Presented at LILAC 2022

1. LILAC 2022
March 2022
LIB262: Developing a systematic review search
strategy through online peer and active
learning
Mia O’Hara,
John Woodcock
Libraries & Collections

2. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
Context is everything
We are:
• Teaching Librarians at King’s College London
• Large, multi campus, multi-disciplinary University
We’re responsible for:
• Developing variety of information literacy related
teaching
• (usually one shots)
• Teaching students and researchers at King’s
• Teaching clinical staff in our NHS Trust partners
• Managing large group of Senior Library Assistants,
who support us by providing teaching
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3. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
Where did the online course begin?
Mid 2019:
• One shot classes well established and evolving
• Engaging with academics well
• Large suite of ‘foundational’ elearning available to
University
The head of the team asks:
• “What do you want to do next?”
And I came back with Dr Randy Garrison’s
Community of Inquiry (COI) model of online
teaching and learning
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4. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
What we did next
We decided to design an online course to support systematic
reviewers, because:
We had the audience
• Large community of Health PGRs at King’s: demand
for Systematic Review teaching is always present
• Increasing number of students studying part time,
outside London, or outside the UK
• Large group of students for whom an on-campus,
three hour workshop isn’t suitable
We had the expertise
• Many, many years of teaching development for
systematic reviews under our belts
We had the content
• We’d built a set of elearning tutorials specifically to
support systematic reviewers
• The ‘core’ we could build a course around
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5. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
Designing the course - The Community of Inquiry model
Social constructivist model developed by Dr Randy
Garrison
Aim is to generate and combine three presences:
• Teaching
• Social
• Cognitive
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6. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
Designing the course – building the Teaching presence in Moodle
• Assignments will:
• Introduce new concepts
• Assignment will be peer:instructor, to give
feedback and guidance
• Require integrating new concepts into work
• Assignment will be peer:peer
• Clear assignment requirements and deadlines
• Points awarded for each piece of work
• Can “pass” or “fail” course, set out in syllabus
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7. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
Designing the course – building the Teaching presence in Moodle
• Important to put faces to names
• We recorded videos to sit at the
head of each stage
• Friendly, visible way to combine
the Teaching/Social presences
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8. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
Designing the course – building the Social presence in Moodle
• Strong focus on discursive assignments, using
Forums
• First assignment to introduce yourself and your
research topic
• Instructors introduce themselves
• Many assignments require peer feedback, so
interaction is required
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9. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
Designing the course – building the Cognitive presence in Moodle
• Assignments are constructively aligned to
the overall aims of the course
• Clearly scaffolded, gradual structure
• Each stage’s assignments build on the
previous
• Complexity increases through the course
Stage 1’s assignments are very
social and introductory
Stage 2’s assignments introduce
the idea of limits and filters, and
then encourage the learner to
apply them to their own work
Stage 4’s assignment is designed
to be a 'culmination' of the
previous weeks' work
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10. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
Running the course
• Five courses so far – no two the same!
• Librarians and Senior Library Assistants as
instructors
• First course admitted 30 learners, rising to 80
• First stage has no groups, to encourage
mixing/exposure to each other as much as
possible
• Also opportunity to find students with similar
topics
• Stage 1 is two weeks long, and completion is
required to progress
• Groups start at Stage 2 to provide manageable
social presence
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11. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
Providing support to learners
• Lots of communication before the course
• Instructors’ presence in assignments from the
beginning
• Smaller groups from Stage 2 onwards
• Regular posts in the general support forum
• Balance between being responsive to learners
and creating space for peer-learning
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12. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
Why did we decide to run Drop-Ins on Gather
How we were using it:
• Gather is a tool we have been using for social
activities like our Christmas Quiz and staff
discussions.
How other institutions were using it:
• Found 4 Case Studies of its use in HE
• Potential for positive reporting-bias in student
feedback
• Case studies indicated Gather could be an
effective tool for office hours – essentially what
we wanted to introduce
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13. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
What barriers did we consider before using Gather
1. Fear of the unfamiliar
Most users are now familiar with
zoom-type interfaces, but this is
different
2. Accessibility Concerns
Currently no proximity-based
video conferencing software
would meet accessibility
requirements....so is it okay to
use it?
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14. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
How did we overcome those barriers
1. Ensure you have a dedicated greeter
2. Keep the space simple
3. Have visual instructions built into the
space
1. Introduce Gather when advertising the
drop-ins
2. Be prepared to handle a little chaos
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15. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
What does a Drop-In on Gather look like?
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16. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
Providing support to instructors
Support to instructors
• Wrote an Instructor Manual
• Dedicated Teams space
• Weekly debrief meetings to discuss
previous/upcoming week, any challenges
• Present in other spaces outside the course
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17. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
Course completion
Iteration Signed up Completed Stage 1 Passed course
April to May 2020
30 - 7 (23%)
January to February 2021
30 - 8 (26%)
March to April 2021
76 41 22 (54%)
October to November 2021
80 45 23 (51%)
February to March 2022
80 41 14 (34%)
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18. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
Reviewing and tweaking
• Ideas from debriefs, or exchanges with
students are recorded
• Sometimes tweaks can happen in-course,
sometimes after it’s finished
• A review session is held with instructors in-
person after each course finishes
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19. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
The impact
19
Improved quality of research:
• 30% definite immediate contribution
• 70% definite long term contribution
Contributed to personal or professional
development:
• 70% definite immediate contribution
• 30% definite long term contribution
More informed decision making
• 80% definite immediate contribution
• 20% definite long term contribution
Publication of research
• 20% definite immediate contribution
• 50% definite long term contribution
• 20% probable future contribution
• 10% unsure

20. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
The impact
The form is a bit small, so some choice
pieces:
• “I haven't started the SR yet but I feel much
more confident about my search following
the course and I know how to access
support if needed. It was particularly helpful
using my own SR to 'practice' on throughout
the course.”
• “This 5-week course was one of the best I
participated in all my life! Definitely, the
best that I have followed at KCL. My
systematic review improved completely. I
could find a lot of interesting papers
following your tips and tricks on the search
strategies.”
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21. March 2022 Mia O’Hara, John Woodcock LILAC 2022: Developing a systematic review search strategy through online peer and active learning
Successes and challenges
Successes
• For instructors – very different way of working and
teaching
• Gather
• Reaching and supporting students overseas
• Linking up different areas of support, like forums
and workshops
• Good way to get Senior Library Assistants more
experienced in supporting researchers
Challenges
• For instructors – very different way of working and
teaching
• It’s still a no-charge MOOC
• Extra work for learners to balance alongside other
studies
• Attrition always present
• Difficult to forge personal connections
• High motivation required
• Annual leave meant some instructors found it
difficult to re-join
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22. References
• Bektashi, Linda. (2018). Technology and the Curriculum: Summer 2018. Retrieved November 12, 2021, from
https://techandcurriculum.pressbooks.com/chapter/coi-and-online-learning/
• D’Alessio et al. (2019). Social presence enhances student performance in an online geology course but depends on instructor
facilitation. Journal of Geoscience Education. (67:3) Retrieved March 03, 2022, from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10899995.2019.1580179
• Gather Presence Inc. (2021). Gather. Retrieved November 07, 2021, from https://www.gather.town/
• Hartline, Jason & Vijayaraghavan, Aravindan. (2020). Remote teaching on gather.town. Retrieved November 07, 2021, from
https://theory.cs.northwestern.edu/2020/12/23/remote-teaching-on-gather-town/
• Lee, Isaac. (2020). Penn students use digital platform Gather to imitate in-person office hours. Retrieved November 07, 2021, from
https://www.thedp.com/article/2020/10/gather-town-penn-cis-virtual-office-hours
• McClure, Colin & Williams, Paul. (2021). Gather.town: An opportunity for self-paced learning in a synchronous, distance-learning
environment. Retrieved November 07, 2021, from https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/publications/gathertown-an-opportunity-for-self-
paced-learning-in-a-synchronou
• Totzke, Patrick. (2021). Using Gather.town for teaching. Retrieved November 07, 2021, from
https://cgi.csc.liv.ac.uk/~patrick/blog/2021/gather/
• Community of Inquiry Framework in Online Learning: Use of Technology – Technology and the Curriculum: Summer 2018
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23. Thanks!

24. Mia O’Hara
Teaching & Learning
Librarian
King’s College London
Email:
maria.ohara@kcl.ac.uk
Twitter: @meaohara
John Woodcock
Digital Education Librarian
King’s College London
Email:
john.1.woodcock@kcl.ac.uk
Twitter: @jwoody3000