ALIA 2001 TAFE libraries conference

The library as learning centre : at the edge in the arabian gulf

Neil Kilah JP, BRTP (Hons), Lib and Inf Std Supervisor Integrated Learning Centre Sharjah Women's College Higher Colleges of Technology United Arab Emirates

Video Production Aziz Mutwalli BSc Computer Science Supervisor Educational Technology Sharjah Women's College Higher Colleges of Technology\ United Arab Emirates

Presenter: Neil Kilah

Biography

After a varied career in Urban Planning and the University of Life (international backpacking faculty), Neil Kilah discovered his spiritual home in the library profession in the mid nineties. He came to work as supervisor (manager) of the Integrated Learning Centre at the Sharjah Women's College in November, 2000 after a career of six years as a Liaison Librarian at Southbank Institute of TAFE, Queensland, Australia. Particular interests in librarianship are marketing, reference and customer service excellence and online delivery of information and learning. Future career moves will most probably involve expatriate positions in a variety of countries.

Abstract

Vocational education in the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) in the United Arab Emirates has many parallels with TAFE in Australia. Valuable lessons can be learnt in both directions. The libraries in the HCT operate on a model of combining a traditional library storehouse approach with the human and physical resources for independent learning. The Integrated Learning Centre (ILC) at Sharjah Women's College takes this concept a number of steps further. The ILC is developing into a mature learning center. The conceptual basis of the ILC is found in the Information Commons and Learning Commons movement, particularly prominent in North America. The ILC is developing in a physical space that permits a free flow between the traditional hard copy resources and powerful information technology. This information technology is used to access online resources and to undertake independent learning, particularly remediation exercises. The ILC exists within a cyber environment that creates for each Program (course) and Course (subject) an electronic home base, an environment in which information resources are tailored to the particular needs of the student. This information environment allows ILC staff to target cohorts of students with highly specialized links to information resources. In addition cross-links to independent learning material and remedial material create an environment where the student is supported in their pursuit of information and broader learning needs.

This paper is meant to both inform and stimulate interest from practitioners in Australia.

Introduction

The objectives of this paper are to give you a brief background of the learning and information environment at the Sharjah Women's College, to briefly explore the philosophical and theoretical foundations of the concept of library as a learning centre and to accompany the presenter as he guides the audience through the Integrated Leaning Centre (ILC) as experienced through the eyes of a typical student.

The Learning and Information Environment

By way of a little history, the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) were established in 1988, 17 years after the founding of the United Arab Emirates.

The HCT mission, in brief, is to produce graduates with the technical, linguistic, intellectual and leadership skills to function in an international environment and, most importantly, contribute to the future development of the UAE.

There are 11 colleges in the HCT system. Men and women attend separate colleges and education, provided at no cost to the student, is only open to Emirati nationals. Enrolments for the academic year 2001/2002 are 11,494 students. Women students make up 63% of enrollments and men students 37%.

Sharjah Women's College (SWC) was established in 1997 as part of a very rapid development of higher education in the Sharjah Emirate. In the University City precinct, in which SWC is located, there are two universities, two HCT colleges, a police academy, the National Library of Sharjah, a very large conference centre and ancillary facilities such as sports complexes and staff housing for one of the universities.

It makes quite an impressive sight as you drive in from the desert.

SWC has experienced exponential growth since its establishment. From two Programs (courses) and 197 students in 1997, it has now grown to be the second largest college in the HCT system with six Programs and 1675 students enrolled for the year 2001/2002.

A brief explanation of the Programs will clarify things for when the student experience of the ILC is discussed. All students have one year of learning generic and quite basic skills before they follow their specialization or Career Program in later years.

Most students when they enroll have only rudimentary English skills. The official language of the UAE is Arabic but the language of education in the HCT is English. The first year of a HCT education concentrates heavily on the rapid development of English skills to equip students with the ability to learn in English when they come to their Career Program. The Career Programs currently offered by SWC are Health Science, Information Technology, Communications Technology and Business. It is planned to offer a Library Technicians Program beginning in January 2002.

Apart from learning English in their foundation year, students also learn computing skills and develop their math skills. While most students will have been taught math at secondary school, whether it was in Arabic or English medium, many have few, if any computing skills. Try to think back to the first time you used a mouse and then image the instructions from your teacher being in a foreign language to get some idea of the process they are going through. The fact that these students develop their skills quickly is a testament to the adaptability of youth and the skill of their teachers.

