enabling access, assessing impact: subject guides 2.0

Kristina De Voe | Temple University Libraries | Philadelphia, PA

Wordle art by Palm Beach Community College Library. Available at http://palmbeachstate.libguides.com/seflin2009

but do they impact student work?

and what about student learning?

the plan

Identify a course with many sections and a research component

Provide instruction sessions Collect assignments Create, distribute & collect surveys Evaluate assignments Examine surveys Get some answers (hopefully)

Photo by weirdeout. Available via flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/weirdedout/2406590192/

assignment requirements

Identify at least 10 relevant sources must be varied and reflect multiple positions

Include in the annotations: an explanation of why you chose the source a brief summary of the source a brief description of how you found the source a summary of the relevant information

guides.temple.edu/public_speaking

instruction sessions

Exposed to the Guide

(experimental)

Not Exposed to the Guide

(control)

Fall 2009

Spring 2010

Fall 2009

Spring 2010

session outcomes

Able to critically evaluate retrieved sources and determine if the information meets the need of the research problem (ACRL Standard 2)

Able to organize, integrate, and communicate information from a variety of sources to create an annotated bibliography (ACRL Standard 4)

data collection

Fall 2009

Experimental

Control Total Return Rate

Surveys Returned

83 148 231 62.7%

Bibliographies Submitted

15 24 39 10.6%

annotated bibliography collection and evaluation

Beginning (1 point)

Developing (2 points)

Competent (3 points)

Excellent (4 points)

Search Tools Used

Types of Sources

Currency of Sources

Authority of Sources

Summarization of Source Content

Evaluation of Source Relevance

Bibliographic Format

how did students perform?

Not a significant difference…?!

survey analysis

Huh?!Wait a minute…

I did?! Really?!

where would students like to find guides?

in the spaces where they already are

back to that assignment

control group relied more heavily on faculty and

librarian expertise

what helped make the assignment easier?

(librarian visit vs. guide)

*

*

*

how do students want to get help?

what we learned

…about ourselves

Too concerned over naming guides

Our rubrics must be more aligned to our faculty’s assignments

F2F still matters

…about the students

Students will use LibGuides when recommended by librarians or faculty

Students indicate that they find LibGuides help them succeed on assignments

Students appear to struggle with source selection and evaluation How can we use LibGuides to address this?

what’s next

the distant future

Assess Spring 2010 sample and compare Fewer sections, more control Required bibliography submission Examine students’ use of sources more

Attempt with distance ed. courses to remove f2f element

Usability studies of guides How do we make them more useful?

email: devoek@temple.eduslides & data will be avail at:

guides.temple.edu/assessLibGuides