Experiential learning in a virtual environment: the benefits of COVID-19-related changes

Dahl, Candice

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117382 Copy

Description

Title

Experiential learning in a virtual environment: the benefits of COVID-19-related changes

Author(s)

Dahl, Candice

Issue Date

2023-03-13

Keyword(s)

• Experiential Learning
• Technology
• Virtual Learning and LIS

Abstract

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic we lost access to our campus and were man-dated to learn and work from home. In these conditions the undergraduate li-brary internship course (INTS 380.3) at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) moved entirely online. Despite this sudden adjustment, students and the librari-ans overseeing their experiential learning were able to meet course requirements, as much of the on-site work had already been completed. However, in 2021 the internship had to be offered virtually or not at all because of the ongoing pan-demic. Due to the experiential learning component, it was questionable whether the course could be sustained entirely online. This case study describes challenges facing the course in 2020, as well as so-lutions grounded in offering the course online and designing virtual experiential learning. The pandemic changed how librarians do and view their work, and that created opportunities for INTS 380.3. Specifically, greater flexibility was achieved by configuring experiential learning so that it could be completed without physical access to the university library. In addition, the virtual format provided potential pathways forward to make the course scalable and to add an international element. The increased openness to exclusively virtual learning in the pandemic revealed solutions that hadn’t previously been contemplated. Ul-timately, by losing its ‘physicality’ the undergraduate library internship was transformed and a new normal is being established.

Publisher

iSchools

Series/Report Name or Number

iConference 2023 Proceedings

Type of Resource

• Other
• text

Language

eng

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117382

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2023 is held by Candice Dahl. Copyright permissions, when appropriate, must be obtained directly from the author.

Owning Collections