The ConnectedLib Toolkit was created to fill the need for accessible professional educational resources for library staff who work with teens and wish to learn how connected learning can help their youth services have a greater impact for their community. Connected learning is an educational framework — an approach to creating learning experiences — that connects interests, relationships, and opportunities. Connected learning is driven by learners’ interests, supported by their relationships, and oriented towards academic, economic, or civic opportunities. There are nine modules, each accompanied with a workbook and guides users may download.
Introducing the Toolkit
The Connected Learning Mindset
Community-Centered Services
Youth Development
Mentoring
Capacity
Civic Engagement
Assessment & Evaluation
Designing Connected Learning Services
Type of Material:
Online Course
Recommended Uses:
Depending on the learning outcomes of the lesson, librarians may use materials across the different modules as individual or team activities in different modalities (in-class, homework).
Technical Requirements:
Browser, Google Docs
Identify Major Learning Goals:
Below arethe broad learning objectives across the modules in the ConnectedLib Toolkit. Each module has more specific, additional learning objectives.
Understand the principles of connected learning and their relevance to teen and youth library services.
Center community in the design of youth services, programs, and partnerships.
Apply theories and principles of youth development to collected learning programs for teens.
Utilize mentorship to strengthen and sustain connected learning initiatives.
Understand and enhance a library's capacity for connected learning initiatives.
Support civic engagement through connected learning initiatives.
Design, implement, and assess connected learning services using intentional planning and evaluation methods.
Target Student Population:
Professional practitioners, students in Library Science programs
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
None
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
Connected learning is a complex concept to explain and implement, and this toolkit presents the material in an accessible, well-organized way that allows users to “chunk” the content. The assessment module is particularly strong and includes an extremely useful workbook.
The toolkit provides a comprehensive description of the connected learning framework, along with examples of how youth librarians can develop programs that support teen interests, foster partnerships with peers and adults, and promote civic, economic, or academic development.
Each module includes interactive learning objects (such as exercises, simulations, and hands-on activities) that engage learners and support active learning. Case examples, often presented as videos, demonstrate practical applications of the concepts discussed. Modules are designed to be reasonably short and engaging, with links to more detailed reports and supporting documents.
Overall, the toolkit is well structured and easy to navigate, with clear headings and menus that support effective learning.
Concerns:
There is a large amount of content, which may be overwhelming for educators and could result in cognitive overload. A user’s guide or a simple outline or crosswalk—linking learning outcomes to content locations and activities—would be helpful. The content is not easy to skim, making it difficult to quickly grasp key concepts, and likely requires significant time, possibly across multiple sessions, to fully engage with and absorb the material.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
Offers a variety of opportunities for learning and teaching; a single module or parts of a module can be used. Modules are progressive and provide strong examples that support learning comprehension. Although directed to librarians, the content is applicable to various youth-focused agencies and organizations. The materials have a user-friendly design that makes them easy for students and librarians/educators to implement, customize, and use.
Concerns:
It would be useful to have a crosswalk between the learning objectives to the various worksheets, tools, and sections.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
Overall, the website is well organized. The top navigation includes a drop-down menu of modules and a separate button to return to the homepage. The modules are linear in organization, with a left-hand navigation panel linking to sections within a module.
The content is under a Creative Commons NonCommercial ShareAlike license, which allows users to adapt the materials for their purposes.
Selected pages from the website were ran through WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool) and resulted in no errors.
Concerns:
The site is lacking a search feature to search across all modules.
Selected Google Documents were downloaded as a Word document and checked for accessibility. Accessibility issues were discovered (alternative text missing, no headers for the tables).
Creative Commons:
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