Another important piece of background information about SWC students, particularly from the viewpoint of the ILC, is that many students come to the college with no tradition of using the written word and absolutely no experience of libraries or the concept of independent learning.

Though the intellectual and scholarly traditions of the Arab world and, more particularly, Islam are some of the greatest in the world, many students have not had exposure to books as those with a "western" education would have. Often the only book in a Emirati household will be a treasured copy of the Holy Quran (Koran).

As for experience with libraries, exposure for most will have been nil. Some students who have received a private education, often in an English medium school, will be familiar with a school library and often a teacher librarian. For most though, the idea of a service with trained professionals to help them link with information is a novel and perhaps frightening concept.

This is the environment in which the ILC operates.

Before detailing how the ILC has developed and adapted to the demands of this environment, it is instructive to have an understanding of the theoretical background to the ILC.

Information Commons, Learning Commons and the Library as Learning Centre

With the development of new concepts comes the inevitable confusion of terminology. This is particularly true of the Learning Commons and Information Commons movement. A review of the literature and a more useful examination of the web sites of the institutions who have Learning and Information Commons reveals a great diversity of interpretations.

The basic theoretic underpinnings of all the examples which exist is that the 'Commons' offers the widest variety of information resources in one place That place is often a combination of a physical location and a online homebase for research.

Secondly, the 'Commons' should be created to permit the greatest free flow of students between the various mediums of information. Universally, there is an emphasis on providing the latest information technology.

Thirdly, staff should where possible, have the skills to resolve any issue - whether it be technical, learning or reference -from one service point.

Fourthly, and this is more usual in those which have adopted the designation Learning Commons, there should be the facilities to extend learning through the provision of working spaces for individual learning, student group work, staff group work and staff student collaboration. Some also offer classrooms for both information literacy instruction and more general classes.

Fifthly, and this is more rare, some offer the resources, both physical and human for students to extend and reinforce their classroom learning through the use of Independent Learning materials.

Sixthly, some have faculty/teaching staff on hand in the 'Commons' to counsel students and guide them in the process of using information.

No doubt you are thinking. "We offer some, most or even all of these services but we call it a library". Too true. Maybe you need to talk to you managers about an updated name.

Interestingly the adoption of the 'Commons' name is restricted almost exclusively to North America - as you will see by the links in the references. In Australia, only one example of an Information Commons, that of Holmesglen Institute of TAFE in Victoria, could be found.

So the theoretic basis is pretty simple and one you are most likely moving towards as part of the natural development of TAFE Libraries. The real innovation is the incorporation of the learning function into the library in an equal partnership with the provision of information.

The SWC ILC Philosophy

The basis for the development of the ILC, under the direction of our dynamic Director, Dr Farid Ohan, has been to adopt all of the features mentioned above, plus some more, and deliver them in away that is most appropriate for the particular needs of the students of the college.

As an Integrated Learning Centre, integration between the traditional information storehouse function and the learning function in both the physical layout and resources of the ILC, the multiskilling of staff and through the ILC online environment is being achieved rapidly.

The ILC is very much a one-stop shop for students where they can find information in a variety of media (hard copy, online, video, audio etc..) and have questions answered on most information and independent learning issues. I say most because any questions that require more advanced answers are referred to the appropriate expert whether they be a librarian, the independent learning coordinator or the ILC technical staff.

In addition, students come to the ILC to have classes in the Multimedia Lab, to have classes in the Language Lab, to have classes in or use independently the Online Learning Centre, to do group study in the Project Rooms, to relax in the Magazine lounge and sometimes just generally to hang out and meet up with their friends.

In its short history, it was opened in September 2000, the ILC has become the hub of the campus and is constantly buzzing with students and staff. It's an exciting place to work.

Given the background of the SWC students outlined above, the belief is that the ILC is achieving its goal of being a comprehensive, and educationally and culturally appropriate introduction to the worlds of information, research, independent learning and advanced educational technologies. The staff are not resting on their laurels, however, and are constantly adapting resources, layout and human resources to the demands of the college community.

What is it : A Quick Tour

The major facilities in the ILC have already been outlined. This section will expand briefly on these facilities and services and give an explanation of how they operate.

