustive and respondents were invited to add any additional skills which they felt were relevant to their roles.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Respondents were asked to highlight the skills which they used in their<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"> current roles</strong>. Their responses are summarised in Figure 1 (all figures can be viewed at higher resolution by clicking on them).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">FIG 1: Skills used in current roles</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Institutional repository (management/curation) (72%) and Copyright (63%) were the skills most used, closely followed by Open Access – content discovery (59%) and Understanding metrics (55%).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some skills were used with much less frequency such as Resource Description and Access (RDA) (10%), Post-cancellation access and archiving (9%) and Mobile technology (8%). Under the option <em>Other</em> skills specified by respondents included knowledge of open educational resources, educating faculty and students about how to get published and electronic theses.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Skills for future roles</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Respondents were also asked to select the skills they felt would be important for the <strong>future of the profession</strong>. The results are summarised in Figure 2:<a href="https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?attachment_id=1950" rel="attachment wp-att-1950"></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">FIG 2: Skills of importance to the future of the profession</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The top four selections had a similar number of responses: Innovations in academic publishing (51%), Research data management (50%), Understanding the user experience (47%) and Copyright (46%). It is interesting to note that <strong>Copyright</strong> is the only skill to appear in the top five of both current and future skills.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The other end of the scale again included RDA (6%) and Post-cancellation access (7%) as well as working with standards (6%). Under the option <em>Other</em> skills included instruction and education, developing strategic partnerships and gumption!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Developing these skills</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What we really wanted to know was how people working in scholarly communication developed these skills – through their formal education, on the job training or self-directed learning. Survey respondents were asked how they had developed the skills included on the UKeIG list, and their responses can be seen in Figure 3 below:<a href="https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/FIG_3.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-1951"></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">FIG 3: How did you develop your knowledge about the following areas?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Almost all of the respondents had some level of either undergraduate or postgraduate education, with <strong>71% either holding or working towards a postgraduate qualification in library and information</strong> science. Given this, it is surprising to note that so few felt that they had developed the skills they needed for their role through formal education. This gap could perhaps be attributed to the fact that <strong>74%</strong> of respondents have held their qualifications for a significant amount of time and so these subjects were not offered at the time. They would have had little choice but to learn these skills on the job or in their own time as it was unlikely to be practical to return to formal education.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Generic skills on the list scored much higher with participants for formal education, perhaps because library school courses are designed to produce well-rounded information professionals able to work in a variety of sectors and so cover the skills that are most likely to be of use in a broad career.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Looking at the results in more detail we can see that a potential skills gap is being created. Looking at the top five skills respondents’ have identified as using in their current role we can see that the levels of formal learning for each are low (Figure 4).<a href="https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/FIG_4.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-1952"></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">FIG 4: Current needs: How are these skills being addressed?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There is evidence that this skills gap could continue into the future. Figure 5 shows the top five skills respondents think will be of most importance to the future of the profession. Again the numbers developing these skills through formal education are low, showing that those working in scholarly communication are having to rely on either on the job or self-directed learning to develop the skills they identify as being important to the future of the profession.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">FIG 5: Future needs: How are these skills being addressed?