Going mental

Guiding Design: Exposing Librarian and Student Mental Models of Research Guides

“…In other words, students should be given clues as to what they will encounter, and, as Veldof and Beaver point out, "be adequately prepared to enter a 'learning' environment, rather than a 'searching' environment." 29 Furthermore, the authors concluded that help and learning elements interspersed throughout research guides would improve students' ability to choose learning opportunities where and when it matched their need. These revisions will demand extended user feedback and continued testing.…”

“…30 Veldof and Beavers, in their work comparing student and librarian mental models, write: "The logical extension of the belief that the librarian's model is the ideal to which students must aspire drives librarians to fight, cajole, motivate, and hope that students will eventually 'get it' and be liberated of their faulty working models." 31 During card sort sessions, several of the librarian participants made comments that demonstrated an awareness of the difference between their "librarian" organization of guides versus what they think students would want: "Should I be thinking of this as a research guide for my research or for what I think students would like?" (L); "I would be interested to see how your students did this, because I'm sure it would be different" (L); "As a librarian I'm apt to start with the background stuff first but I don't think the students do, so do I force them to or put the things that they might use more first?"…”

Developing online instruction according to best practices

“…When structuring learning objects, a large number of authors recommend including a degree of flexibility, so that learners may proceed along different paths based on their level or their choices (Dewald 1999b;Reece 2005;Blummer & Kritskaya 2009;Somoza-Fernández & Abadal 2009;Veldof & Beavers 2001). Another frequent topic of discussion in structure is the need to minimise cognitive load, which multiple authors suggest accomplishing by chunking content or highlighting key terms and concepts, or both (Dewald 1999b;Nichols Hess 2014;Scales, Nicol & Johnson 2014;Rapchak 2017).…”

“…Another frequent topic of discussion in structure is the need to minimise cognitive load, which multiple authors suggest accomplishing by chunking content or highlighting key terms and concepts, or both (Dewald 1999b;Nichols Hess 2014;Scales, Nicol & Johnson 2014;Rapchak 2017). Many authors also stress the importance of clear navigation and usability (Dewald 1999a;Reece 2005;Blummer & Kritskaya 2009;Somoza-Fernández & Abadal 2009;Veldof & Beavers 2001), and a number also suggest including a list of objectives (Dewald 1999a;Reece 2005;Somoza-Fernández & Abadal 2009;Nichols Hess 2014). Somoza-Fernández and Abadal (2009) recommend listing the time required to complete the learning object at its beginning, and Nichols Hess (2014) recommends designing learning objects according to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles.…”

“…When implementing learning objects, multiple authors suggest that course-related use will be more effective than stand-alone (Dewald 1999a;Veldof & Beavers 2001;Noe & Bishop 2005). Several also recommend collaborating with faculty and other campus stakeholders (Blummer & Kritskaya 2009;Lo & Dale 2009).…”