| Lindsey Gervais, Digital Pedagogy Specialist, Gale |
While everyone is just trying to get through the challenging conditions created by the COVID-19 pandemic and adjust as best they can for now, no one will want all of their hard work to be thrown away come fall. In the spirit of “let no good crisis go to waste,” this crisis can be a starting point upon which many learning communities build stronger ecosystems and lasting digital strategies to enrich educational opportunities for students.
In times like these, curricular continuity is critical to reinforcing essential skill and content development for learners on an ongoing and consistent basis. Making that transition from personal, face-to-face instruction to virtual can certainly put a snag in the momentum you’ve maintained with both teaching and achieving individualized student goals. What makes Gale resources so well suited to help libraries and educators rise to the challenge is that for years we’ve crafted products with learning—and learners—at the center of our design principles. This means as we design our resources, we’re thinking not just about how content and tools support research and supplemental coursework within the context of a library, but how we can alleviate some of the pain points faced by educators wanting to integrate digital tools and technologies into their teaching.
We recognize the importance of creating a seamless integration experience for educators in order to gain long-term consistency in their instruction with our resources toward achieving curricular goals. We do this by aligning the learning experience of our products with common curriculum, standards, and the scope and sequence of textbooks and syllabi. We also acknowledge the necessity of embedding 21st-century skills within the learning experience so that instruction meets the demands of district or institutional strategic vision. As a result, our resources are framed with opportunities for critical thinking and developed to meet the needs of diverse learners. To help with these goals, Gale resources provide learning-focused features like:
- Unlimited, simultaneous user access
- Seamless learning management system/learning tools interoperability (LMS/LTI) integration
- Accessibility through universal design
- “Get Link” tools to generate a stable bookmark for any page (search result, article, etc.) for sharing via syllabi or LibGuides
- Workflow and management tools for teachers and students
- Supplemental curricular activities and handouts
- And more
We heard from many of our partners that access to resources beyond what’s typically in their collections could really help them navigate this crisis, and are happy to provide the temporary open access to meet that acute need, but also take pride in contributing to a sense of instructional normalcy and consistency beyond this time of need. With this in mind, we strive to remain a part of curricular planning beyond the current crisis—playing a part in the daily grind for effective instruction through functions that promote ease of use and integration. With the depth and breadth of Gale resources and our investment in instilling best practices for teaching and learning, educators can feel confident they’re building sustainable plans that provide academic continuity and drive student success.
Lindsey Gervais is a Digital Pedagogy Specialist at Gale where she assists in the learning design and development of Gale’s Digital Scholarship Program. With a doctorate background and research recognition in the field of Cognition, Instruction, and Learning Technology, Lindsey is helping to elevate the instructional framework of Gale’s Digital Scholar Lab. She is a graduate of UCONN and taught Educational Psychology and Research Practicum for undergraduate and graduate students for 6 years. She also prides herself on her creativity, being a coffee “snob”, and endless devotion to the performing arts.