By Sandra Bebbington
Earlier this spring while waiting to present at WILU (Workshop for Instruction in Library Use), I was sitting next to a fellow presenter, librarian Susan Archambault from Loyola Marymount University, California. Susan was at the conference presenting CORA and we got to talking about how great it would be if Canadian high school librarians became a part of the CORA community.
What is CORA?
CORA is well known in academic circles as a great online resource for information literacy instruction. The site contains a plethora of information literacy resources that can be used by educators and librarians. Susan has been working hard on promoting CORA for high schools as well and it is gaining momentum. Joyce Valenza was recently quoted in School Library Journal as saying how CORA was a “welcome friend” (SLJ, July 12, 2018).
CORA – the Community of Online Research Assignments was started by Susan Archambault and LMA colleague Lindsey McLean. CORA is an OER (Open Educational Resource) consisting of adaptable information literacy driven assignments, as well as a teaching toolkit that has a vast amount of resources at your disposal. The site also has an informative ongoing blog. The best part about CORA though, is it’s not just a website where you passively take what you want (you can, but you would be missing out!), CORA is a community of librarians, all looking to educate their students on the various aspects of information literacy – inquiry, searching finding, analyzing, using and more. This site is a true wealth of information for any teacher or librarian but especially for those that teach information literacy.
Information Literacy Assignments
CORA contains hundreds of assignments that can be searched and filtered by concept (based on ACRL), discipline, level, individual or group work or by keyword. There is no shortage of quality assignments, created by fellow educators and librarians that are all easily adaptable.
Having done a quick search, I found an assignment on Exploring Databases with Google Docs by Kirsten Hansen, which includes the lesson plan, all necessary templates as well as learning objectives.
Teaching Toolkit
The CORA Teaching Toolkit contains additional information such as best practices, pedagogical advice, tutorials, research guides, citation tools, access to various related journals and so much more. According to Susan, “CORA fills a gap for instruction librarians needing practical examples and applications that model good instructional design” (PORTAL, p.466)
Online Community
The community on CORA is alive and well! It is a place where people share their assignments, comment on other assignments they have used or adapted, ask questions and discuss what they have learned from their experience, so that as a community we can learn and grow together. Every member is visible and reachable so if you want to reach out to someone to ask questions or find out more about how they taught a particular assignment you can. And don’t forget to check out the leaderboard at the bottom of the page to discover the most popular, most adapted and most commented on assignments to see where some of the action is. CORA truly is a community of practice that all librarians can benefit from.
Calling all Canadian High School Librarians! Now it’s your turn!
Canadian high school librarians have so much they can offer and share with the larger library community! Why not take the time to see what CORA has to offer? Have a look at the assignments that are available, maybe try one out and let the community know how it went or what you adapted, or perhaps consider sharing the assignments you are working on with your students. The assignment template is very much like a recipe template – very easy to fill in and share. Join a community of librarians who are just as passionate as you when it comes to educating their students. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
References
Archambault, S.G. (2018). Developing a community of online research assignments. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 18( 3), July 2018, 451-471. Project MUSE, doi: 10.1353/pla.2018.0028
Valenza, J. (July 12, 2018). A little help from our academic friends: Five fine portals for instructional fodder. School Library Journal. https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=a-little-help-from-our-academic-friends-five-fine-portals-for-instructional-fodder
Sandra Bebbington is a librarian and educator by day and a student by night. For ten years her focus has been information literacy, digital citizenship, education technology, gamification and library learning commons. For the past 6 years, Sandra has been the project manager for two dossiers at the Ministry of Education-English Sector Services (Québec, Canada): Information Literacy and Digital Citizenship. She has also co chaired the Quebec School Librarians Network (QSLiN). She has presented (virtually and in person), to both adults and children, at various schools, boards, universities and conferences in Canada and the U.S. Sandra has also taught information literacy and critical thinking at Bishop’s University. She loves fusing games and learning and making students think outside of the box, so she is a Breakout EDU facilitator. She has also helped develop the Learn and Lead and QSLiN online digital badge programs. Sandra is also the head of communications for the Quebec Library Association (ABQLA) and the editor in chief for their quarterly bulletin. She has published as well as reviewed a number of articles. In her spare time, (usually between 3AM and 4AM) Sandra is finishing up a postgraduate degree at Harvard on Learning Design and Technology.