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Next steps</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We will continue to analyse the results of the survey to find out more about how those working in scholarly communication have developed their skill sets and how they see future offerings being delivered. In the meantime the OSC is part of a group which is looking to tackle the provision of dedicated scholarly communication in the UK. As well as <a href="https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=1817">sharing our discussions</a> on this blog you can talk to us at various events. We have already visited <a href="http://rlukconference.com/session/workshop-perpetual-metamorphosis-addressing-the-need-for-professional-development-of-academic-librarians-in-scholarly-communication-and-other-emerging-areas/">RLUK</a> and are scheduled to present at <a href="https://www.lilacconference.com/lilac-2018">LILAC</a> and <a href="http://www.cilip.org.uk/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1040904&group=">CILIP Careers Day</a> so do come and chat to us if you have a chance!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Originally published: Unlocking Research, March 23rd 2018</b></span></div>
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Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-56798566963447344492018-02-23T08:17:00.002+00:002018-02-23T08:18:29.226+00:00Cool Cartoons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCHbHDF-07e_V5zh3o_5uSTo_i1nSCQL3Dxaf4zgCemRfE9c33kl4YAjtWqkIVMKyFLcOwOp2BAA1ybVnmGPRehZxYxx354VrkAZsQV0Ki7znFWOu_2iNme4UAYlxMJjt8tItgFdYcJwwf/s1600/color-3078559_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCHbHDF-07e_V5zh3o_5uSTo_i1nSCQL3Dxaf4zgCemRfE9c33kl4YAjtWqkIVMKyFLcOwOp2BAA1ybVnmGPRehZxYxx354VrkAZsQV0Ki7znFWOu_2iNme4UAYlxMJjt8tItgFdYcJwwf/s200/color-3078559_1920.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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One of my biggest achievements of 2017 was having my first peer reviewed article published in the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/racl20/current" target="_blank">New Review of Academic Librarianship</a>. It was an intense experience and I learnt a lot - not least to cut our research community a bit of slack. I was only writing one article - they write several! </div>
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I was thrilled to learn at the end of the year that the article was being turned into a cartoon abstract. These are cartoon versions of the usual textual abstract that goes with the article. They come in a variety of formats depending on the interpretation of that particular artist(s). Cartoon abstracts are also a really good way to make an instant impact with your article. The saying that a <i>picture is worth a thousand words</i> is true - the casual reader's attention is caught more by a an image than a paragraph of text that they have to read through. It also great to see someone else's interpretation of my work (particularly as I'm not artistic myself). Plus, it's kind of cool!</div>
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You can see the cartoon abstract by clicking below and you can read the accompanying article <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13614533.2017.1323766" target="_blank">here </a>(OA).</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://librarianresources.taylorandfrancis.com/developing-21st-century-library/" target="_blank">The Research Support Ambassador Programme</a></td></tr>
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Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-16187993768396164492018-02-05T21:50:00.000+00:002018-02-05T21:50:42.335+00:00Dealing with the Green-Eyed Monster<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS6Wt8DDpLkzMxiWQEW6_xRQyP6WHqTCxtRcIcwtEveHHJMo9UfzjGl4akv6XR4XkHxI6ftVbK0LguC4gjoyZODwoVhSR4z_1aIkzCfI5SkMVyxMCvZPa5MuS8HxqmS15HCcbwGUX973rm/s1600/smiley-2979107_1920+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS6Wt8DDpLkzMxiWQEW6_xRQyP6WHqTCxtRcIcwtEveHHJMo9UfzjGl4akv6XR4XkHxI6ftVbK0LguC4gjoyZODwoVhSR4z_1aIkzCfI5SkMVyxMCvZPa5MuS8HxqmS15HCcbwGUX973rm/s320/smiley-2979107_1920+%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This is one of those posts that I probably shouldn't write but it's been niggling me for a while and perhaps the only way to make it go away is to write it. It's not intended to get sympathy or beg for reassuring comments, more just something I need to put down on (digital) paper. </div>
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I want to talk about professional jealousy. We all experience it - that feeling of irrational rage when someone else has done something you wish you had, achieved a goal that seems out of your reach or has just done something better than you. It's natural to feel jealous in this sort of situation and it can be a good motivator to work harder or get out of your comfort zone. I know that I wouldn't be in the role I'm in today if I wasn't occasionally jealous of the success of my colleagues and pushed myself that bit harder. This is the positive side to jealousy but what about the negative? At the extreme it can lead to people making nasty comments and you becoming the outsider. Unfortunately this is something I've experienced quite a lot recently, both in my day job and in the other professional commitments that I have. Things have been going well with work, both for me and my wider department but with that success comes the flip side. It can range from flippant comments such as people telling me I shouldn't complain about being tired because it's my own fault for taking on too much, through to more 'organised' moaning that gets back to you through the local grapevine. </div>
