INFO 281-13
Seminar in Contemporary Issues
Topic: Examination of Global Library Issues Using Project-Based Learning
Fall 2017 Syllabus

Melanie Sellar
E-mail
Office location: No physical office; online through Canvas
Office Hours:  By appointment 

Canvas Information: Courses will be available beginning August 23th, 6 am PDT unless you are taking an intensive or a one-unit or two-unit class that starts on a different day. In that case, the class will open on the first day that the class meets. INFO 281-14 starts September 18.

You will be enrolled into the Canvas site automatically.

Course Description

This course provides students with the opportunity to examine select issues relating to global libraries in underserved communities with an emphasis on a specific regional context (Guatemala) of Librarians Without Borders (LWB). A project-based learning approach is used to support student investigations of specific authentic community needs translated from those broader issues. 

Project-based learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge. For more information on PBL, read http://goo.gl/3MCkAR. 

Students will design and deliver a collaborative project. The issues the teams might investigate include literacy programming for second-language learners, collection development strategies for no-budget schools, asynchronous digital librarian training, family outreach strategies for open-library transitioning, school-community library partnerships, and assessment measures for school/community libraries. In addition to team evaluations, there are also individual assignments and checks to ensure that each student is contributing to overall team work.

The role of the instructor in a PBL course is one of designer, facilitator, and coach. The instructor designs and sets up the problems, acts as a resource for teams, provides ongoing feedback and mentorship as students test alternative ideas, and helps promote students’ metacognitive growth by thinking aloud alongside them. In short, the instructor does not give teams the answers, so students should be comfortable with this different arrangement of the classroom. 

Note that academic libraries and their needs are not the focus of this course, rather school/public/community libraries is the context. 

Course Requirements

This course has the same weekly workload expectations as a 3-unit course. It differs in that it is shorter than a 3-unit (minimum 45 hours of work), not that the work itself is less intensive. Students should carefully consider these workload expectations and this syllabus when registering for the course. 

The project-based learning focus of this course favors a particular kind of learner: concrete and abstract random thinkers. Concrete random thinkers are creative, make intuitive leaps, like choices, are self-motivated, see the big picture, and enjoy unstructured problem-solving. Abstract random thinkers also seek environments that are active, busy, and unstructured and like to discuss ideas and interact with others.

This course disfavors students who are concrete sequential thinkers: those who respond best to step-by-step instruction and set structures. These kinds of thinkers may not feel most comfortable in a project-based learning course where the instructor serves to facilitate and guide, not to provide “right” answers. Students again should carefully consider their personal learning style. 

Assignments
This course will use the experiential pedagogy of project-based learning to examine select issues affecting global libraries within a specific community context of Librarians Without Borders (LWB). Project-based learning is a pedagogical approach that challenges students to learn through engagement in a real problem.

The early weeks of the course will establish a conceptual foundation and then students will undertake small team investigations of a specific issue by working through the following stages: defining the issues, gathering information, and generating next steps with recommendations.

There are three categories of assignments: participation, individual writing, and team project.

Participation assignments include required attendance at a September 24th synchronous meeting via Collaborate. Select participation and team assignments require the use of a webcam and the cloud-based FlipGrid software. As such, students are expected to have access to a working webcam for this course. 

The individual writing assignments are an opportunity for a student to reflect on course work and demonstrate their understanding of course material separate from the team-based projects.

Team project submissions will take the form of white papers, for which instruction will be provided. A white paper is a genre of professional writing that is used widely in LIS work. 

Teams are expected to meet weekly after October 3,and will be collaborating until the end of the course on November 16. Modules 4-8will be entirely team project work with no lectures or required readings by the professor. Instead, students will use that time for project work.

Note: the peer evaluations and individual writing assignments are mechanisms built into this course to help ensure the productivity of all team members and to ensure that a student will not be penalized for an underperforming team member. Poor peer evaluations may result in an individual's grade being adjusted downwards.

