Transcript Getting Your Students Beyond Google

CETL Workshop
September 29, 2009
Eleonora Dubicki
[email protected]
Google vs Library Databases
 88% of students use library resources to complete an
assignment, spend less than one hour a week.*
 98.4% of students surf the Internet for information to
support coursework, spending 1-2 hours a week.*
* Educause , ECAR Study of Students and Information Technology, 2005
2
Comparison
Google
Library Databases
 Ease of use
 Accuracy
 Currency
 Reliability
 Practical information
 Format
 Enjoyable
 Authority
 Quick look-up of facts
 Lack of awareness
 Sufficing, when quality
 Difficulty navigating web
isn’t concern
site
 Overwhelming amount
of information
3
Faculty Acceptance of Web Research
 77% faculty encourage students to use specific web
sites
 50% require them to use specific sites
 73% allow use of web without specifying specific sites
 7.1% forbid web use
 83% require students to use web in conjunction with
other resources
Herring, Susan Davis. "Faculty Acceptance of the World Wide Web for Student
Research." College & Research Libraries 62.3 (May 2001)
4
Where do Students Begin Research?
OCLC 2005 Study
MU Business Students
5
Challenges in Doing Research
6
Information Literacy (IL)
 The ability to locate, evaluate and effectively
use information to become independent life-long
learners – as students, employees, and
members of a community.
 Focused on developing critical thinking and
reasoning skills in conjunction with techology
literacy as the student progresses through
his/her academic career.
7
Progression Standards for IL
Developed by the NJ VALE Consortium Task Force, a group of eight academic
librarians from 2 and 4 year colleges in NJ.
Introductory/Novice Skills
Gateway/Developing Skills
 Gen Ed courses
 Introductory courses
 Uses general/multi-
 Upper level courses
disciplinary resources
 Uses multiple format
materials
 Creates short papers or
presentations
 Ethical use of info

 Uses discipline-specific



resources
Uses specialized collections
Uses range of info and
technologies to present
research
Creates long papers/ thesis
Ethical use of info
8
The Information Literate Student…
1. Identifies and addresses an information need
2. Accesses information effectively and efficiently
3. Evaluates and thinks critically about information
4. Uses information effectively for a specific purpose
5. Uses information ethically and legally
Association of College & Research Libraries
Progression Standards for Information Literacy (NJ VALE Task Force)
9
Identifies Information Need
 Identifies research topic or information need
 Drafts research question relevant to the topic
 Tip: have student hand in draft of research question for
faculty or peer review
 Uses general information sources to understand the
topic and generate relevant concepts/vocabulary
 Tip: use reference materials such as encyclopedias and
dictionaries (print or electronic) for background info
 Tip: have student keep a journal of the research process
for the assignment – keywords, databases and web sites
10
Accesses Information
 Selects search tools
 Books, journals, newspapers, web sites, videos
 Print, electronic and human sources
 General versus discipline-specific sources
 Constructs a search strategy with keywords
 Retrieves information in multiple formats
 Refines search strategy based on information gathered
 Collects and organizes information
11
Evaluates and Thinks Critically
 Evaluates information sources for their relevance,
authority, reliability, and currency to the topic
 Tip: provide student with a rubric or checklist for
evaluating materials
 Identifies a source’s main idea and major points
 Distinguishes between scholarly vs popular sources,
articles vs editorials
 Distinguishes between primary and secondary sources
 Determines whether additional info is necessary
12
Uses Information Effectively
 Completes a research project by integrating
information new and prior information
 Presents the research product appropriately
 Text, images, audiovisual
 Incorporates quotes and paraphrasing from materials
collected into text of research paper to support thesis
13
Uses Info Ethically and Legally
 Cites sources and compiles a bibliography
 Uses consistent and correct citation style for the
discipline
 Understands copyright and plagiarism issues
 Properly represents content and ownership of ideas
presented in research product
 Meets academic integrity
14
Developing Student IL Skills
 Build library assignments into your course to enrich
and extend content of your class
 Assignments requiring use of multiple types of
materials
 Books, articles, web sites, video
 Require evaluation of sources
 How are popular and scholarly articles different?
 Is the web site used credible? Why?
 How are free sources and library databases differ?
 Does information gathered answer the research topic?
15
Novice Skills Assignment – eg.
Select an issue or topic that offers the opportunity to defend or reject
a particular position, such as “Child Poverty is a major problem in
the U.S.” Each student must find and bring into class at least two
pieces of evidence to support or contradict the statement. This can
be in the form of an article in a newspaper or magazine, a speech or
presentation, a research study or a government statistics report.
Students can discuss their evidence in teams or with the entire
class, explore contradictory information and discuss criteria for
evaluating the information.
16
Advanced Skills Assignment – eg.
History students: select an individual (historical or contemporary)
and research the events and issues of the time and develop and
present a portrait of that individual.
Health students: locate ten reliable consumer health websites or
articles on a topic, and create a patient education brochure on that
topic based upon information from those sites, and including the
sites as further reading for patients.
17
How Librarians can Help
 Collaborate with faculty on assignment and library
sources available – library liaisons
 Workshops on library resources – students/faculty
 One-on-one instruction at library or writing center
 Instructional sessions for class
 Libguides research guides: guides.monmouth.edu
 Customized handouts for assignment with appropriate
sources
 Purchase new resources for library
18