USING TECHNOLOGY TO REACH MORE STUDENTS IN TOUGH TIMES: AN ANALYSIS ON FIVE SEMESTERS OF DATA CONNECTING STUDENTS WITH THE INFORMATION LITERACY SKILLS THEY NEED TO COMPLETE THEIR ASSIGNMENTS

Steve Borrelli, Instructional Design Librarian

Alex Merrill Systems/Operations Manager & Digital Initiatives Librarian�Washington State University

Where do students learn about library skills and resources: What are the main points of contact with the Libraries?

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• Reference desk
• One shot instruction session

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Our bread and butter…?

• The one shot session meets the needs of students in terms of providing an opportunity to learn everything they need to know about how to use a library, providing the tools they need to act in an information literate manner when addressing assignments.

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What are some of the challenges with the one-shot session?

• Too much information for students to absorb in one session
• Not enough time to cover everything desired
• Lack of a true assessment of learning
• Timing of instruction in relation to student assignments
• Not enough librarians to cover all the courses that request instruction
• Reluctance of instructors to devote a class session to LI/IL skills
• Student absences are unaccounted for
• Little opportunity for rapport to develop between librarian and student
• Challenging to have time for students to apply what they’ve learned
• Unrealistic expectations from instructors about what will/can be covered in the allotted time

• “The one shot is not information literacy. It’s a familiarization exercise that can serve as a doorway into information literacy.”
• Bill Badke, “Ramping up the One Shot.” Allbusiness.com. Web. 22 July, 2009

Every once in a while opportunity comes knocking at your door.

• 2006 Information Literacy (IL) included as one of the Six Learning Goals of the Baccalaureate
• IL getting national attention
• President Obama declares October 2009 as National Information Literacy month
• fall 2009 WSU begins using Angel
• All WSU Pullman campus courses have angel space
• Hybrid or “blended” learning becomes the norm

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For librarians, a hybrid learning experience means potential for:

• Multiple opportunities for students to consider LI/IL related topics
• Creating content for courses
• Designing assignments
• Opportunities for legitimate assessment
• Providing instruction in more classes

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Number of students receiving Li/IL instruction:

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• 2005 - 2006 10,681

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• 2008 – 2009 17,179

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• 62 %

What is ILE?

• ILE = Information Literacy Education Learning Environment
• Homegrown learning environment designed specifically to deliver information literacy instruction and assessment
• Flexible tool for collaborative assignment design
• Not a tutorial

Advantages to using ILE to reach more students:

• Rapidly build course spaces
• Use the best learning objects we can find on topic
• Connect quiz questions with learning objects
• Collaboratively design assignments
• Assign quizzes, and essays
• Assess students

Financial support:

• 2007 = ~$5000
• WSU Teaching and Learning Improvement Grant from the Office of Undergraduate Education
• 2008 = ~$5000
• WSU Samuel H. and Patricia W. Smith Grant from the Office of Undergraduate Research
• 2009 =$14,000
• Donation from Fred Tompkins, WSU graduate and university donor
• Donation from the Hayner Trust

ILE Participation by Semester:

• Course Sections Participants
• fall 07
• Geology 101 43 659
• Hort/Crops 102 1 44
• spring 08
• Geology 101 42 452
• Bio. 105 DDP 1 33
• English 101 9 183
• summer 08
• Soils 101 DDP 1 8
• fall 08
• Geology 101 42 618
• Hort/Crops 102 1 49
• Bio. 105 DDP 1 60
• English 101 19 266
• Soils 101 DDP 1 16
• Phil 260 DDP 1 25
• GenEd 110 7 562
• GenEd 300 1 5
• spring 09
• Geology 101 41 650
• Bio. 105 DDP 1 56
• English 101 21 425
• English 298 1 7
• GenEd 110 4 361
• Phil 260 DDP 1 29
• GenEd 300 DDP 1 12
• Total Participation: 240 4480
• Note: To date ILE has had a participation rate of 82.72%.

ILE Participation by Semester:

• Course Sections Participants
• fall 09
• Biology 101 DDP 1 54
• Geology 101 41 731
• GenEd 110 4 344
• English 101 12 263
• GenEd 300 2 23
• Philosophy 260 DDP 1 37
• History Asia/373 1 51
• Total fall 2009 62 1503

• spring 2010 courses
• English 101
• English 201
• English 298
• GenEd 104 Pass
• GenEd 110
• GenEd 111
• University 490.1
• Soils 101 DDP
• Biology 101 DDP
• Geology 101

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• Users as of beginning of week 4 of spring 2010 semester = 1401

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Flexibility is key:

• Geology 101 – 40+ sections, 600-750 students
• Skill building for final project
• Hort 102 – Students from WSU and University of Idaho
• phased research assignment, librarian in classroom, and online instruction
• Composition classes – pre one shot preparation
• History/Asia 373 – native content and assessment
• Skill building including librarian graded assignment
• University 409.1 McNair
• Individual Information Literacy Resource page

What we looked at:

• Results of quiz questions from 240 sections of nine courses across six colleges
• 5 semesters of quiz questions answered in the ILE space
• 39,484 instances of 173 questions
• Questions mapped to IL standards
• Question topic areas within standards

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Overview of tests used:

• Alternative Student’s t-test
• Assumed Unequal Variance
• Two tailed test
• Mann-Whitney Test
• Used as an alternative to the TTEST for non-parametric data
• Why the two different tests?

Results of analysis:

Comparing the IL standards:

Accessing (2) /Evaluating (3):

Equation for variance �(summary notation)

Accessing (2) /Using (4):

Needed (1) /Accessing (2):

Comparing concepts within Standard 2:

Comparing the means (standard 2):

Comparing concepts within Standard 4:

Student comments:

• It is a really valuable segment of program the more I look at it.  How long can I have this account even as a reference site when I try to research, and write an essay in the future?�Distance Biology student

What was the most important thing you learned from doing these information literacy exercises?

• “How to find scholarly sources” Fresh. Undecided
• “How to weed out the good sources from the bad ones” Soph. Biol. student
• “I learned more about MLA Format which can help me throughout my college experience, and it helped me explore and become more efficient using the online library.” Soph. Advertising

What was the most important thing you learned from doing these information literacy exercises?

• “I think the most important thing I learned was the usefulness of Washington State University's online library resources. They were extremely helpful in the research of geology articles, and I am sure would be equally as useful for researching other topics.” Soph. Comm. student

ILE conclusions:

• Reaching more students with less time in the classroom
• Reaching them more often, in more classes
• True assessment and data
• Better understand the students
• Provide more focused instruction

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Statistical summary:

• Students at WSU Pullman answer quiz questions with:
• Greatest Proficiency – Evaluating Sources
• Least Proficiency – Accessing Information
• Within Accessing Information students tend to struggle with:
• Selecting databases, recognizing names, searching, and understanding citation styles
• Within Using Information students tend to struggle with:
• Needing local knowledge of environment, policies, practices and recognizing names
• Be selective in naming local resources, and provide context

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~Questions~

Https://li.wsulibs.wsu.edu/ile