An Exploration on Applying Digital Learning Materials to Information Literacy Class: A Hybrid Approach at Taipei Medical University

The Ministry of Education in Taiwan designed 3 information literacy (IL) related digital learning materials in 2008 and conducted a series of promotion activities. The MoE aims to encourage general education teachers in the universities to utilize these digital learning materials, and to resolve the deficiency of IL teachers. In September 2010, the author participated in a pilot testing group of one of these new digital learning materials, called “Library and Information Utilization”. This paper addressed Chiu's approach in merging these new materials into curriculum, outlined the key processes on content selections and techniques used. Six out of eighteen chapters from the digital learning material were selected and arranged for asynchronous distance learning. One hundred and ninety eight learning journals of feedbacks and comments, as well as system accessing logs were collected and analyzed to examine learning outcomes of using the distance learning materials. The statistics showed that students enjoyed asynchronous distance learning, especially during midterm and final exam week. They split one chapter into 2-6 online visits. The time frames were mostly during the period of 18:00-24:00. For each chapter they spent 0.99 to 1.7hours in average and answered 7.2 to 7.9 out of 10 after-chapter quizzes correctly. Finally, comments on the material were adopted by the program authority and they already scheduled for a material revision. Hope this hybrid approach can be a reference for other general education teachers.