NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 24 number 2 - Winter 2004

By Kim Duckett and Josh Boyer, Distance Learning Services

Providing students with instruction in the use of library resources is a key mission of the NCSU Libraries. In the case of distance education students who may never come to campus, the Libraries sometimes takes instruction into the field. There are a number of NC State programs in which students meet at off-campus locations across the state. For the past four years, the Distance Learning Services Department has been working with these off-campus programs on ways to provide equivalent library services and instruction for distance education students. Although the growth of technology has spawned library instruction via the Web, teleconferencing, and chat communication, the Libraries still seizes opportunities for face-to-face instruction when possible.

Librarians in Distance Learning Services work closely with programs in NC State's College of Education and College of Engineering to arrange and deliver library instruction for groups of students meeting at locations around North Carolina. The College of Education has two graduate-level distance education programs in which students meet off-campus. These include the Master of School Administration program with cohorts meeting in Vance, Henderson, and Wake counties and the doctoral program in Adult and Community College Education with a cohort at UNC-Asheville. The College of Engineering has two undergraduate off-campus programs. The "2+2" engineering program allows students to spend two years in one of several UNC system universities before completing two upper-level years at NC State, North Carolina A&T, or UNC-Charlotte. The college also offers a B.S.E. in mechatronics that students complete at UNC-Asheville. The directors and faculty in these programs are strong proponents of library instruction and welcome classroom visits.

NC State librarians Kim Duckett and Josh Boyer in Distance Learning Services visit these distance education classes to bring the NCSU Libraries to the students. They explain services for off-campus students, including the free delivery of books and articles via Federal Express, and demonstrate how to use library resources via the Web. Sometimes students are returning to college after years of being in the work force, and they appreciate help in navigating Web-based library resources. Students often remark that such visits make them feel like they are NCSU students even if they do not come to campus.

The classroom might be a state-of-the-art teaching facility at UNC-Asheville or the library at Southern Vance High School. The diversity of teaching environments requires flexibility and occasional technological improvisation.

Local network configuration, proxy or firewall software, and other factors make for highly variable local situations. Occasionally, the library instruction session might even occur in a classroom without a networked computer. Seeing this firsthand and meeting off-campus students face-to-face, allows the Libraries a look into the reality of distance education and its challenges. With this information, the Libraries can continue to refine its services to be effective for distance learners.

When it is not practical to meet with distance education students in person, other means are available. Teleconferencing from an engineering class at NCSU to a section in Asheville or working with a group of students using a chat meeting room are others ways library staff have reached out to distance education students. In these cases, technology provides a bridge for real-time interaction between librarians and distance education students. Although it lacks the immediacy of face-to-face interaction, students at a distance still feel connected to NC State through this contact and receive the library instruction they need. With the increase in distance education delivered via telecommunication systems and the Web, the use of such technology to provide real-time instruction will inevitably grow. Meeting cohorts at sites across North Carolina, however, will remain an important part of the NCSU Libraries' instruction program.