In Search of Learning Communities:
Librarians and Faculty Partnering for Change
Making the First Time Count:
The Fullerton First Year Collaborative Experience
Suellen Cox
Coordinator for Library Instruction
CSU Fullerton
Elizabeth Housewright
Co-coordinator of the Reference Section
CSU Fullerton
COX AND Housewright said their team had the truly collaborative
spirit needed to launch the "Fullerton First Year (FFY)" project. Cox and
Housewright were members of the FFY project team whose main goals were to
establish a freshman community on a commuter campus and to enhance learning.
The FFY team of Management Science and Information Systems faculty, Computer
Science faculty, and librarians designed a course together. The MSIS/CS
faculty taught 11 weeks of computer competency and presentation skills,
and librarians taught four weeks of electronic library resources and evaluation
techniques. Pre- and post-assessment test results indicated that students
felt increased confidence with computer and information technology by the
end of the course.
Cox felt the FFY collaboration had the right elements to succeed. These
included the full support of the library and campus administration; fully
operational instruction rooms; a responsive and skilled technical support
staff, and creative people who worked well collaboratively. The team learned
to communicate clearly and to re-evaluate their goals constantly with respect
to student performance. Also, they learned to pay attention to issues raised
by the collaboration, including how to grade another instructor's questions
on a collaboratively built assignment.
Cox and Housewright said the collaboration was a success in establishing
a learning community and in increasing their visibility and opportunities
on campus.
The audience asked all the presenters the question often asked of librarian
innovators: How can you secure appropriate compensation for yourselves to
launch, maintain or grow such projects? Collaboration itself may be part
of the answer. Hubble said UCSC librarians learned that collaborating with
faculty committed to your project is important for securing future financial
support. Cox said the FFY team accomplished more together than they could
have working alone on the same goals, indicating some possible workload
sharing benefits. If this is true, then collaboration may be an important
consideration for innovative librarians embarking on future projects to
create learning communities.
Linda Salem
University of Redlands
Annual
Conference Highlights