Q.  Librarians, what do you do after launching your library's web site, "webifying" all your best handouts, and making library instruction web pages for courses formerly taught in one-shot lectures?

A.  Go on sabbatical!

I wanted to learn more about web-based instruction.  Was I going in the right direction?  How could I improve what I was doing?
I spent six months researching web-based instruction in the fields of education, training and development, and information technology.  I also attended conferences, and talked to avid web users and experts.  I thought about the connections in all the information I gathered; I looked for patterns.  I was searching for strategies, ideas, and understanding that would help librarians take a shortcut into this new area of instruction.

My new knowledge and ideas about web-based instruction did not turn into a linear list of conclusions.  The immediate result is this web site of topics that each relate to web-based library instruction.  Each topic has its own web page with notes that distill what I've learned:  issues, rules of thumb, experts, good books, web sites, and articles.

In the spirit of constructivist learning theory (see "Pedagogy"), I offer these web pages to explore and use to create your own reality of web-based instruction.  I intend for the next generation of this page to be web-based instruction on web-based instruction.  Watch for it to evolve in the coming months.

You might also be interested in my Deep Thoughts page.  It is a summary of my new ideas and where I am now headed with my library instruction.
 

Carolyn Johnson
March 17, 2000