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This isn't really a new feeling for me. I've always been something of an overachiever - doing more work than necessary and taking on too much. When I was at school I was often referred to as a swot and was bullied for it. Typical kid stuff that we all go through and that has fueled the plots of some great 80s high school movies. The thing it, I'd sort of hoped that as we got older, left school and moved into jobs which turned into careers, the taunting would stop. Or at least people would get the sense to keep their comments to themselves. Sadly it seems that this isn't the case and recently I've been feeling that I've gone back about twenty years. I still tend to take on too much and get involved in a lot of projects (in a similar way to many other information professionals I know!). In the beginning I did this in a bid to impress my then-bosses into giving me a permanent job and then afterwards because I found that I enjoyed getting involved. And maybe I'm a bit addicted to that nice feeling of knowing people like something I've done. I certainly like helping people and get a lot of satisfaction this way from both my job and my extra curricular activities. It doesn't stop the jealousy getting wearing though, especially when you have a lot on your plate.</div>
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So how do you deal with the green-eyed monster? If you are one of those experiencing jealousy then remember that it's natural. As I've said above it can be a great motivator if used correctly and can really help to push you to achieve something. If you are jealous of a colleague then stop and think about <i>how </i>they've got what it is you want. You could even use it to start a conversation with them and learn about the steps they've taken to get where they are. If they're anything like most people in this profession they will be more than happy to help you with a bit of friendly advice. You may even have to do a bit of introspection and acknowledge that it's your problem rather than theirs. The bottom line is be a grown up and remember that no matter how you intend your comments, they can get lost in translation and get back to the other person. And if you're on the receiving end? Then try and see it for the pettiness it is and let it pass you by. It's easier said than done I know, and sometimes it can build up and really wear you down. If people aren't saying these things to your face and you hear about them second hand it's probably because they <i>know</i> they're in the wrong. In the same way that bullies will put you down because it makes them feel better, the irrationally jealous will know on some level that they're being juvenile. If they had a genuine comment to make that could be backed up with logical argument they would start a conversation with you rather than whispering when they think you can't hear them. But think of it like this - you must have done something right for these people to be jealous of you. Keep focusing on that and doing what you're doing and hopefully that will be enough to get you - and me - through!</div>
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Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-80437348875355842012018-01-26T08:38:00.000+00:002018-01-26T08:38:58.240+00:00Developing the Staff of the Future: Training Librarians in 2017<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This post is reblogged from <i><a href="https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=1861" style="color: #004c99; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Unlocking Research</a></i>, the blog of the Office of Scholarly Communication, Cambridge.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="line-height: 107%;">2017 was an exciting year for
training our library community. As well as continuing to cover the basics of
research support, the OSC was able to introduce new topics and new methods of
delivery to ensure that Cambridge library staff have all the information they
need to support the research community. In this blog post our Research Support
Skills Coordinator Claire Sewell reflects on the successes of the past year and
her plans to make 2018 even better.</span></i><span style="line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This time
last year I was <a href="https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=1228">reflecting
on my first full year in my role</a>, having started in November 2015. After
more than two years in the role some things have remained constant but there
have also been a great many changes in training, so it seemed like a good idea
to stop and reflect again. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The OSC runs
two parallel professional development schemes for library staff: <i>Supporting Researchers in the 21<sup>st</sup>
Century</i> and the <i>Research Support
Ambassador Programme</i>. Supporting Researchers is open to all library staff
and offers a regular programme of training in areas related to research support
