Collaborative Design - Collaborative Technologies and Applications for Interactive Information Design

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covery tools. They urged librarians to discontinue

their 'library centric' (structure of bibliography)

assumptions and adopt a more 'student centric'

design perspective. In return, students offered

to explore form and content issues in support

of librarians' new roles as content providers for

Web-based learning environments. Hence, in this

phase of the project, student generated data and

interaction led to an intention to improve the web

site design to better support students' information

search and retrieval preferences and needs.

In continuing exploration of student research

habits, research skills, and learning styles, two

new lines of inquiry evolved—effects of learning

styles and implications of class level (years toward

graduation). In response, student researchers

decided to use preliminary findings to create a

two-dimensional (2-D) model for content archi-

tecture. The emphasis on learning styles emerged

out of the recognition that the Web honors multiple

forms of intelligence—e.g., abstract, textual,

visual, musical, social, and kinesthetic. There-

fore, digital technologies offer opportunities for

higher educators to construct tools, systems, and

environments that enable individuals to experi-

ence information in preferred learning modes.

“The Web affords the match we need between

a medium and how a particular person learns”

(Brown, 2002). In addition, student researchers

reasoned that students early in their college career

needed to receive foundational information for

required liberal arts and general studies course-

work. Then, beginning in the third year of a four

year undergraduate degree program (when most

students declare their academic degree/major),

students needed discipline-specific resources and

research navigation assistance appropriate to the

knowledge building traditions of the academic

field. See Table 1.

The design concept acknowledged the 'di-

mensionality' of the target audience, including

academic level considerations and other user at-

tributes which produce different needs at various

stages in students' careers. Students also recom-

mended that viewing experiences accommodate

learning style differences. The study and design

work are reported in more detail in Rogers et al.

(2005) and Somerville et al . (2007).

Table 1. 2-D content architecture model excerpt (adapted from Somerville et al., 2007)

Lower Years (first two of four year

program)

Intermediate Year

(third)

Advanced Year

(fourth)

Discipline-based course-

work and higher order

thinking experiences

require more in depth in-

formation resources and

research strategies, with

continued application of

visual and kinesthetic

design elements