Category: Presentations

Cross Timbers Library Collaborative 2020 Conference

In Comparing Teamwork & Collaboration Competencies between a Technology in Art Education course and an Engineering Project Management Course, Martin Wallace, Morgan Chivers, and Ryan Hulla (CRTLE Research Consultant) presented the results of a student teamwork and collaboration study, using an “assembling effective teams” homework assignment and a semester-long, team-based academic library makerspace project. Students in two upper-level undergraduate classes, Technology in Art Education and Engineering Project Management, took self-assessment-surveys at the beginning of the course and again after having completed their makerspace projects. Results show that students in both courses significantly overestimate their competence in the pre-course survey. Engineering students rate themselves higher in both pre- and post-surveys than art education students. There are signs that the “assembling effective teams” homework assignment has a significant effect in student self-ratings. Other signs show that the project has significant effect on teamwork and collaboration.

Read more about UTA Libraries at CTLC 2020, visit the UTA Libraries Blog.

2020 STEM Librarians South (Virtual) Conference

In “Drone Club & Tinker Time: Preparing Student Employees to Assist Library Users with Drones, Robotics, and Electronics,” a UTA Libraries student employee, Nicolas McClintic, and I presented on how UTA Libraries is fostering student engagement with drones, robotics and electronics through informal tinkering and exploration programs such as Tinker Time and Drone Club. This informal training effort was created in preparation for rollout of our new drone, robotics and electronics space coming in spring 2021, and our need to prepare our student employees to be able to provide good user service when that takes place. I provided a brief intro about UTA Libraries Tinker Time and Drone Club initiatives, and Nicolas talked about his role from the student employee perspective, focusing on digital creation software, the experience of working with this team, and the lesson plans he created.

Read more about UTA Libraries at STEM Librarians South 2020, visit the UTA Libraries Blog.

2019 STEM Librarians South Conference

At this year’s conference at The University of Texas at Austin, I presented “STEM Lesson Plans for Course-Embedded Academic Library Makerspaces”. This presentation provided an overview of the UTA Libraries’ Maker Literacies website, including STEM curriculum developed during our IMLS-funded “Maker Competencies and the Undergraduate Curriculum” pilot program. I walked through the website as I explained its history and development, future direction and improvements, and requirements for adding course-integrated makerspace lesson plans from other institutions.

Nation of Makers 2019 Conference

In June 2019, Morgan Chivers (UTA’s FabLab Librarian) and I attended (by invitation) the Nation of Makers 2019 Conference in Chattanooga, TN. Each of us sat on separate panels, and we also co-presented on our Maker Literacies work at UTA Libraries.

I sat on a panel titled “Making in College: Educational Pathways.” This panel was about how college and university makerspaces are changing the rules for higher education by implementing making into students’ college experiences and opening the door wide open for all the opportunities students have after graduation. The goal of this panel was to bring together a range of voices from college makerspace champions and from former students turned into makerspace organizers. Micah Lande (Arizona State University) moderated the panel, and I was joined by John Grout (Berry University) and Amanda Jarvis (George Mason University ) on the panel.

Morgan Chivers sat on a panel titled “Makerspaces in Libraries,” and he also won a raffle for a CNC router, soon to be installed in the UTA FabLab shop room.

An Experimental “Assembling Effective Teams” Homework Assignment, and Mixed-Methods Assessment

This project considers an experimental homework assignment that asks students in a project management course to assemble effective project teams based on simulated skills & competencies data, much like a real-world project manager would do. A pre-and post-self-assessment survey and an analytic rubric are used to assess student understanding of assembling effective teams. Preliminary results indicate that the assignment leads to student competence related to assembling effective teams.

Our poster presented at UTA April 2019 Professional Learning Community on Teamwork and Collaboration is available on UTA Libraries’ ResearchCommons.

Library 2.017: Makerspaces

My presentation at Library 2.017: Makerspaces, “Competencies-based Course Integration of Academic Library Makerspaces,” was about the Maker Literacies Program at UTA Libraries. Please accept my apologies for failing to hit my record button until a few minutes into the presentation. You can download my slides to see the couple that were missing from the video. There were also some audio anomalies that were not my fault, and I apologize for those too 🙂

Continue reading Library 2.017: Makerspaces

International Symposium on Academic Makerspaces (ISAM) 2017

Several of us here at UTA Libraries had the privilege of attending and presenting our work at the International Symposium on Academic Makerspaces (ISAM) at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, between September 24-27, 2017. I posted a report with lots of links on the UTA Libraries Thinking Outside the Stacks blog.