Human Resources

The most important resource in any library or learning centre. Staff consists of a Supervisor/Librarian, a Librarian, an Independent Learning Coordinator, three technicians and three assistants. Two of these assistants are recent graduates of the college and are employed on a six-month contract during which they are trained in ILC operations, in more generic technical and administration skills and in job seeking skills. Most want to stay on at the end of their contract.

As mentioned, the approach to staffing the ILC has been to multiskill everyone to a high level of competence in the whole range of ILC functions, but also to have experts on tap.

There is a central Information Desk where students can be confident of getting sound advice on the entire range of reference questions, fixes for problems they are having with the ILC IT resources or more general advice on using software packages, direction as to the use of Independent Learning resources and answers to many general questions about the campus. Where the staff member doesn't know, they direct the student to the appropriate person or resource and provide everything from a phone for them to make an appointment with the appropriate person to a security guard to take them (particularly the very new and disorientated students) to the right place.

The key words in the ILC are "culturally appropriate customer service and value added learning experiences". The first is achieved by being sensitive to the background of the students and by placing greater stress on the skills all library staff should have in dealing with clients. The staff emphasize open body language, attentiveness, active listening, language at the appropriate level and patience. The reference interview can be a very involved and fascinating process with much reassurance of the students and clarification of real needs.

The second is achieved through making every, and it is stressed every, information desk enquiry a learning experience for the student. Staff don't just provide a solution at one point in time they use it as an opportunity to instruct, to inform of the process they are following and to link the student with tools (such as online tutorials) which will aid them in being more aware of the solutions next time they face this particular question, need or problem. The goal is that the student exits the encounter more empowered to use the ILC independently and with a skill or knowledge they didn't previously have. It's hard work and sometimes requires making an appointment with student for follow up at less busy time but it is being achieved.

It's a big step for a student, unfamiliar with libraries, independent learning, computers and often, expatriates to ask for assistance. The goal of the ILC staff is that they will be confident of doing it again when necessary and that they will tell their friends. Word of mouth is still the best advertisement.

Collections

The ILC has the sorts of collections found in most vocational education libraries. There is a collection of the common range of resources - reference, general collection, mixed media kits (video/audio tapes, students books, teachers guides), non-fiction video and audio and language level graded fiction. Though the language of education in the HCT is English, in their foundation year students still receive lessons in speaking and writing Arabic. About 12% of the collection is Arabic books in the same range as the English collection i.e. reference, general, fiction.

There is a collection of 148 periodical titles in English and Arabic set in a very comfortable lounge. Common with most academic libraries the move is away from hard copy subscriptions to online subscriptions through databases.

There is a very popular video viewing room with a growing selection of feature films. The room is also equipped with two DVD players and the video collection is being phased out in favour of DVDs.

The IT and Online Environment

The ILC has 112 high end PCs for student use. Most are located in the central area for drop in use. Others have more specific uses such as being dedicated to scanners (four), reserved for catalogue searching - although the HCT catalogue is web based and available on nearly all PC's in the ILC and indeed the college, or are in the multimedia lab where they are usually booked for formal lessons.

The software available on these PCs includes the usual Microsoft Office, web browsers, FrontPage etc. Other software is loaded on all or selected PCs at request of teachers who want students to have access outside of formal lab time. In addition, PC's have an extensive range of Computer Aided Learning (CAL) software, mostly language learning software available through the various networks. In addition to networked versions there is large collection of single user CAL software on CD ROM that is used heavily for independent learning.

The great advance the college has made in terms of it online environment is the creation of the college Portal.

Many of you are no doubt familiar with the concept of the Portal. Most, if not all, institutes represented here today have a Library web presence.

In many ways the Portal provides the same online environment with general information, links to online resources, information literacy tutorials etc.. Nothing new there.

One of the benefits of the Portal, however, is that the information on it can be directed to as wide or narrow an audience as is needed. At present, this is down to Section (class) level but plans are to make it as specific as individual student or staff member.

For the ILC, the Portal is full of possibilities that are rapidly being realised. Staff are steadily developing resources specific to each Course (subject) and to developing ILC web pages that are linked via the Portal. The general links page can be searched using a variety of search criteria.

The Self Access Materials section of the ILC Sub Portal has a wealth of Independent Learning materials in many formats -interactive exercises, pdf files, video stream, web pages and the list is growing.

