Developing a Library and Information Science Cataloging Course with an Interactive Authoring Tool

Library and Information Science (LIS) students, librarians or library staff may not fully understand cataloging and classification in a library setting. As a result, many of these individuals may not be able to perform important cataloging duties when needed. To address this need, instruction was developed to introduce the basics of cataloging and classification. The instruction included an introduction and three modules covering data standardization, cataloging tools, and classification structures. The goal of the instruction was to provide training to LIS graduate students, librarians and library staff to help them grasp basic cataloging and classification knowledge and skills applicable in a library setting. To foster learning, this instruction was designed to create an interactive learning environment, and followed Mayer’s (2009) multimedia learning principles. The instruction was assessed for its usability and learning effectiveness by 19 adult participants (n = 19). To evaluate the instruction’s usability, one in-person and two online semi-conducted interviews were conducted. To evaluate the instruction’s learning effectiveness, Google Forms were used to administer a demographic survey, a pretest, a posttest, and a post-instruction survey. The post-instruction survey asked about the participants’ learning experiences with the instruction. The results of the evaluation revealed some discrepancies between the views of the course designer and those of the participants. Through the usability and learning effectiveness testing, participants identified possible future enhancements regarding the instruction’s content, delivery, and software development. Keywords Libraries, Cataloging, Classification, Metadata, Multimedia learning, Online learning, Interactive authoring tool, Self-directed learnin

Research on Academic English Writing Teaching Based on Production-oriented Approach

Academic English writing is a challenging task in college English. Under traditional teaching methods, although teachers invest a lot of energy and time, little effect is achieved. This paper is based on the Production-oriented Approach proposed by distinguished Professor Wen Qiufang. Under the guidance of the teaching concept and teaching assumptions of this theory, this paper, taking a specific writing topic as an example, elaborates on how to design the three phases of motivating, enabling and assessing. In order to verify the effectiveness of this teaching method, the paper also analyzes and summarizes the collected questionnaires and interview texts. Academic English writing teaching guided by the Production-oriented Approach can help students reduce anxiety, make students' input learning more targeted, and greatly improve their reading and writing abilities

Histological differentiation of inflorescences in two cultivars of geranium (Pelargonium x hortorum)

Differentiation of the first inflorescence was determined in two seed propagated cultivars of geranium, \u27Multibloom Scarlet\u27 and \u27Red Elite\u27. Histological evidence was recorded in photomicrographs of paraffin sections of shoot apex tissues and scanning electron micrographs of shoot tip surfaces. Morphological evidence was recorded in photographs when the first flowers were showing red petals. Inflorescence primordia appeared at the 5th and 8th leaf stages in \u27Multibloom Scarlet\u27 and \u27Red Elite\u27 respectively. Earlier growth stages of seedling shoots bore pairs of opposite leaves. An inflorescence formed in lieu of a leaf, and inflorescence primordia and leaf primordia formed laterally from a central apical meristem. Whether or not this indeterminate pattern of seedling growth continued indefinitely was not determined. Photomicrographs of sectioned tissue detected inflorescence differentiation one leaf stage earlier than scanning electron micrographs, and thus was the more sensitive method for dating the event precisely. However, scanning electron micrographs revealed the structure of a whole shoot apex in a single micrograph and avoided reconstructive interpretation of three dimensional structure from serial sections