univeristy of tennessee knoxville increasing effective student use of the scientific journal...

Univeristy of Tennessee KnoxvilleUniveristy of Tennessee Knoxville

Increasing Effective Student Use of the Scientific Journal

Literature

Award: DUE-0121575NSF: 01-55


Principal InvestigatorDr. Carol Tenopir, Professor

[email protected]

Faculty AssociateDr. Richard Pollard, Associate Professor

[email protected]

Faculty AssociateDr. Peiling Wang, Associate Professor

[email protected]


National Science Digital Library

Services Track

December 2002

All Projects Meeting

Washington, DC

Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology Education Program


General Questions

• How can undergraduate students be encouraged to recognize and use high quality science journal literature?

• What features in a journal literature digital collection would be most useful to undergraduate science students and would encourage use?

• What features would be most useful to graduate students and faculty in the sciences for their students and to encourage use?


Specific Research Questions

• How can the identified features be used in test collections to make them more useful to undergraduate science students, graduate and faculty scientists?

• How can Energy Citations Database and the PrePRINT Network be better integrated for educational users?

• What current features in test collections are especially attractive to educational users? Identify other features perceived as attractive.


Primary Objectives

• Gain an understanding of what features make a science journal article digital collection an important and interactive tool for sustained use by undergraduate students in the sciences

• Begin to develop interactive learning modules which increase the usability of a science journal article digital collection


Phase 1: Focus Groups and Surveys

• January – September 2002

• 8 focus groups were held including:

– Test pilot group (faculty and graduate students)

– 2 undergraduate groups

– 2 graduate groups (Graduate Teaching Assistants)

– 2 faculty groups

– 1 scientist group

• Engineering, Chemistry and Physics Disciplines


Phase 1: Focus Groups

• Human Subject Consent Form • Round table discussions taped in anomynity for

transcription and analysis• Questionnaire evaluations


Phase 1: Results

• Variations by grade level– Undergraduate students have little knowledge or

experience with print or electronic scholarly journals; they have no time to pursue journal literature

– Graduate students were introduced to journal literature when they declared a major or begins work on a thesis

– Faculty believes an introduction to scholarly literature would be appropriate and is necessary for freshmen. It should be required as an introduction to research skills which graduate students need.


Phase 1: Results (cont’d)

• Variations by subject discipline– Chemists place a great deal of importance on journal

literature, and introduce it earlier and systematically to students.

– In Physics and Astronomy, undergraduate students have limited exposure to journals; however, some knowledge of online sources is required.

– Engineering students become acquainted with journals at different times, in different classes, for different reasons.



• Access means for articles and search strategies– Professors give article copies to students to read

– Students are asked to search and find relevant literature

– The Internet is the tool of choice to access journal literature. Only a few students do manual research.

– Full-text databases are the most frequently used sources.

– Estimated usage is daily to 5 times per week.

– Most students scan titles to locate topics of interest.



• Variations in type of literature required and faculty recommendations– Undergraduates: textbooks, lab journals, magazines and

interpretations

– Graduates: general information from magazines and journals

– Faculty recommendations include student awareness of society publications and journals.



• Problems with journals and access– Faculty sees problems with knowledge of searching

and techniques

– Time is an obstacle; students work on a last-minute basis looking for instant gratification

– Students have difficulty perceiving reliable information on the web



• Purposes for using journal articles– Specific assignments

– Papers

– Projects

– Practice search exercises


Phase 2 (2003): Testing

• January – May • Implementation of specified desired features• Testbed is a full text subset of OSTI’s Energy

Citations Database• Secured Usability Lab• Participant keystrokes and searching methods will

be recorded via computer tracking for analysis and archiving

• Observer will record facial and verbal expressions for analysis


Collection Testbed: Energy Citations Database


Collection Testbed: PrePRINT Network


Collection Testbed: Information Bridge


Ultimate Goal

• The ultimate goal of this project is to identify, test and implement features of the NSDL collection (and specifically OSTI journal literature digital collections) that will enhance the appeal and encourage sustained use by undergraduate science students

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