Teaching Health Librarianship with a Very Large Team: breaking the borders of the one-instructor model

Objective

To evaluate the delivery of a one-semester graduate level course in Health Librarianship (LIS 520), as taught by a team of eleven co-instructors, and to create best practices for teaching with very large teams in health sciences librarianship.

Background

Eleven practicing health librarians taught LIS 520 as a large team, rather than as a course with one instructor and many guest lecturers. There are no best practices for large team teaching, however the team reviewed the work of Cruz and Zaragoza(1) and George and Davis-Willey(2) which provided some general guidelines for team teaching.   LIS 520 ran three hours/week for thirteen weeks. Seven students were enrolled.   All of the librarians were involved in the development of the curriculum which included specific aspects of health librarianship ranging from collection development and services to different health information user groups to systematic review searching and health information consortia.  Each librarian taught at least one class.    All instructors were encouraged to teach in whatever style they chose, but to employ active-learning techniques, where possible.  Instructors also undertook various roles such as acting as mentors for searchers, class coordination and marking assignments.

Methods

Students completed evaluative questionnaire surveys at the mid-point and the end of the course. The librarians responded to a survey document, either individually in print or verbally in a team meeting. Librarians also worked together to create a best practices document.  Two librarians collated and analysed the survey results.

Results

Evaluation

Student’s responses were positive. Students compared ten aspects of the course with their experiences in other courses taught by three or fewer instructors. These areas included:  organization of course materials and sessions, communications with students and among the teaching team members, mastery of material presented, maintaining student interest in class, range of learning activity types, availability for consultations, willingness to give extra help, and  instructor engagement or interest in the course.   In all ten areas, 100% of the students rated LIS520 as “better” or “about the same” as their other experiences.   Written responses revealed that students particularly valued the variety of instructional methods and the variety and depth of expertise brought by the eleven instructors.  Librarians’ responses to teaching as a team were also positive.  The librarians valued the opportunity to contribute to the education of graduate level library school students, without having to commit to teaching an entire course on their own.  They also enjoyed the opportunity to teach with a partner and within their own discipline.  The librarians suggested that the team teaching experience was made easier by the fact that the class size was small and all of the librarians were already part of a working team before undertaking the course. 100% of the librarians would take part in teaching the course again.  All of the librarians contributed to the best practices document.

Best Practices

One of the outcomes of this project was the development of a best practices document.

 Best Practices for Teaching with a Very Large Team.

1. Ensure that one or more team members take on the role of coordinating team efforts, so that there is consistency and efficiency across the course.
2. Make one person the primary communications point for the students and the course faculty.
3. In advance, establish within the team how grading will be done. Ensure that the students know how consistency and fairness will be maintained in the assignment of grades. 
4. Ensure that members of the teaching team have the opportunity to get to know each other.  If team members do not have prior experience with each other, there may need to be some team building exercises in advance of the course.
5. Ensure that multiple methods of communication are encouraged and used within the team.
6. Ensure that all members of the team have the opportunity to contribute to the development of the curriculum, including the assignments, so that all instructors have a broad understanding of the course and the workload required of the students and the instructors.
7. Come to consensus on who will teach what, allowing team members to choose to teach either in their areas of expertise, or perhaps with another instructor in an area in which they would like to develop expertise.
8. Involve the instructors to the level that they can be/want to be involved.  One of the benefits of a large team is that people can contribute more or less, depending upon their skills, knowledge, abilities and available time. 
9. Build in multiple points of contact between the students and the various instructors, so that the students have the opportunity to get to know more of the instructors.
10. Ensure that all instructors place their teaching materials into a repository that is accessible by all, so that instructors can see in detail what content has already been covered.
11. Allow the instructors to introduce their own teaching methods and styles to take advantage of the breadth of teaching skills that the team members bring to the course.
12. Incorporate a de-briefing session so that instructors can reflect upon the team’s work and offer suggestions for improvement.
13. Have fun and find ways for the students to have fun. 

Discussion

There are considerable benefits to be derived from teaching as a large team, particularly when the team members do not have time to take on an entire course by themselves.  In teaching health sciences librarianship with a large team of practitioners, students benefit from exposure to the much larger specialized knowledge base of the team. If the course is offered again, it will probably be taught again by this team. The best practices document will guide the team in improving the delivery of the course.