Summary

The students of the lecture "Business problems in libraries" should deal with the lecture contents in a more active manner. For this, key guiding questions are formulated in a wiki based on the central contents of the lecture that have to be answered by the students in the wiki. The aim is to jointly create a lecture script which can be used by the students for the exam preparation. The script is built up along so-called key guiding questions; that means that for every topic area of the lecture the educator has formulated central questions. For each of these questions a page was set up in the lecture-accompanying wiki. Students select questions that they would like to work on and answer these in the time between the lectures on the wiki page. Thereby, over time, a collaboratively set up script to the lecture is created. The educator receives an insight into the comprehension of the learning material provided to the students and can, if necessary, react to knowledge gaps or misunderstandings during the actual lecture. 

The students are supposed to be encouraged through the "key guiding questions concept" to deal with the lecture contents in a more active manner. By drafting their own posts the reflection of the learning contents is stimulated; preparing the contents in such a format that is easily comprehensible for all deepens the learning process. As all of the students only have to write down a few answers but profit from the answers of everyone the participation was good. 

Table of contents

Course

Course title"Business problems in libraries" (2011)

Course type

Lecture

LecturerElke Durek
SWS/CP2 SWS
Department/Institute

University library

Tools

A wiki is a central e-learning tool.

  • In this case the software wikispaces was used as, at the time of the course design stage, the FU wiki was not available yet.
  • At the Freie Universität the central wiki system FU wiki is available since 2010 for the realization of this scenario.

The wiki serves as a presentation of the tasks given (in this case the key guiding questions) and for securing the results. The work by the students on the individual key guiding questions can be found in the wiki, always one key guiding question per page. On superordinate pages and via the navigation the contents of the topic blocks are summarized and structured along the contents of the lecture. Illustration 1 shows a page on which key guiding questions are summarized into a topic block and over which the subordinated key guiding question pages are accessible.  

Illustration 1: Key guiding questions on the topic block "Strategic Management"

In addition to this, the wiki is also used for the organization of the script creation: students can enter their names in a list for the selection of the key guiding questions that they would like to work on. Duplications are thereby excluded and the lecturer can easily see who is active.

External tools can be optionally implemented as a supplement to the central systems of the Freie Universität (wiki, blog, LMS etc.). The description of the external applications (information on tools, implementation scenarios, practical examples) can be found in the IdeasBar for teaching and science 2.0. Please observe the data protection provisions of the Freie Universität Berlin: Using the central IT solutions at Freie Universität Berlin.

Realization

Weekly lectures and answering the key guiding questions within the wiki by the students are the basic elements of the blended learning scenario (cf. Illustration 2). 

Illustration 2: The blended learning scenario

Before the start of lectures the educator comes up with the key guiding questions, configures the wiki and structures it according to the topics of the lecture. For every key guiding question a separate wiki page is created. During the face-to-face session she presents the wiki and its usage concept. Between the lecture sessions she follows up on the work being undertaken by the students in the wiki and gives feedback on the quality of the work being done. If needs be, she requests that corrections or edits are made. At the start of every lecture she takes up the produced content and makes a topic out of it.

The students select a few key guiding questions that they will answer during the course of the semester. The editing then takes place as a follow-up to the lecture; i.e. in the week in which the key guiding question is made a topic in the course. Thereby the script is created collaboratively in a weekly rhythm. Feedback by the educator on the post are either sent out via e-mail or given orally in the lecture. The result can be seen here.

Further information

Support offered by CeDiS

  • Consulting services for the implementation of digital solutions in teaching: The Center for Digital Systems (CeDiS) has extensive experience of many years when it comes to the implementation of digital media and systems within the fields of teaching, learning and research. We offer a wide variety of consulting services on the implementation of these tools and systems within the entire academic scope and especially at Freie Universität Berlin. 
  • Training courses and workshops: For lecturers at Freie Universität Berlin (professors, employees, tutors) as well as lecturers of other universities CeDiS offers training courses and workshops on the topic of teaching and learning with digital media. These course enable participants to implement online elements within their own sphere of teaching.
  • The Executive Board of the Freie Universität supports e-learning initiatives: With the e-learning funding program financial resources are provided to lecturers that enrich and improve their courses quality-wise by implementing technological and media-related support. All of the academic staff teaching, the lecturers or even the institutions of the Freie Universität - without the Charité-Universitätsmedizin - can be supported within this program.

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