Professionalism of Discourse
The netiquette statement -- that is, expectations for how to communicate with peers -- will be published in the course. Students are expected to converse with their peers in group work and discussion forums in adherence with this statement. Those who do not are subject to point deductions from their participation/teamwork grades. 

There are three categories of assignments: participation, individual writing, and team project.

Individual Participation (10 points/200)

Individual Writing (60 points/200)

Team Project (130 points/200)

*The points assigned to particular assignments are subject to slight revisions prior to course launch.*

Course Calendar
*Subject to change with fair notice*

18th September-16th November

All modules will be published Tuesday evening of their respective week (with the exception of Week 1).

Grading
The team project is the core of the course. To promote an individual's performance on the team and ensure individual accountability, assessments of the individual on the team are built into the grades. This includes peer evaluations, individual writing assignments, and clear annotation of who contributed what to team deliverables.

*Subject to change with fair notice*

Rubrics will be provided in advance by the instructor for all assignments.

For dates of assignment submissions, see the course calendar.

Rubrics and peer evaluation forms will be provided in advance by the instructor.

Assignment late policy: 20% deduction per day, with assignment not accepted after 2 days. This applies to both individual and team assignments.

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Course Workload Expectations

Success in this course is based on the expectation that students will spend, for each unit of credit, a minimum of forty-five hours over the length of the course (normally 3 hours per unit per week with 1 of the hours used for lecture) for instruction or preparation/studying or course related activities including but not limited to internships, labs, clinical practica. Other course structures will have equivalent workload expectations as described in the syllabus.

Instructional time may include but is not limited to:
Working on posted modules or lessons prepared by the instructor; discussion forum interactions with the instructor and/or other students; making presentations and getting feedback from the instructor; attending office hours or other synchronous sessions with the instructor.

Student time outside of class:
In any seven-day period, a student is expected to be academically engaged through submitting an academic assignment; taking an exam or an interactive tutorial, or computer-assisted instruction; building websites, blogs, databases, social media presentations; attending a study group;contributing to an academic online discussion; writing papers; reading articles; conducting research; engaging in small group work.

Course Prerequisites

INFO 281 has no prequisite requirements.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Develop detailed project plans collaboratively and effectively with a team, and then execute those plans collegially and thoughtfully with that team.
2. Demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of a chosen library issue (generated authentically from the needs of an LWB partner community) by sourcing, evaluating, and synthesizing information to develop a coherent, accurate background paper as part of the final team project.
3. Analyze the information synthesized on that issue to develop a community-focused, highly contextualized, and realistic set of recommendations/solutions/products for LWB and the partner community.

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes)

INFO 281 supports the following core competencies:

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Textbooks

No Textbooks For This Course.

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Grading Scale

The standard SJSU School of Information Grading Scale is utilized for all iSchool courses:

In order to provide consistent guidelines for assessment for graduate level work in the School, these terms are applied to letter grades:

• C represents Adequate work; a grade of "C" counts for credit for the course;
• B represents Good work; a grade of "B" clearly meets the standards for graduate level work or undergraduate (for BS-ISDA);
  For core courses in the MLIS program (not MARA, Informatics, BS-ISDA) — INFO 200, INFO 202, INFO 204 — the iSchool requires that students earn a B in the course. If the grade is less than B (B- or lower) after the first attempt you will be placed on administrative probation. You must repeat the class if you wish to stay in the program. If - on the second attempt - you do not pass the class with a grade of B or better (not B- but B) you will be disqualified.
  
• A represents Exceptional work; a grade of "A" will be assigned for outstanding work only.

Graduate Students are advised that it is their responsibility to maintain a 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA). Undergraduates must maintain a 2.0 Grade Point Average (GPA).

University Policies

Per University Policy S16-9, university-wide policy information relevant to all courses, such as academic integrity, accommodations, etc. will be available on Office of Graduate and Undergraduate Programs' Syllabus Information web page at: https://www.sjsu.edu/curriculum/courses/syllabus-info.php. Make sure to visit this page, review and be familiar with these university policies and resources.

In order to request an accommodation in a class please contact the Accessible Education Center and register via the MyAEC portal.

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