The next evolutionary steps in the development in the Portal are the creation of individual My SWC pages for all the students through which they will be able to create their own personal information environment and access to the college administration databases (student records, staff records etc..). Eventually it will be single point college wide information access point.

Independent Learning/Self Access Materials

Equipping students to be independent and lifelong learners is one of the primary goals of a HCT education.

A great deal of resources are invested in producing Independent Learning or Self Access materials that are specific to the HCT curriculum and the particular needs of the local students. The role of the Independent Learning Coordinator is to both acquire and produce Self Access material and to promote independent learning across the campus.

Apart from the online CAL resources mentioned above in regard to the networked software and the Portal, there are Self Access materials in a range of formats, predominantly hard copy and audio tape. The move is to offer all these resources online via the Portal as well as maintaining them in their native format.

Other Facilities

There is a range of other facilities, existing or being developed, of which time does permit a fuller explanation.

A Tandberg system Language Lab has recently been developed for use by Sections. An Online Learning Centre is operating with space for four classes to use it simultaneously. Though in its early stages, the Centre has achieved its goal of 15% of all course content for foundation year students being delivered online. The long-term goal is to offer all programs via online distance education. The low penetration rate of home PCs in the UAE makes this not possible at present.

Staff are vital clients of the ILC of course and apart from having access to all the facilities and resources mentioned above, a Faculty Resource Centre has been developed where staff can produce teaching material in a variety of formats. Most importantly, this a collaborative workspace where staff developing online resources, whether they be for support or extension of classroom delivery or for the online component of their Course, can work with the technical experts of the Educational Technology team.
Future developments include a video conference equipped conference room for use by staff and students and a home base room for the first intake of Library Technician students. Space, not ideas, is the limiting factor!

Summary : How it All Works

(In the presentation of this paper a brief video will accompany this section).

The video about to be shown will give a student's eye view of how the ILC functions.

To summarize the video, these are the key reasons why SWC ILC has moved beyond being a library and is a learning centre:

• the physical learning and information resources are in close proximity and students are able to move between them with great ease. The ILC is a mixed use space where physical location does not determine, though it may encourage, which activity a student undertakes.
• the staff are skilled to offer solutions for the whole range of information and learning needs. Moreover, staff are educators who seek to expand the student's skills, knowledge and appreciation of the information and learning opportunities available in the ILC.
• the online environment, both on the Portal and the networked PC's (the ultimate goal is to unify these two points of access), means students can move easily from information seeking to Course support to Independent Learning in the movement of a mouse.
• the ILC is the venue for the variety of learning experiences detailed above, i.e. the Language Lab, the Online Centre and those to be developed. The student walks out of these places, hopefully full of enthusiasm, not into a cold corridor but into the familiar and inviting environment of the ILC with its vast array of information and learning opportunities.
• finally, and less tangibly, the ILC has in the brief time it has been open, developed a reputation amongst students as a place where they can satisfy a variety of needs and learn new things in a dynamic and inviting environment. There are no student surveys to back this up so you may not feel its is a justified conclusion. The traffic into the ILC, the demand on all the resources, faculty staff feedback about what their students are saying to them and in class, Information Desk statistics and anecdotal evidence is some guide to its veracity.

Neil Kilah (please remove '.nospam' from address)

References

King, H., 2000, The academic library in the 21st century - what need for a physical place, Paper presented at the International Association of Technological University Libraries Conference (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia July 3-7, 2000).
Also available : http://educate.lib.chalmers.se/iatul/proceedcontents/qutpap/king_full.html - no longer working.

Terhaar, L.K., et al, 2000, The fate of the undergraduate library, Library Journal, v125 i18, pp 38-46.

Mingeault, R. L., New information commons.
Available : http://www.unm.edu/~libadmin/Projectoverview.htm

Information Commons and Learning Commons Homepages

http://www.ic.holmesglen.vic.edu.au/main_pages/ - no longer working.

http://library.nevada.edu/infocommons/ - no longer working.

http://www.ucalgary.ca/IR/infocommons/

http://bcc-library.brookdale.cc.nj.us/screens/infocom.html

http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/commons/

http://www.ucalgary.ca/commons/lcintro.htm - no longer working.

http://www.learningcommons.uoguelph.ca/

http://www.senecac.on.ca/home/library.html