throughout the year. The Research Support Ambassadors programme is a more
intensive programme which runs every summer and is designed to create a library
workforce who feel confident in helping researchers with their queries. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Supporting
Researchers in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century<span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></h1>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The world of
the academic library is changing and it’s important that institutions work to
equip the staff with the knowledge they need to take advantage of these
changes. The Supporting Researchers programme offers a range of training
opportunities from general talks to in-depth workshops which are designed to
help staff keep on top of the rapidly changing world of scholarly
communication.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 2017 we
ran twenty-three training events catering to the needs of over four hundred
staff. In addition to covering some of the expected areas such as Open Access
and Research Data Management we looked at some new areas such as Text and Data
Mining and predatory publishing. These sessions proved to be a hit with attendees,
with 70% of those attending rating the sessions as ‘excellent’. They were also
enthusiastic in their feedback:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Excellent session on
predatory publishers. We’ve started to get a lot of questions in this area and
knowing more about it came at the perfect time<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was
really engaging and a perfect introduction to the topic. I only had a vague
idea at the outset as to what predatory publishing is but by the end of it I
felt really well-informed (and in a short space of time!)<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In order to
help staff plan their time and attendance we experimented with forming sessions
into mini programmes which resulted in our <i>Librarian
Toolkit </i>sessions on Helping Researchers Publish and Open Access. This
seemed to be successful so it’s something we’ll be continuing in 2018. By far
our most successful session was <i>How to
Spot a Predatory Publisher</i>, which was delivered in direct response to
demand from staff who were getting a lot of questions from their users on the
topic. It was so successful that we’ve gone on to produce some <a href="https://osc.cam.ac.uk/about-scholarly-communication/author-tools/considerations-when-choosing-journal/predatory-publishers">local
guidance</a> and a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He9GJybTtUw&list=PLG24w6ETyHS3fYbDnB6LOOzOfATVhP3zp&index=33">webinar</a>
which has over 300 views to date. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Research
Support Ambassador Programme<span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></h1>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 2017 the
Research Ambassador Programme ran from August to October and attracted eighteen
participants from across colleges, departments and the University Library. We
tried something a little different this year by making most of the training
available online. Librarians are notoriously busy people and coupling this with
summer holidays and the introduction of a new library management system meant
that it would have been impractical to schedule in a host of face-to-face
sessions. The initial introductory workshop ran as an in-person session to
allow Ambassadors to meet each other and put faces to names but all other
sessions were delivered as interactive webinars. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Although
formal feedback is still being collated, initial responses have been positive:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I feel much more
confident now that I have a good overview of all the issues confronting
researchers and I will be able to know how to train researchers and who to refer
them to for more information<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks for the
programme. The content was really interesting and delivering via webinar was
helpful as I didn’t have to leave my desk. I feel much more confident in
dealing with researcher questions now.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now that we
have three cohorts of past Research Ambassadors in Cambridge it’s time to
expand the programme for those still wishing to be involved. It’s hoped that
this will create a community of research support librarians and strengthen it
into the future as new staff take part in the programme.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Introducing
a new training format is always a challenge but in the case of OSC webinars
it’s one where the hard work has paid off. Many library staff have commented
over the past two years that although they would like to attend training
session they can’t due to issues with library staffing and other commitments.
Repeating sessions and varied scheduling helps to some extent but we felt that
more could be done. Having attended many webinars myself I knew they were a
great way to attend training without having to leave my desk, especially if
recordings could be accessed at a later date. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Over the
course of 2017 the OSC delivered a total of nine webinars for library staff.
