eLearning Champion: Lori Choudhury

Along with today's digital age comes the digital library, and even the digital librarian.

It's a job that isn’t about helping students sort through endless aisles of books in search of a few select works, but rather helping students navigate the World Wide Web in search of a few key online databases. Now coordinator of eLearning for UC Libraries, Lori Choudhury has been doing just that.

Choudhury serves as an embedded librarian in the graduate programs for the schools of Human Services and Education in the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH). For the past two years, she's worked directly with faculty within their courses.

Choudhury, along with the help of CECH instructional designer Sarah Schroeder, has championed the “Your Virtual Library” module located in Blackboard. The module includes a personal welcome video from Choudhury, a description of how to use VPN to gain off-campus access to information, a distance learner’s guide and links to guides and databases she handpicks to fit the needs of that specific course.

Choudhury now embeds herself in as many as nine courses a semester, helping students with their research.

“It has been an evolving process of collaboration,” she said. She works closely with both instructional designers and the faculty themselves.

Through her collaboration with Michael Brubaker, professor in substance abuse counseling, Choudhury has met the research needs of the entire Bachelor of Science in Substance Abuse Counseling online program, creating custom tutorials and LibGuides (guides that compile the best databases and books on certain subjects).

“We have seen the usage of the guide grow exponentially,” Choudhury said.

Her passion for eLearning began when she recognized that online students in her college were not receiving the help and information that they needed to succeed in their courses.

“I was motivated to help online students at CECH who were getting lost,” Choudhury said.

As coordinator of eLearning for UC Libraries, she is now spreading her passion and wealth of experience in eLearning with her fellow librarians.

“We’re hoping to form an eLearning working group for UC Libraries,” she said. “We’re hoping to make this working group collaborative, including three or four people from outside the libraries to make sure we’re in alignment with UC’s mission on eLearning.”

Through Choudhury’s continued leadership in eLearning at UC, her ultimate goal is to promote active, interactive learning.

“I have a vision of creating some sort of learning module with tutorials and content where we’re really teaching,” she said.

Choudhury’s vision, and all of the work she does at UC, revolves around one important motto that helps to define Canopy itself:

“It’s all about the students.”