Spotlight on the Geotechnical Engineering Technology Guide

RRC Library staff member, Rosemary Woodby, recently collaborated with instructors in the creation of a Geotechnical Engineering Technology Guide especially for students in RRC’s Engineering Technology program. Instructors Nathalie Emond, Alena James, and John Kuchak describe the process:

We are very pleased with the creation of the Geotechnical Engineering Technology Guide! The process was simple. Rosemary Woodby created a framework and with a few brief discussions, we collaborated to develop a robust resource. Students in the Civil Engineering Technology (Environmental, Municipal and Structural), as well as other related programs, will have a point of access which will provide them with a broad range of resources to explore and support their learning.

What are Guides and why are they useful?

Guides pull together Library resources such as books, videos, and database articles along with many online sources such as webpages, YouTube videos, online reports, and more. Guides put everything in one place, where any student can then access them. This can be especially beneficial when topics are shared across multiple classes. You can link to Guides in your LEARN site, you can even link to individual pages within the guides. Even better, guides aren’t static, we can add more/update/change content as we go.

What does the collaborative process look like?

I can build these myself but when developed in collaboration with faculty they are so much richer; and create a strong resource that is tailored to the needs of the students. (Rosemary Woodby, RRC Library)

The process of collaborating on a guide is flexible but typically starts with a discussion. What is needed for that class? What type of resources and topics will this guide focus on? After the background information is worked out, we start to incorporate the instructor’s recommendations. Are there webpages, videos, books, or articles that an instructor recommends to their students? Those recommendations will be combined with items from the Library into a guide format using our LibGuide software platform. When we are all happy with the result, the guide is published and made available to students and the College community.

How do I request a Guide for my class?

Guides are created by the Library staff member assigned to your program area, as listed in our Collection Development Contacts. You may send a request to your subject specialist directly, or email the Library’s general account at library@rrc.ca.

Explore further: Additional Engineering Technology Guides created through collaboration

• Environmental Science – with Jonathan Mitchell, Civil Engineering Technology instructor
• Structural Engineering Technology – with Crystal Ungarian, Structural Engineering Technology instructor

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