Feedback on the format from library staff was positive: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="line-height: 107%;">Working in a small
Library where most staff are part time makes it difficult to get out of the
Library to attend training so being able to take part online was great.</span></i><span style="line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I really enjoy the
ability to listen back at a convenient time; I often cannot leave the library
at short notice due to lack of cover, or unforeseeable research enquiries that
overrun and unfortunately take precedence over courses etc. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nice and flexible - can
watch from anywhere!<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As a result
of this success, the webinar format is now being used for additional training
for both the research community and an audience beyond Cambridge. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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beyond Cambridge<span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></h1>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s also
been a busy year for training library staff outside Cambridge. In May I went to
talk to CPD25, the staff development programme of the M25 Consortium of
Academic Libraries on <i>Making the </i><a href="https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/264514"><i>Modern Academic Librarian</i></a> and gave a presentation on the <a href="https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/269322"><i>Librarian as Researcher</i></a> to CILIP in Kent in November. I was
also lucky enough to visit Salzberg to talk about the skills librarians can
bring to the support of Text and Data Mining. The OSC has also been involved in
<a href="https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=1817">talking to other
interested stakeholders</a> about the wider need for research support training
for library staff which has led to some exciting progress.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We’ve also
been busy talking about Cambridge initiatives to the wider world. In April 2017
I went to LILAC – the major information literacy conference for librarians – in
Swansea and gave three presentation including a <a href="https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/269604">poster</a> on the <i>Supporting Researchers in the 21<sup>st</sup>
Century</i> programme, a <a href="https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/269608">presentation</a> on
the <i>Research Support Ambassador </i>programme
and a <a href="https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/269609">workshop</a>
on <i>Engaging Students with Research Data
Management</i>. This has led to a wider interest in these programmes and the
issue of research support training more widely.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Perhaps the
biggest impact we’ve had has been the publication of an <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13614533.2017.1323766">article</a>
on the Research Support Ambassador Programme in the New Review of Academic
Librarianship. To date this has had over two thousand views and was the most
read article published in the journal in 2017. I was very excited to discover
this week that it has its first citation and that it has been chosen to receive
a cartoon abstract as part of the launch of the publisher’s new librarian
platform this year. Lots to look forward to! <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Future plans</span></span></h3>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, what
next? Plans for the Research Support Ambassadors are moving forward and we have
several interesting sessions lined up for our librarians already. There has
also been a lot of interest in offering training to a wider audience starting
with a session on <a href="http://www.cilip.org.uk/?page=research_supportHome"><i>Moving Into Research Support</i></a> in
February and more to come. Hopefully there will also be more publications in
the future and of course updates on this blog. The OSC is very much looking
forward to working with our library community throughout 2018 and beyond to
bring them more exciting training opportunities. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-2991273783444222032017-12-18T21:04:00.001+00:002017-12-18T21:04:23.108+00:00Biting the Bullet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGOpDW4eR86S_4RxOURjLaIKkf7Zw9Mq_GQhUH5wDhBSaVsmMfVht05IHyi50sxg3_HIHWFBWOvQY3utEUP153sTMnu_-GO9imUJ7M08QhBSjpMykISX18BkQGwOrMB7IhXoD7e_mQGzmS/s1600/work-3015484_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGOpDW4eR86S_4RxOURjLaIKkf7Zw9Mq_GQhUH5wDhBSaVsmMfVht05IHyi50sxg3_HIHWFBWOvQY3utEUP153sTMnu_-GO9imUJ7M08QhBSjpMykISX18BkQGwOrMB7IhXoD7e_mQGzmS/s200/work-3015484_1920.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
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Being someone who loves all things stationery I've come across bullet journals before. I always thought they sounded like a good idea but never really got round to coming up with one of my own. Recent changes in my personal circumstances mean that I need to start getting organised and whilst out Christmas shopping I spotted <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Bullet-Plan-Everything-Journaling/dp/0752266373/ref=sr_1_32?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1513612842&sr=1-32&keywords=bullet+journal" target="_blank">th<span id="goog_704706881"></span><span id="goog_704706882"></span>is </a>so decided to take the plunge. Luckily my colleagues at the Engineering Library in Cambridge were offering a class on using bullet journals to become more organised so I attended and picked up some valuable tips.</div>
