Announcements

• Linda Bryan attended as a guest to lend her expertise to the discussion of training and competencies.
• Thomas and Camille updated the committee on the activities of the Cornell Undergraduate Information Competency Initiative (CUICI)

Planning for guest speaker for one-shot instruction session events

Due to the CUICI and other events happening in March, the date of Jerilyn Veldof’s talk at Academic Assembly and the instruction retreat will be moved from Spring Break. The first Thursday in March (March 6th) was suggested and Eric will let Lance (who has been in communication with Jerilyn) know and have him contact her.

Needs assessment of library instructors

In response to Jean Poland’s inquiry into training available for instructors, PSEC Instruction will formulate a survey for instructors on their training needs. Thomas will create a short assessment asking both librarians new to instruction (and/or CUL) and experienced librarians who would like additional training what topics they would be most interested in for future brown bags/forums. The committee will provide feedback, including the information from the subject librarians’ discussion, Linda Bryan will review, and a Checkbox survey will be created for distribution via email.

The committee discussed the potential use of this survey to structure a series of trainings that could culminate in a certificate of competency (much like earlier instruction training programs held by Linda Bryan’s office with David Way). This kind of program might help build a supportive community for instructors and define the knowledge, skills and abilities needed for instruction that can help with academic career planning and general information literacy efforts in a developmental not punitive manner.

Report on meeting with Center for Learning and Teaching regarding Instructor Partnership Program idea

Tony met with David Way from the Center for Learning and Teaching to discuss the Library Instructor Partnership Program idea. PSEC Instruction and other members of the instructor community will meet with David for three train-the-trainer sessions on how to partner with instructors on classroom observations and give feedback. In the first session David will model the process of a pre-observation goal setting meeting; in the second, the group would observe an actual or mock instruction session; and in the third, David will model the process of debriefing and giving feedback. Camille volunteered to serve as the instructor getting feedback. Members of the committee volunteered to contact some other instructors to see if they are interested in participating in this program.

The Partnership program could potentially cover observing and giving feedback on instruction sessions, videotaping sessions, lesson planning, collaboration with faculty and other skills. There was some discussion on the definitions of mentorship and partnership, how best to match partners with those interested in working on various instruction skills, how to continue training partners in the future after these initial train-the-trainer sessions, and about opening some of these sessions up to larger groups.

Instruction Coordinator meeting

Tony scheduled the instruction coordinators’ meeting for the semester for mid-January and will put together an agenda.

iClickers request status

iClickers are on the next PSEC instruction meeting agenda now.