Faculty Excellence at UMUC

Interviewer:

Please tell us about yourself—what made you decide to teach at UMUC? What kind of work do you do when you are not teaching at UMUC? Are there any life experiences that have influenced your teaching at UMUC? If so, please share one story.

Ilene Frank

I'd been teaching online courses as an adjunct for the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Florida, and in 1999, I developed a course called "Library Services for Distance Learners." It turned out that UMUC's Masters in Distance Education program wanted to include a course along the same lines and contacted me to develop a course for the program. I started teaching the course for UMUC in 2001. I was excited about working for an institution that was geared up to support distance learners. I wanted to learn more about how things worked at UMUC, so when I saw an announcement for instructors for LIBS 150 – the one-credit required course covering use of the library and Internet for research – I jumped at the chance to get involved. Eventually I was able to try my hand at UCSP 611, the graduate school counterpart of LIBS 150. I think it's great that those courses are required.

I retired from my full-time reference librarian position at the University of South Florida after 35 years in September 2009, so right now I teach as many UMUC courses as I'm allowed. I also have an interesting volunteer position as Director of Library Services for University of the People (http://www.uopeople.org) a global, tuition-free university founded by Shai Reshef. The university currently has about 900 students from 110 countries. I'm helping by suggesting materials to support courses, making sure we're including information literacy competencies in courses, finding the best way to steer students to quality open educational resources, and other related areas.

Interviewer:

How would you describe your teaching style or philosophy? What experiences or person(s) have influenced your style or philosophy?

Ilene Frank

I'd like to talk about LIBS 150 – the one-credit, required "Information Literacy and Research Methods" course. It's the first course that some students take at UMUC. It may be their first online course. The new students need to learn to use WebTycho and need to find their way around the library's website. I think one of the best things I can do is make the students feel welcome and make sure they are comfortable asking questions. Acknowledging their feelings helps, and I try to do whatever it takes to let them know that there's an instructor present who's paying attention to their work. I send welcome messages, respond to questions in a timely manner, and generally try to be friendly and accessible.

I think that being a librarian has shaped my approach to teaching. Librarians are charged with helping others find the information they need. That fits with the idea of instructor as a coach – someone who supports students in their learning.

Interviewer:

What do you think it is about your teaching style that appeals to students?

Ilene Frank

I try to maintain a cordial atmosphere, use humor when I can, and bring in material that keeps the courses up-to-date – maybe even up-to-the-minute.

Interviewer:

Do you teach face-to-face, online, or both? Do you have a preference between teaching face-to-face and online? If so, please explain.

Ilene Frank

Most of my face-to-face teaching has been the "one-shot lecture" to classes on how to use library and Internet resources. I miss doing those lectures now that I don't have a library to go to every day! However, if we are talking about for-credit courses, most of the courses I have taught have been online courses. I'm very comfortable teaching online. I appreciate the asynchronous nature of these courses.

In the middle 1990's, I knew some faculty who were using the Web as a platform for their course delivery. I was curious to see if online courses could provide a successful learning experience. I had been teaching a course on use of the Internet for library science graduate students and it seemed like the perfect subject matter to move to online. I was able to offer an online version of the course using email and the Web in 1996, and it worked! The course was successful and the students enjoyed the novelty of never having met their instructor face-to-face. Online teaching still feels like an adventure, even though it's no longer new. I can't believe that people are still discussing whether or not online learning can be effective.

Interviewer:

Please tell us about your chosen discipline-i.e., what made you interested in the area initially? What do you do to stay current in your discipline? What do you like best about teaching in your discipline?

Ilene Frank

My first job after earning my undergraduate degree was at the Music Library at the University of Michigan. Afterwards, I decided to go back and get a master's degree in Library and Information Science, so I've been working in libraries since 1967. There's always something new going on in libraries and it's great to get to pass the word along to students and faculty about new sources of information.

I do a lot of reading - books, articles, and social media. I read a lot of blogs and follow librarians and educators on Twitter. I have also been signing up for free online webinars and MOOCs (massively open online courses.) For example, over the last couple of months I've done a five day workshop on open educational resources, a course on mobile learning, a course on business information resources, a session on designing PowerPoint slides, a webinar on digital books in libraries, and another session on the use of QR codes and augmented reality in libraries. There are plenty of opportunities to keep up.

Librarians continue to deal with a lot of change. We've got new ways to deliver information to users. There's always a new problem to solve, like trying to figure out the best way to deliver e-books. We're also trying to figure out licensing arrangements with publishers of e-books and dealing with multiple devices and multiple file formats. We're looking at new search engines to discover library and internet resources. There's always something new!

Interviewer:

What is the most challenging to you in teaching in this area? What teaching strategy do you use when you encounter the challenge? Are there any special challenges in teaching this subject matter online?  If yes, please explain what could be done to meet the challenges.

Ilene Frank

Once you get students past the idea that "everything is on the Web" and show them what's available via the library, you are all set! The LIBS 150 instructors are always working to cook up ways to get the students engaged in the library. One exercise that we've shared is to require students to pick a topic, find an appropriate library database, and list information on one article that they found on their topic. Then the students are required to do the same search in Google Scholar. The students are able to see that the library databases provide helpful ways to search for information and that the library has some great online, full-text resources. Having the students do the exercise is better than telling them.

What I find about online teaching in general is that no matter how carefully you write out your instructions some creative student will misinterpret what you wrote. Sometimes you think you've written great instructions on how to get something done, but in reality you haven't communicated it as well as you'd hoped. Sometimes it takes some more e-mails back and forth to get it right. Every once in a while it's a phone call. Sometimes creating a couple of screenshots or a screencast helps. Whatever works!

Interviewer:

What suggestion would you give to students who are interested in majoring or working in your discipline?

Ilene Frank

One reason that people become librarians is that they "like books." I like books too – but books don't always do it any longer. A better motivation is that you are interested in helping users find the information they need.

Interviewer:

In your opinion, what makes UMUC the college of choice for students?

Ilene Frank

I find that UMUC as an organization is prepared to help distance learners. If things aren't going smoothly, contact the university and someone will help. Things are not static at UMUC. If something needs to change, then things change.

Interviewer:

In your opinion, what makes UMUC the employer of choice for future faculty members?

Ilene Frank

I feel valued as an adjunct at UMUC – something that does not seem to be the case at all institutions.

Interviewer:

What suggestion would you give to new faculty who are interested in teaching in your discipline at UMUC?

Ilene Frank

Let me speak first about LIBS 150 and UCSP 611. The UMUC librarians who are involved in both of those courses have been great about creating a collaborative environment. Everyone's encouraged to discuss teaching problems, help each other with technical difficulties, consult about proposed course changes, share exercises, handouts, screencasts, etc. That is all in the face of handling many sections of the courses with many students enrolled in each section. I have had the same positive experience with Masters of Distance Education program. The other faculty in the program are always doing interesting things. There are ongoing discussions about how to improve the program, whether it's re-doing some of the courses' content or experimenting with writing coaches assigned to each course. UMUC faculty are prepared to try out new things!