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Fostering Student Engagement in an Online IR Course

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Book cover Teaching and Learning in Information Retrieval

Part of the book series: The Information Retrieval Series ((INRE,volume 31))

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Abstract

In an online information retrieval course taught from a library science perspective, a number of methods were used to increase student engagement. Successful tactics include frequent email communication in a natural tone, personalized feedback, an organized, modular presentation of the material, latitude for student choice in assignments, and use of multimedia. The engagement potential of the discussion boards was not used as successfully. The discussions of engagement tactics are reinforced by references to the appropriate literature and feedback from class surveys. The chapter includes lessons learned and plans for future work.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Dunlap et al. (2007) provides an excellent list of such references.

  2. 2.

    Examples of works looking at engagement in the higher education classroom may be found in Smith et al. (2005), Steele and Fullagar (2009); works looking at engagement in online courses are noted in Sect. 2.4.1.

  3. 3.

    Newlands and Coldwell (2005) provides an accessible discussion of the differences, challenges, and advantages of online vs. classroom instruction by looking at student and faculty expectations, crucial factors in successful teaching and learning.

  4. 4.

    Oud (2009) provides an excellent discussion of the cognitive research that explains why media can be so effective in teaching, as well as guidelines for the creation of such screencasts.

  5. 5.

    A review of the literature on evaluations for online courses is provided by Achetemeier et al. (2003). For additional work on assessment of online teaching and learning, including an example of a survey created specifically for online courses, see Bangert (2004, Appendix A) and Herron and Wright (2006).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 14627, USA

    Suzanne Bell

Authors
  1. Suzanne Bell
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Correspondence to Suzanne Bell .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Washington, Seattle, 98195-2840, Washington, USA

    Efthimis Efthimiadis

  2. , Departamento de Ciencias de la, Universidad de Granada, C/ Periodista Daniel Saucedo Aranda, s/n., Granada, 18071, Spain

    Juan M. Fernández-Luna

  3. , Departamento de Ciencias de la, Universidad de Granada, C/ Periodista Daniel Saucedo Aranda, s/n., Granada, 18071, Spain

    Juan F. Huete

  4. , Department of Information Science, City University London, Northampton Square, London, EC1V 0HB, United Kingdom

    Andrew MacFarlane

Appendix Tables

Appendix Tables

Table 2.1 Author’s SurveyMonkey survey of LIS 330 students
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Table 2.2 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Information Science Standard Survey
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Bell, S. (2011). Fostering Student Engagement in an Online IR Course. In: Efthimiadis, E., Fernández-Luna, J., Huete, J., MacFarlane, A. (eds) Teaching and Learning in Information Retrieval. The Information Retrieval Series, vol 31. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22511-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22511-6_2

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