Steve Weimar, Gene Klotz, and Wes Shumar: The Math Forum @ Drexel

Discuss the possibility of a small conference/meeting in January that focuses on the role of participants as an integral part of the design, content development, program facilitation, and assessment of digital libraries. It would consider the full range of activities with participants that form a systemic cycle of roles and activity: face-2-face leadership institutes and introductory workshops, usability studies, classroom use, volunteer mentoring, content generation, question asking, public forum participation, etc.

What are successful models? In what ways are they successful? How are these sustained and managed? What are the critical dimensions of user involvement and how do they interact or reinforce each other? What would help the NSDL make this a priority and serve projects seeking to integrate user participation in the development of digital libraries?

Notes - Systemic Integration of Participant Roles and Educational Activities

We identified different possible themes for a workshop on participant roles and this is summarized in the following:

A Proposed Workshop on User Involvement in NSDL Projects

The NSDL program has developed to the point where it is important to get more users actively involved in the libraries and more involved in the development of the libraries. Like evaluation or sustainability, the involvement of participants is a focus that deserves to be highlighted for all proposals to address. How can we help the NSDL community articulate the importance of this component and support the development of proposals in which this is an integral part of collection and service development, management, and research, not an incidental element that is first to be cut or left incomplete?

We propose a conference in which projects with experience in participant-centered digital libraries share experiences, resources, and project evaluations, and articulate a possible research program in this arena.

WHAT: A two-day workshop to share, develop and document approaches to developing and utilizing user involvement in digital libraries.

WHO: Staff of NSDL-funded projects with special consideration to those who can bring an associated middle school teacher.

WHERE: Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA.

WHEN: A Saturday and Sunday in January, 2004, TBA.

WHY: Overall goal is to share information about what is known, what is underway.

HOW: Via keynote speakers, panels of NSDL project staff with experience in the relevant issues, panels of NSDL project staff to discuss works-in-progress or work being planned.

Use techniques from the recent Evaluation Meeting to immediately construct a written document of the meeting. Post results on a wiki for further evolution.

Gloss: the workshop planning committee comes in prepared to write a report and the conference sessions flesh out the sections of the report, with others able to join in the final writing process if they want. Define the report and tentative sections beforehand and modify as needed during the session. Organize the report by themes and by program/knowledge phases (themes as specified below, and moments, meaning what we know, what we don't know, what we want to figure how/well-defined problems, investigations we want conducted, ongoing project in this vein already, outcomes desired).

Points for Discussion

I. User roles:
What are the ways in which users can play a wide range of central roles in the digital library from consumer to core development responsibilities such as designer, cataloguer, evangelist, content developer, facilitator, mentor, evaluator, researcher, etc.?
How can users drive the development of communities and how can they contribute to sustaining a community?
How can you evaluate the user experience and learning?
What do we know about the development of social capital (who you know and place in community) and trust.

II. Working with Users:
The balance between face-to-face sessions and virtual programs for involving users in productive activities. What can (and should) be done in each venue? What doesn't work?
How to recruit users? How do you need to nurture them? What motivates users?
How to design for a wider, more diverse audience and pull those users in?
What special approaches are needed for middle school users (teachers, students, parents, teacher educators, administrators)?

Possible keynote speakers:
Amy Jo Kim, author of "Community Building on the Web". Highly recommended by colleagues at SRI.
Rick DuFour, author of "Learning Communities". Mentioned by Len Simutus and Susan Jesuroga.
people who have looked at what users are actually doing in DL environments, such as Chip Bruce and K. Ann Renninger.
Other suggestions?

Clarification of Focus

We would like the workshop to focus on the following two themes:

1) User activity research. there are already a number of people and projects who have done research on user activity in the NSDL. But these people have not had much opportunity to collaborate and share with each other. Consequently as a group we don't know what we already know. It is critical for the research and evaluation of NSDL to bring this group together and to share with each other data, results, and methodologies. This is an important activity to do before the next round of funding, and it would give us valuable systematic information about student, teacher and other users of the NSDL. Teachers should be part of this foci both for an element of corroboration and to give them a chance to think about the research into user activity and what it might mean for their practice.

There is a lot of good NSDL research out there that is not yet widely known. Katherine Hanson and her group at EDC have done a number of studies looking at user activity. Marcia Mardis has a whole bibliography on the subject. Chip Bruce and his colleagues have looked at this, Mick Khoo working with Tammy et al. at Boulder, Boots Cassel has interesting tools to collect user data, and more. The NSDL needs to understand what users are doing, the role of community, etc. The proposed workshop will, in part, pull together the research that already exists.

We also hope to move forward the discussion of

2) User centered design. The design of DLs so that they encourage more interaction and social activity and you get the building of communities of practice. This section of the workshop is important for researchers, software designers, project PIs and teachers.

Another important theme which we do not propose to cover, but should be the subject of a separate endeavor is a

3) Teacher workshop. Give teachers a chance to see what the NSDL offers. Give them training that they might want and need. Give them an opportunity to help set the agenda for future activities and services offered in the NSDL. This is a kind of combination between focus group and a training workshop that is directed by the participants so that it has a very democratic feel and might generate interesting information about what has gone on in the NSDL and where it is going.

Next Steps
Collect your advice and volunteering (for planning committee, to serve on panels, etc.)
Look for funding support.

If the latter is forthcoming, incorporate the former into the formation of a planning committee, check on available times when we could have the workshop, and quickly get word out to the rest of NSDL.

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