23 June 2021
12:00–13:15
Participants in this session will be able to fully attend any three of the presentations below. The moderators will introduce the format and then open breakout rooms, one for each of the presentations below. Attendees will then be able to join the breakout room for a presentation topic of their choice. Those with updated Zoom clients can move themselves to the breakout room, otherwise they can ask the moderators to move them. After about 15 minutes of presentation and discussion, participants will be returned to the main room, and the same breakout rooms and choices will again be offered, allowing participants to move to a different presentation of their choice. After about 15 minutes, this will repeat for a third and final round.
Presentations included in this session:
A librarian turning student: New opportunities for library and the faculty
Anastasia Valeeva, Zhuzumkan Askhatbekova
At this session, we would like to talk about our year-long experiment. Zhuzumkan Askhatbekova, AUCA librarian, has joined a group of master students for ‘Data Journalism’ and ‘Data Storytelling’ classes offered by the JMC Department. We will tell you how a librarian can contribute to the class and what she can take away for her own practices. The class was a mix of online, blended and hybrid learning, including project work. Additionally, thanks to AMICAL micro grant, we attended the biggest data journalism conference NICAR; we will also talk about the benefits of conference participation as a course-integrated activity.
Developing a data science module for humanities teaching
Russell Williams, Geoffrey Gilbert
The American University of Paris is developing new programs in Data Science. Planning meetings helped us imagine how data science might be valuable for students across the curriculum. Our team’s project goal for Fall 2021 and beyond is to develop and implement a new research and teaching module, to be used in Humanities disciplines, starting with Comparative Literature, to give students and faculty practical experience in the work of of data science. We will present our plans, and open discussion about challenges for collaboration among staff, faculty, and students, in humanities, computer science, ITS and the library.
Dual Delivery pilot: Assessment results and future plans
Hoda Mostafa, Caroline Mitry
Sharing results of applying and assessing Dual Delivery mode of instruction (having some students attend class online & others attend the same class on campus synchronously, applying social distance). The project is highly relevant given the COVID situation and the expressed need of both faculty & students for some face-to-face interaction. The plan involves training faculty both for the technical & pedagogical aspects involved to enhance teaching in HE via DD. Assessment includes online observations, on-campus observations, faculty interviews and an online survey for students. Results of the assessment will be presented including insights and recommendations based on triangulated results.
Enriching student learning in practical-work based courses using technology
Abdullah Umair Bajwa, Syeda Areeba Kazmi
Faculty teaching practical work-based courses (labs, workshops, etc.) can leverage the strengths of modern learning management systems (LMS) – which are becoming increasingly common in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic – and employ digital pedagogical practices to enrich the student learning experience. This session will discuss how faculty can curate versatile hybrid courses by hosting demo videos, discussion and feedback forums, design sessions, specially designed assessments, and an online student community on LMS.
A traditional first-year engineering workshop course was augmented using Habib University’s newly acquired LMS (Canvas). Lessons from the teaching experiment will be shared in the session.
Libraries, information literacy & the co-curricular transcript
Christopher Taylor
Co-curricular transcripts are rapidly gaining recognition as valuable artifacts of a truly holistic undergraduate education. Many employers report that they increasingly find good co-curricular transcripts more useful than traditional academic transcripts, because they provide a fuller picture of an applicant’s skill sets and hands-on experience. This session will consider the overall role of the co-curricular transcript in documenting students’ acquisition of critical transferrable skills needed in the modern workplace, and focus on ways that university libraries can become active and important contributors to well-designed co-curricular transcripts - especially in documenting students’ progress in the area of information literacy.
New library subject guides
Dimitrios Mpaltzis, Liza Vachtsevanou
In the COVID era in order to support our students and our faculty, we put together the following library guides which are open and linkable through our website.
For example: Guide to Teaching and Learning, Stay safe resources guide, How to access our Online Library, Open Academic Content due to COVID-19, E-Thesis Guide, and Institutional Repository, and more.
These guides are the result of extensive research and selection of resources by the team of librarians and include links to organizations, videos, recommended books, articles, MOOCs, talks, podcasts, etc. They are open access and their content is checked and updated regularly.
Reenvisioning information literacy for the 21st century: A new hybrid course model at AUC
Meredith Saba, Ben Carter
The Libraries and Learning Technologies course (LALT 1020) is a core curriculum requirement for all students to take at The American University in Cairo before they graduate. This session will briefly discuss the evolution of the LALT course from its infant roots as a non-credit information literacy 101 class to a more robust hybrid 10-week course that includes a practicum component for students in the final weeks of the semester. This new model, debuting in Fall 2021, will incorporate more content that focuses on the liberal arts, 21st century competencies (including digital literacies), and the AUC strategic plan.
Using DailyChatter to enhance engagement in a freshman composition class
Emilienne Idorenyin Akpan
When the AUN promoted DailyChatter, I identified a learning resource to enhance reading, writing and creativity skills. Students subscribed to the digital newsletter, and then over 4 weeks they selected ten stories (from 3 sections) to respond to through activities that demonstrated engagement with text, identification of the main idea, critical thinking, summarization, relatability and paragraph development. Response options ranged from short essays, poetry, and video commentaries, to songs, artwork and photo diaries. The main takeaway is how the students embraced this exercise to express themselves in a variety of exciting ways while meeting expectations for the class assignment.
Wicked questions: Maintaining quality while ensuring equity and equitable learning
Maha Bali
I will report practical frameworks I developed during AMICAL-funded global PD event offered by OLC (IELOL Global) where I worked with 3 other education leaders on 3 wicked questions: 1. how can universities ensure equitable learning while ensuring quality learning for all? I will share our global-minded adaptation of the “Inclusive excellence framework” 2. How to infuse culture/worldview of inclusivity, equity, diversity, decoloniality not just terminology and not just policies & documents, but practices on the ground? We used the Equity/Care Matrix by Bali & Zamora 2020 3. How to build coalitions & use Ecocycle planning to strategize?