Week+6+report

** Pedagogical Issues ** ** Course Design and Organization ** LEEP courses have a tripartite structure – live synchronous class sessions, asynchronous discussion forums and a single face-to-face on-campus session for every course. Initially courses were taught through their in-house learning management system (Smith, Lastraand, & Robins, 2001). However in 2006 GSLIS replaced this with Moodle. While LEEP prides itself with a wide array of courses that provide students with holistic knowledge on the library sciences field, the curriculum is continually reviewed and receptive to innovation. Faculty members may propose new courses. Such courses are reviewed and approved by the Curriculum Committee. Feedback from students, alumni, practicum supervisors and other practitioners guide course revision and introduction of new courses. Students, alumni and adjunct faculty can suggest new courses where they see a gap in the curriculum relative to knowledge needed in contemporary work settings. Practicum supervisors provide feedback on student performances in practicum placements and identify areas where students need to improve. This in turn reflects in curriculum updates (Presentation to the Accreditation Committee, Oct 2004).
 * Pedagogy Report **

It is evident that students find that LEEP courses are extremely relevant and positively impact their careers. In general, students feel that LEEP courses gave them both the exposure to technology as well as a solid foundation on the various facets of library science, which has helped them secure jobs (Student feedback webpage).

One of the interesting outcomes of having an on-campus counterpart to LEEP is that the faculty are able to see the differences in teaching styles between the on-campus program and the online model. Hence, the faculty realize that the syllabus and assignments must be very clear and much more detailed than those typically used in on-campus courses because students need such written instructions in order to reinforce what is said about schedules and assignments in the live synchronous sessions (Smith, Lastraand, & Robins, 2001). We found that the syllabus is generally very detailed and clearly communicates the objectives, prerequisites, agenda and outcomes of the course and the expectations of the instructor.

The LEEP course structure is organized by week, and every week there is information on the necessary readings, assignments, supplementary material and resources etc. While the format and information vary with each course, the overall format is the same. Hence the students have a small window of tasks to work on each week and this keeps them focused. (most information in this paragraph repeated in interface section)

** Delivery Methods ** The faculty understand that though the setting for instruction is online, technology is only a means to achieve learning and is an adjunct, rather than a center-stage component. Faculty are also aware that in order to make their lectures effective, they must be able to express verbally, things that could be communicated non-verbally in a face-to-face setting (Smith, Lastraand, & Robins, 2001). Guest lectures are utilized as per the discretion of the instructor and when the course demands.

The asynchronous discussion forums constitute a critical component of learning. Faculty employ different methods to promote rich discussions and increase communication between peers. While some faculty encourage participation in discussion forums and include this as an expectation in the course syllabus (for example, LIS453LE), some others include participation as part of the grading scheme (for example, LIS504A). One of the GSLIS Technical Tutorials is a comprehensive training manual on how to use discussion boards.

Other methods of delivery include student presentations, guest lectures, interviews, demos of online search techniques, visits to and assessments of websites, group discussions, reading picture books aloud, story-telling, and role plays.

Through a guest login, we reviewed GSLIS's Moodle course management system where there is an online space for each course GSLIS offers whether it is face-to-face or online (LEEP). The opening interface gives useful links organized by service (Image 1).
 * Interface Design Issues**



Each course whether face-to-face or online uses a standard interface with a blue and orange banner, a 3-column layout, and 6 components: activities, search forums, administration, my courses, weekly outline and upcoming events. (Image 2) Although the Weekly Outline section has the most variety across courses as it's completed by each instructor, it uses a standard font. The Weekly Outline section is organized by week, and includes the readings, assignments, and all relevant links. It is easy-to-read with sufficient white space.The current week is highlighted by a gray bar so learners can easily locate the relevant material. (Image 3) By looking under the My Courses component, a learner can navigate between courses, or click the "All courses ..." link to access all the GSLIS courses. In addition, it appears that the course content moves from simple to complex and culminates in a type of final project or presentation.

There is a lot of variety in the type and appearance of the printed materials (hand-outs) across the courses. Some instructors use MS Word and pdf documents while others link to information pages entered directly in Moodle. After reviewing a number of these documents and Moodle pages, we conclude they are well organized and easy-to-read, although they are not consistent in type and appearance within and across courses.

1. Course curriculum updates – Accreditation **[]** 2. Course design and organization - Smith, L.C., Lastraand, S., & Robins, J. (2001). Changing models of teaching and learning in leep. //Journal of Education for Library and Information Science//, //42//(4), 348-363. 3. Curriculum updates – Program presentation to the ALA Committee on Accreditation, []
 * Resources**
 * Pedagogical Issues**