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Bullet journaling is a system for creating your own bespoke diary/notebook/calendar system. Pre-printed planners are great but they don't always work for everyone. People find that they never use some of the sections but run out of space in others. Using a blank notebook, the bullet system allows people to record their plans and to-do lists in a way that suits them. Bullet journals can be created from any type of notebook and customized to suit the individual. They can be as simple or as complicated as you like (if you want to get sucked down a rabbit hole look on either <a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bullet+journal+ideas" target="_blank">YouTube</a> for inspiration or on Amazon for <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_18?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=bullet+journal+stencils&sprefix=bullet+journal+ste%2Caps%2C139&crid=2KAI0KS8NOA10" target="_blank">stencils</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_17?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=bullet+journal+stickers&sprefix=bullet+journal+st%2Caps%2C154&crid=2MVT4JKP2SX9M&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Abullet+journal+stickers" target="_blank">stickers</a> or <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_9?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=washi+tape&sprefix=washi+tap%2Caps%2C145&crid=2SGRAS7830PQH" target="_blank">washi tape</a>).</div>
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Tasks are recorded using a basic range of symbols:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6PYTwj6HXR1Jk8aCs4x0SgGnxLa0dEEyARpaLsqcu8cjjoebZOrEof2Xo1PAXMD2YiMA0PPPA5EUGZHfERXJ3ogi4TAoiD8eTn0X0MauWeTC_szDj-jhQJo9QDwa3FOhYgb-zxlpEGptB/s1600/bullet.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="443" data-original-width="510" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6PYTwj6HXR1Jk8aCs4x0SgGnxLa0dEEyARpaLsqcu8cjjoebZOrEof2Xo1PAXMD2YiMA0PPPA5EUGZHfERXJ3ogi4TAoiD8eTn0X0MauWeTC_szDj-jhQJo9QDwa3FOhYgb-zxlpEGptB/s320/bullet.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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The beauty of these symbols is that they all start with a dot and can be changed as needed. Once a task has been completed you can put a cross through the dot, when a task is migrated to a new day it can be turned into a greater than symbol and so on. Entries onto these lists are short and to the point (although you can have a longer diary-like section). The idea is that you can glance at the journal and see exactly what you've already done and what you still need to do.<br />
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When setting up your bullet journal one of the first things to do is set up an index. This comes at the start of the book and is essentially a content page. Whereas a traditional planner will be divided into sections where calendars sit together, to-do lists in another section and notes in yet another section, a bullet journal lets you start new sections wherever you like. There is no worrying about leaving a certain amount of pages free, you just fill up the notebook as you go along. Therefore having an index helps you to keep track of everything - for example everything referring to January might be on pages 7-11, 25-31 and 45. Although it might seem like a counterintuitive way to work it actually helps to keep things sitting side by side. For example the notes from work meetings can be found near the calendar entry for the meeting which helps to keep things fresh.<br />
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There are many different spreads or lists you can choose to put into your journal depending on what you need to plan. You can have calendars to show you the next two, four or six months ahead as well as weekly and daily diary entries. You can include one long to-do list or different lists for every aspect of your life. You can track your fitness levels and plan your meals. Whatever you feel you need.<br />
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Putting together the journal takes some time at the beginning but everyone is keen to stress that the system is adaptable. If you try something and it doesn't work then move on. If having a meal planning list becomes more of a chore than a help then ditch it. If you find that having a monthly to-do list is too much then have a weekly one. Bullet journals can be used for both work and home to let you see your life at a glance although you can have separate ones if you feel the need. If you want to be artistic or include extra elements you can but the advice I received was to start simple and work your way up to more complex layouts.</div>
