Firing Up Our Graduate Students! :

Information Literacy for Extended Learning

Barbara Shaffer, Education Librarian SUNY Oswego

SUNYLA Conference Poster Presentation – June 2009

Overview

Web-supported and online courses offer many advantages, including flexibility and convenience for our graduate students and faculty. But do these students learn when Angel meets library instruction? This study of 59 students in 5 graduate education courses used a pre-test/post-test model to examine this topic.

Research QuestionsAre education students learning from graduate level

library research instruction ?Do students learn as well using online course

management system tutorials as in face-to-face instruction?

After having instruction and practice, are students more confident in their research skills?

How will students use the various tools provided? Are students more satisfied with online or face-to-face

library instruction?

Both groups gained confidence (no significant difference)

Searching Locating Citing Library site Evaluating0

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Pre-testPost-test

Both groups learned (no significant difference)

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ResultsYes, students are learning from graduate level library

research instruction.Yes, students do learn as well using online tutorials in

Angel.Students in both online and face-to-face groups are

more confident in their research skills after instruction, with no significant difference between groups

Students made only minimal use of tools provided.Students in the face-to-face group were

significantly more satisfied with the type of instruction received.

Online Instruction Best Practice Applied These components stressed in the literature

were included in the modules:Opportunities to develop community (discussion

board)

Multiple opportunities/avenues for communication (Education librarian and Ask A Librarian links)

Units of brief content with varied presentation formats (series of mini-modules , including videos and screenshots)

Practice opportunities (each module had a “Try It! activity)

Formative feedback (brief quizzes after each module)

Continued availability of resources

Student Response Students explored all components of the Angel

modules in the supervised classroom setting, but only one returned for review after the official library instruction class.

The module discussion board was not used. For research help, students reported they more often

asked their peers (43% of respondents) or their professors (34%) than a librarian (29%).

What did you like most? (from online student survey)video/text optionschoosing their own pace“Modules weren’t too long, just long enough”

Conclusions & Future ApplicationsContinue with face-to-face mode for graduate student

research instruction in on-campus courses, if possible These online tutorials are quality alternatives for:

Online coursesReview or make-up instruction (e.g., illness, snow

cancellations)Flexible individual modules allow:

Focused instruction on a specific topic, e.g., APA citationDirect access by faculty from the “learning object

repository” in AngelEasy and convenient embedding into any course

Community building tools (e.g, discussion board) are not important for one-shot classes.

Select Bibliography – Online Instruction Design Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL). (2000).

Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/ acrl/standards/standards.pdf Retrieved 9/30/2008.

Clayton, S.J. (2007). Designing online information literacy tutorials. In

S.J. Clayton (Ed.), Going the distance: Library instruction for remote learners (pp. 107-114). New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.

Conrad, R-M., & Donaldson, J. A. (2004). Engaging the online learner: Activities and resources for creative instruction. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

 Lehman, K.J. (2004). How to be a great online teacher. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Education.