Poster Abstract

1. Taking my LMS for a spin on the mobile information highway
Lianda Coetzer, University of the Free State, South Africa, lianda@ufs.ac.za
Library resources and services are integral to academia as a primary knowledge
resource for both research and teaching. Aside from traditional print resources e.g.
textbooks, encyclopaedias, newspapers and journals, today’s students use
technological resources such as computer networks, telecommunication systems and
databases to retrieve information. The technological age has put an unprecedented
volume of information at our fingertips, but are the students aware of what is
available, when to use it, and how to find information? In higher education, librarians
play a vital role in the teaching of Information Literacy to students.
The University of the Free State, South Africa, is no exception and in 2002 the
accredited Information Literacy Course was launched at the University. The
escalation of the number of students forced the Library to look at additional training
methods for the Information Literacy Course. A variety of methods are used in
teaching and training for Information Literacy, e.g. lectures, demonstrations and
hands-on practice, but E-Learning is gaining very wide publicity as an important
component of almost all aspects of education and training.
E-Learning encompasses research, learning and teaching in the digital environment, e-
learning includes courses that are offered fully online, courses that mix face-to-face
and online access to instruction and course materials (often called blended learning),
and courses in which instructors post notes and material for students or provide access
to online discussion forums on course topics. E-Learning is widely supported on
campus and Blackboard is used as platform to make study material available.
Mobile Learning is also gaining ground on campus and is incorporated in the teaching
of the Information Literacy module.
This paper discusses the E-Learning environment in which the accredited Information
Literacy course at the University of the Free State, South Africa, is presented. Lessons
learnt will be shared as well as views for future enhancement.