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I'm hoping to get started with bullet journaling in the new year but one thing my colleagues pointed out was that there is a community out there around this form of organisation. A quick Google gives lots of interesting ideas for layouts and spreads (I'm getting the lingo!). People are happy to share their designs and you can be inspired, no matter how much you might struggle on your own. I've already been out and bought some coloured pens and washi tape - the only thing left to do now is get started!</div>
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Credit for all of these tips goes to Emma Etteridge and Kirsten Lamb at the Engineering Library, Cambridge, Michelle Bond, Coventry University Library and <em>How to bullet plan: a practical guide</em> by Rachel Wilkerson Miller. </div>
Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085351369370530753.post-91871738974823779452017-11-17T10:45:00.002+00:002017-11-17T10:48:26.444+00:00Moving into Research Support: What Librarians Really Need to Know<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijtILFLsCjIWJQS_Mi6G88zjeSFg5bxp04pWlSDkM_OwhATPaL332zxao4z2TyD_n8WyPlvJeJrdBcaGyTrlF1GUWD-TMog5i7AoNusHhBvI2Rb26HBrqAyS284VVruJyozJGiIHmDPfel/s1600/black-coffee-laptop-macbook-wood-table-desk-cup-saucer-isorepublic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijtILFLsCjIWJQS_Mi6G88zjeSFg5bxp04pWlSDkM_OwhATPaL332zxao4z2TyD_n8WyPlvJeJrdBcaGyTrlF1GUWD-TMog5i7AoNusHhBvI2Rb26HBrqAyS284VVruJyozJGiIHmDPfel/s200/black-coffee-laptop-macbook-wood-table-desk-cup-saucer-isorepublic.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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I've been doing a lot of work in the past year or so on educating the library community beyond Cambridge about scholarly communication and research support from blog posts and surveys to speaking at events. In 2018 I'm aiming to formalize this by offering a course on <a href="https://www.cilip.org.uk/default.asp?page=research_supportHome" target="_blank"><i>Moving into Research Support</i></a> in collaboration with <a href="https://www.cilip.org.uk/" target="_blank">CILIP </a>and <a href="https://www.cilip.org.uk/members/group_content_view.asp?group=200698&id=685442" target="_blank">CILIP East</a>.</div>
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It's quite hard work to condense <i>everything</i> a librarian might need to know about research support into one three hour workshop but I'm enjoying the challenge. What I'm really hoping to cover is what library staff <i>really</i> need to know to get started, whether they are new to the world of research support, have had these duties added to their current post or are just interested in exploring the sector and its various roles. Hopefully this will be enough to get people started and help them to grasp the basics of scholarly communication.</div>
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In the course I'll be covering: </div>
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<ul>
<li>An introduction to scholarly communication in the 21st century</li>
<ul>
<li>What do we mean by scholarly communication?</li>
<li>What does it mean to be a researcher in the 21st century?</li>
<li>Where the library fits into the research lifecycle</li>
<li>The different roles available for librarians in library and information support</li>
</ul>
</ul>
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<li>Research Data Management</li>
<ul>
<li>What do we mean when we talk about 'data'?</li>
<li>Why should researchers learn how to manage their data?</li>
<li>How can libraries support researchers across disciplines with their data?</li>
</ul>
</ul>
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<li>Open Access</li>
<ul>
<li>What is Open Access?</li>
<li>What are the implications of research funder policies for researchers?</li>
<li>How can librarians keep up with the changes? </li>
</ul>
</ul>
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<li>Disseminating research</li>
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<li>How can researchers share their research once it's completed?</li>
<li>How can they take advantage of new and innovative methods of dissemination?</li>
<li>How can librarians support researchers with sharing their work with the wider world?</li>
</ul>
</ul>
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<li>Metrics and measuring impact</li>
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<li>Why are metrics and why are they important?</li>
<li>Why do researchers need to measure impact?</li>
<li>How can libraries support researchers with understanding and applying metrics?</li>
</ul>
</ul>
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I hope this will be a valuable introduction and there will of course be signposting towards further information on different areas so people can explore further if they want to. If this course turns out to be a success who knows what might be next? I'm really enjoying pulling the content together and it's giving me lots of ideas about the skills that librarians really need in this area which is something I hope to do more investigation on in 2018. </div>
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If you are interested in the workshop the course takes place on February 1st and details and booking information can be found via the CILIP website <a href="https://www.cilip.org.uk/default.asp?page=research_supportHome" target="_blank">here</a>. </div>
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Claire Sewellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14323624737569129942noreply@blogger.com0