Professor Neil McLean

1
Bridging Gaps between Information and Learning
Environments
Association of Research Libraries 144th
Membership meeting Tucson, Arizona, May 11 14
2004

• Professor Neil McLean
• Director IMS Australia
• Email mclean_at_caval.edu.au

2
Mapping Change Management for E-Learning
Organizational structure
Infrastructure IT systems
People culture
E-learning pedagogy
Content
(Cas Egelie Tilburg University)
3
Current State-of-Play

• Mismatch between institutional strategic goals
  for e-learning and the ability to deliver
• Most institutions in the early adoption phase
• Few cost-effective e-learning strategies
• People/cultural issues remain a significant
  barrier
• Large variation in institutional practices for
  developing and supporting e-learning
• Large gap between teaching innovators and rest of
  faculty
• Little evidence of systemic change management
  practice

4
Business Drivers for E-Learning

• Providing more convenient and flexible access to
  teaching programs
• Developing new markets (distance education)
• Enhancing the learning process
• Reducing costs of teaching programs
• Meeting increased student expectations

5
Strategic Issues for Libraries

• How can libraries bridge the gap between their
  own services and systems and those of the
  e-learning environment?
• What traditional services and what new services
  are needed?
• Which library services need to be redefined to
  address the needs of the new e-learning
  environments?
• (OCLC Taskforce)

6
Strategic Issues for Libraries Cont.

• How can learning objects and their associated
  repositories be defined and what role do
  libraries play in developing a new model?
• What are libraries best strategies for engaging
  with institutional e-learning strategies?
• How can the library become a viable and
  productive community player in the developing
  e-learning landscape?
• (OCLC Taskforce)

7
Strategic Imperatives

• To be proactive in positioning library in
  e-learning space
• To establish a position on institutional
  repository management issues
• To establish a vision of a library network
  service presence
• To develop tangible value-added services through
  the linkage of library systems infrastructure to
  learning management (courseware) systems
• To engage in the debate on building
  cyberinfrastructure

8
Strategic Initiatives
Proactive management in positioning the library
in the e-learning space Issues

• Faculty often feel that the e-learning is their
  space
• There is no traditional power base for e-learning
• Expectations of library service support for
  e-learning are invariably low
• Costing of e-learning infrastructure is still
  little understood
• Collaborative ventures in e-learning are
  difficult to establish
• Libraries are seen by many e-learning proponents
  as a large (and possibly redundant) cost centre

9
Strategic Initiatives
Formulate a library position on institutional
repository management Issues

• Functional and technical requirements for
  managing learning objects
• Ability of the library to offer stewardship
  (archiving and preservation)
• Role of open source (as against proprietary)
  repository management systems
• Capacity of library systems to manage learning
  object repositories
• Management of intellectual property and digital
  rights infrastructure
• Capacity for integrated repository management
  systems across scholarly information and learning
  objects

10
Strategic Initiatives
Establish a vision of library network service
presence Issues

• Library one of many user hubs
• Need to provide access to service where it makes
  most sense
• Make services available at any point in research
  or learning activity
• Library-centric view of information resources
  unsustainable
• (Lorcan Dempsey)

11
Strategic Initiatives
Develop tangible value-added service through
linking library systems infrastructure to
learning management (courseware) systems Issues

• Consecutively display and integrate a variety of
  information windows as part of the learning
  activity
• Integrate access (discovery and exchange) of
  content in any given learning context
• Provide bibliographic tools that permit easy
  searching and reference completions
• Access to tools to render and present content in
  user-customized environments

12
Value Added Library Services Cont.

• Integrate third party commercial information
  services
• Customize portal facilities for sharing personal
  preferences
• Provide easy access to virtual reference services
  at the point of need
• Embed training modules to assist in information
  seeking

13
Strategic Initiatives
Engage in the Cyberinfrastructure debate
Cyberstructure for higher education domains
14
Building Cyberinfrastructure
Issues

• Identify the set of services and tools needed to
  support each domain
• Identify the services and tools which are common
  to all these domains
• Understand how middleware interacts between
  applications and infrastructure
• Understand how to orchestrate the delivery of
  multiple applications and services in real time
  activities in each domain
• Understand the role of web services in
  facilitating the orchestration process

15
Collaboration
Issues

• Identification of key allies internally and
  externally
• Development of collaborative library service
  solutions
• Incorporation of value-added services from
  external service providers

16
Strategic Priorities

• Reconceptualize the positioning of library
  services in the e-learning infrastructure
• Develop low risk library systems interfaces with
  e-learning infrastructure
• Adopt a clear strategic position on repository
  management issues