Enhancing student participation in information literacy course based on Rain Classroom: a case study
ISSN: 0737-8831
Article publication date: 16 December 2019
Issue publication date: 29 September 2020
Abstract
Purpose
Student participation has been an important issue for information literacy (IL) teachings. The purpose of this paper is to promote active student participation in IL courses with Rain Classroom, an intelligent teaching tool.
Design/methodology/approach
Using mixed method research, the paper presents a practical case study of the author’s experiences with Rain Classroom to improve teaching and learning of IL.
Findings
The study shows that Rain Classroom helps implement problem-based learning, promote student participation in class interaction and optimize learning experience, which facilitates a shift of the IL course from passive to active learning.
Research limitations/implications
It is known that university public courses have large class sizes (more than 50 students per class), and, therefore, class interaction is difficult to organize. So this is a big issue for the researchers to study.
Practical implications
The proposed Rain Classroom is a free teaching tool and can be used in other academic libraries to enhance active student participation in IL lessons.
Social implications
The paper includes implications for improving interaction in large-size conference or trainings using Rain Classroom.
Originality/value
The existing literature has not traced the reports on using the Rain Classroom to enhance student participation in IL courses in academic libraries. This paper intends to fill this gap and share practical methods and experiences, deepening the application research of Rain Classroom.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the support from Tsinghua University Education Reform Project Fund. The authors also greatly thank Dr Peng Guozhen, from School of Foreign Language, Zhejiang University of Technology, who helps us in revising English expression of the paper.
Citation
Han, L. and Lu, Z. (2020), "Enhancing student participation in information literacy course based on Rain Classroom: a case study", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 38 No. 3, pp. 522-536. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-08-2019-0155
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited