JISC

Recent reports and articles on the uptake of VLEs in the UK ‘s Higher and Further education communities have highlighted a number of key issues requiring further investigation.

One emergent theme is that although there is widespread adoption of VLEs, information skills learning and teaching resources are practically non-existent within them.

Another theme is that the involvement of librarians and the skills required from them to deliver information skills teaching and learning within VLEs is an area that has also been identified as requiring further work.

A third issue is that, whilst the use of the JISC’s quality IE (Information Environment) resources is becoming more widespread, there is still a continuing need for raising the profile of these as they continue to be developed. 

The INHALE project (one of the projects from the 5/99 DNER learning and teaching programme) has initiated materials, methodologies and tools specifically aimed at addressing these needs. 

The INFORMS project will continue and build upon the INHALE project as set out in the DiVLE Programme Call (C07/02) that: -

'Projects will mostly build on existing solutions, extending their application to a wider area that will produce generic outcomes which have a wide benefit for the JISC community'

The INFORMS [roject will undertake this under Theme B of the DiVLE Programme, Learning and Teaching Implementation Pilots, which requires that projects 

'implement curriculum focused pilots, based upon units of learning, linking VLEs to digital library systems'

Aims and Objectives

The INFORMS project will be part of the gradual iterative process of disseminating and scaling up the INHALE model for delivery in a wider range of institutions and will therefore enable the replication, testing and refining of all the models, methodologies, tools and materials already developed by the INHALE project in the area of the delivery of Information Skills within VLEs.  

The specific objectives are to:

• to integrate VLE and Digital Library use into teaching practice
• to develop the information seeking skills of both academic staff and students
• to raise the awareness of the resources available through the Information Environment
• to involve staff who might not otherwise be involved
• to enable and provide support for re-using content and learning objects
• to develop the skills and knowledge of librarians- pedagogical and technical

Project Methodology

The INFORMS Project will consist of 3 distinct phases. 

The first phase will bring together academic, library, technical and other key staff within 3 institutions, the University of Huddersfield, Loughborough University and Oxford University (each with contrasting cultures and infrastructures and different VLEs) to create quality customised information skills units for use in learning and teaching focussing on six subjects; Sport, Engineering, Business, English, Social Sciences and Medicine.

Local and external information resources (particularly the Information Environment resources) and the INHALE information skills database will be used as a basis for the new units. 

In phase two the resultant interactive information skills units will be embedded and evaluated within selected modules in the VLEs (LEARN & Bodington respectively) at Loughborough and Oxford.  

Phase three will be the project report writing and dissemination stage.

Implications/ Deliverables/ Stakeholders

The INFORMS project addresses, on many levels, the needs of the key stakeholders  (students, librarians, academics, other teaching staff, technical staff and the JISC) involved in creating, delivering and using teaching and learning materials for information literacy within VLEs; whether within FE or HE or other relevant educational settings.  

Not only will the information skills database be further populated and tested, it is also envisaged that the project will be of benefit to the JISC community in the following areas :-

• sharing and exchange of information skills objects.
• supporting cultural change within educational institutions and transforming the process of learning and teaching.
• practical experience of collaborating across the traditional professional boundaries within multidisciplinary teams is one way forward to developing a true “learning community” where experience and knowledge is shared.
• providing meaningful, rich and innovative methods of accessing electronic materials and developing the learning and research process
• raising the awareness of the IE services and resources
• providing opportunities to embed information literacy into VLEs and modules.
• raising awareness of the underlying complexities behind the joining up of the IE

Reports, case studies and guidelines produced by the project will be made available to the rest of the FE/HE community. These will include :-

• evaluations of impacts and effectiveness on staff and students
• case studies on the student experience of using the resources at Oxford and Loughborough
• case studies of cross-professional collaboration for embedding  information skills resources in VLEs at Oxford and Loughborough
• technical reports of the use of the objects database and the integration of the database generated skills units within new VLEs
• guidelines on using the database and  on linking and embedding the information skills units within VLEs.