​​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.

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.