Abstract:

Via WebCT, and now via Blackboard Learning Management Systems, an 8-week course has been developed and delivered by a faculty librarian to off-campus adjunct faculty, who for the most part have not used the campus library themselves, and yet who are requiring the use of the library by their students. The distance students use of the campus library and its physical and online resources is related strongly to the knowledge of and use by the distance faculty teaching them. Distance faculty create more informed research assignments in terms of library resources after completing the 8-week course. The distance faculty feel more confident demonstrating a library resource or discussing library services in front of students or via the web from their remote locations, once they have seen selected library resources and practiced using them in the safe learning environment of the 8-week course with other distance faculty like themselves, led by a library faculty member. Distance learning of students is greatly enhanced by the distance coaching of multi-disciplinary faculty by the librarian faculty member. It will be the wise universities both now and in the future who support distance faculty members' abilities to communicate the availability, the efficient access, and the appropriate integration of scholarly electronic and print resources, so that distance students will enjoy truly comparable learning experiences as their on-campus counterparts.

Keywords:

Distance learning, faculty coaching, library resources, librarian.