As always, I get used to receive knowledge passively as a student but the transitional point comes when I get this internship. To work with instructional libraries on mapping curricula makes me think about curriculum design actively at the point-view of curriculum developer.

In the project, a comprehensive process of mapping consists of establishing learning goals and assessment. Learning outcomes are increasingly tended to focus on employ-ability skills as a result of broader skilled needed by graduate employees.

According to Oliver’s article, I know the process of mapping curricula goes through five phases from initial request to course changes approved and course learning outcomes consist of several units. (2007) Learning outcomes are aligned with employ-ability so that the curriculum engages students to develop work-readiness.

However, there are a lot of complications and challenges around this pedagogical philosophy. Academic staffs are too busy to do extra work on reviewing curriculum. Also, changes in a wide variety of courses will largely affect the teaching system, which may pay costs. Nevertheless, in my point of view, the quality of learning is worthy to invest time and money. With employ-ability embedded, employment of graduates are improved which will widen the intake of universities, creating a virtuous cycle.

How time flies these days! I do not even recognized most time of the internship has passed. What I also don’t realize is my remaining hours of internship will be changed to spent in reference work at the information desk. I’m so excited and surprised because I have only sit in the library as a student, but never sit as a consultant. Based on the true experience of helping students, I learn some fundamentals of how to provide excellent consultant work as a qualified librarian. I’m very honored to be assigned this glorious task as whether or not the reference service is of high quality affects the image of the whole library.

From this work, I find the role of librarians has a change. Traditional librarians are just information providers who spend all day sitting in the middle of the library and provide services to readers. However, as a modern librarian, he/she should evaluate, collect, and distribute information more actively. Some tasks are just seemingly easy but have to be accomplished very carefully. For example, in the simple action of answering the phone and scanning the file, there are plenty of truths and mysteries waiting for us to explore. To transfer the call accurately and quickly, I have to memorize many phone numbers and their associated departments. It took me a lot of efforts to find that only when the paper is placed on the top left corner of the scanner, it can be scanned in full.

In the coming days, there are a lot I have to learn and improve. I’m expecting to learn something new everyday and enjoy feel connected with students. Happily, an increase in collaboration with colleagues also emerged as a result of seeking guidance from them.

The experience of participating in the project of curriculum mapping is a little tedious but very learning. Through a process of collecting and transforming a large number of data, I familiarized my self with how a subject is structured hierarchically, what factors should be considered when a new curriculum is implemented, and the use of curriculum mapping. I do not expect that, besides functions I already know, the use of curriculum mapping can even increase the collaboration among stakeholders at universities.

For me with no experience in this area , in the beginning I had no idea just “mechanically”removed curriculum records to extract data. Afterwards, a lot of duplicated information in different disciplines aroused my attention. If each subject is organized like a tree where many terms group beneath a term from upper level of the tree, branches of different subject trees are intertwined and overlapped with each other. From this, I find data collected on curriculum mapping allows us to identify the inter-sectional parts of different courses where pedagogical cooperative relationship can be built among different departments. This link is the fundamental element of sharing education resources and unified management.

During the creation and implementation of information literacy curriculum map(ILCM), because librarians and faculty make great effort toward the same direction, they have many opportunities to collaborate. On one side, mentoring librarians are responsible for creation of curriculum. On the other side, instructors hold introduction sessions to library service and figure out what skills students should master in their discipline. In addition, at some colleges, the office of assessment works with faculty and academic departments to investigate learning situation of students for adjusting the curriculum. Thus librarians , faculty, and rating agencies are agreeing and build a perfect teaching system.(Charles, 2015)

In conclusion, curriculum mapping is the catalyst for communication among educators .

Reference

Charles, L. H. (2015). Using an information literacy curriculum mas as a means of communication and accountability for stakeholders in higher education. Journal of Information Literacy, 9(1).