Catherine Lavallée-Welch is gaining an international reputation as an innovator in higher education technology.  The associate librarian at the University of South Florida Lakeland taught a "Library Instruction and Information Literacy for Distance Learners" webinar last month. In that live Web conference she shared her experience and expertise using Elluminate online learning software to teach library instruction and information literacy to distance learners. More than 65 people participated from the United States, Canada, Scotland and Vietnam.   

      The Elluminate company invited Lavallée-Welch to share her knowledge after she led a session on the same topic at a conference in St. Petersburg earlier this year. Elluminate, a synchronous software, provides participants with communication tools such as audio, video, file sharing, whiteboard access, presentation capability, web tour, and other exciting tools.  It allows people at various locations to learn and interact together at the same time.

      "The request to present was unexpected," Lavallée-Welch says. "As far as I can tell, I'm the first librarian they have asked to present. I was so impressed, and humbled, to have attendees from around the country and the world. I've presented in international conferences before, and you know there are people from different places in the room, but it's not quite the same thing as doing your presentation live in a webinar. I didn't dare ask that one attendee what time it was in Vietnam!"

      About three quarters of the participants were librarians, library staff or students studying to become librarians.

      "I knew my audience was part library folk and part non, so I took care to present both library instruction and information literacy," she says.

      She shared her experience with Elluminate at USF Lakeland and discussed how various functions in Elluminate can enhance an information literacy session.

      "For example, I shared my browser with the students so they could see live how to do a database search. I shared tricks to make online teaching more successful, for example using interaction tools --smiley face icons, polls, et cetera -- to keep students involved."

      Lavallée-Welch says the webinar format allowed for great interaction with her She answered several questions on her information literacy activities in general, as well as specific questions on Elluminate, which some of the participants were already using.

      According to Dr. Judith Ponticell, USF Lakeland senior associate vice president, "Catherine provides crucial support for the outstanding research being conducted by our faculty and students, and it is an honor for our campus to have her excellence recognized by one of the leading innovators in higher ed technology"

      As USF Lakeland creates more online programs, Lavallée-Welch hopes to do more Elluminate information literacy sessions.

      "I would also like to use Elluminate to hold open-door sessions like I do in person," she says.

      "Using technology to do interactive learning for distance learners is nothing new, but Elluminate makes it so easy. With Elluminate, there is very little that I do in my face-to-face classes that I cannot do using the software.

      Lavallée-Welch credits Dr. Naomi Boyer, USF Lakeland's director of teaching and learning technologies, with embedding technology like Elluminate into the teaching experience.

      Boyer says, "Elluminate is an exciting tool that gives distance educators the opportunity to provide equitable student experiences. In addition, using a platform like Elluminate within a fully online course helps to reduce isolation, increase social presence, and connect the faculty to the students to respond to immediate needs."

      Boyer believes Elluminate's real-time capacity is more useful to decision making, role assignment, and voice interaction than asynchronous courseware tools such as Blackboard.

      A native of Quebec, Lavallée-Welch earned a bachelor's degree in history from the Université du Québec à Montréal and a master's in library science from the Université de Montréal. After serving as electronic resources and reference librarian at the University of Louisville, she joined USF Lakeland in 2005.