| The Library and Information Service in collaboration with
the Centre for Learning Technologies and other learning and teaching support
divisions such as the Academic IT department and the SU Disability Unit, has
implemented a SUNLearn integrated course reading system that supports the
creation and management of course reading lists directly from within the
SUNLearn environment. Six lecturers from the Departments of Educational
Psychology, Music, Geography and Environmental Studies, the School of Accountancy,
the Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics and the Faculty of
Theology participated in the implementation phase.
For lecturers
Course Reading Lists, powered by Leganto of Ex Libris,
allows lecturers to build and manage the reading lists for their courses from
within SUNLearn. Lecturers can include diverse content from the Library and
elsewhere, such as books, articles, open educational resources, websites,
streaming media, digitised content and course notes, in a single list. The
reading lists are synchronised with existing library collections. In doing so, Course
Reading Lists adds both print and electronic materials to the same lists and
shows the real-time availability of both.
Student usage reports are available to help lecturers
determine how effective their reading lists are and what materials students
engage with most, through views, comments and likes. A discussion feature can
also be enabled if you so choose, enabling students to participate in
discussions on the reading list. With the annual roll-over function of Course
Reading Lists, reading lists no longer have to be resubmitted to the Library on
an annual basis – rather, they can simply be reused and updated.
For students
Course Reading Lists allows for hybrid learning and aims to
improve the accessibility of up-to-date resource list materials for students’
ease of use in e-learning. The lists have a standardised format and structure
in SUNLearn and are also therefore online accessible, from any device.
Students access Course Reading Lists from within their
course in SUNLearn. They can interact with their lists by marking citations as
read and liking those citations which they enjoy. If enabled by the lecturer,
students can view upcoming due dates by when material needs to be read and can
partake in student discussions on their lists. They can suggest content for
their reading lists, add private notes and tags to their reading lists and
report broken links to the Library.
Start your own
This new integrated course reading system comes at a time
when students need to engage more with their lecturers through the SUNLearn
system and is partially financed from the Stellenbosch University Strategic
Fund. To learn more about Course Reading Lists and to get started on your own,
please visit https://libguides.sun.ac.za/readinglists. Lecturers and facilitators of courses who wish to make use
of this new feature to improve their course reading list administration in
2021, can contact Natasja Malherbe (Manager: Digital Library Systems), tel. +27 21 8082845 or their faculty
librarian.
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