washington and lee university lexington, virginia educause 2002 "juggling opportunities in...
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Washington and Lee UniversityLexington, Virginia
EDUCAUSE 2002"Juggling Opportunities in Collaborative Environments"October 1‑4, Atlanta, Georgiahttp://www.educause.edu/conference/e2002/
““Using Peer MentorsUsing Peer Mentorsto Promote Information Fluency”to Promote Information Fluency”
Copyright Statement
• Copyright Ashley Hodgson, Farhan S. Mustafa, Jeffrey L. Overholtzer and John Tombarge , 2002. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.
What is it?
BackgroundBackground
• Roundtable discussions including faculty, IT staff, librarians
• ACS program
• 190 courses on “bibliographic instruction”
Peer Mentors ProgramPeer Mentors Program
• ACS grantRESEARCH
REPORT
ANALYZE
CAPTURE & PREPARE DATA
DESIGN
PROPOSE
• Information fluency in a specific context
• Why the Mgmt/Econ 203 (Quantitative Models) course was chosen
Components of the ProgramComponents of the Program
• Peer Mentors
Brian Stearns
Minitab
Farhan Mustafa
Excel, MiniTab, SurveyPro
Lindsey Harrington
Excel
Ashley Hodgson
Excel, SurveyPro
• Equipping and leadership from faculty member, librarian, technologist
Components of the ProgramComponents of the Program
Jeff Overholtzer
Director of Technology Education
John Tombarge
Reference Librarian
Web Resources:
Components of the ProgramComponents of the Program
• http://info.wlu.edu
• Element K: http://www.elementk.com
Peer MentorsPeer Mentors• Held office hours 7-9 pm Sunday to Thursday
• Also available via phone, e-mail and informal contacts
• Specific Peer Mentors were designated for areas such as research, Excel, MiniTab, and SurveyPro
Peer MentorsPeer Mentors• Peer Mentors assisted students with basic statistics
concepts for projects, homework, exams and software assistance for information fluency
• Conducted laboratory training sessions for statistical and research software tools
Peer MentorsPeer Mentors
Perspectives from the 4 peer mentors:
• Better location needed for office hours
• There needs to be more communication among Peer Mentors, professor and organizers
Peer Mentors’ ExperiencePeer Mentors’ Experience
• Learned a lot themselves through the experience (skills in technology, interpersonal skills, etc.)
• The Mentors did not always feel they were aware of what was going on in the class
Program GoalsProgram Goals• Teach information fluency skills
• Provide support personnel
• Provide instructional documentation
RESEARCH
REPORT
ANALYZE
CAPTURE & PREPARE DATA
DESIGN
PROPOSE
Program Assessment (skills)Program Assessment (skills)
Beginning of Term Skills
0
10
20
30
40
50
5 4 3 2 1
Self Rating, 5 = highest
Nu
mb
er o
f S
tud
ents
Research Minitab PowerPoint Searching the Web
End of Term Skills
0
10
20
30
40
50
5 4 3 2 1
Self-rating, 5 = highest
Nu
mb
er o
f S
tud
ents
Research Minitab PowerPoint Searching the Web
Program AssessmentProgram Assessment
“Results during the winter term on the final projects were clearly superior - there were no poor papers.”
Dr. Phillip L. Cline
Lewis Whitaker Adams Professor of Management and Economics
Professor’s assessment:
Supporting ResourcesSupporting Resources
How often did students use the resources?
0
10
20
30
40
50
Never 1x 2x 3x 4x >5x
Number of Visits/Uses
Nu
mb
er o
f S
tud
ents
Met w ith Student Mentor Met w ith John Tombarge Website Element K
Student EvaluationsStudent EvaluationsHow did students rate the resources?
0
5
10
15
20
25
5 4 3 2 1
Ratings, 5 = highest
Nu
mb
er o
f S
tud
ents
Student Mentor John Tombarge Website Element K
Student EvaluationsStudent Evaluations
0
5
10
15
20
25
5 4 3 2 1
Ratings, 5=highest
Nu
mb
er o
f st
ud
ents
Student Mentor Website
Use of Web SiteUse of Web Site
0
4
8
12
16
20N
umbe
r of
Stu
dent
s
Never 1x 2x 3x 4x >5x
Number of uses
How often did students use the web site?
Student CommentsStudent Comments
• “[The web site] was a good starting point for research and had a lot of information we needed on it.”
• [The Web site] was pretty comprehensive for what I needed.”
• “[The Web site needed] more detailed information about the paper and project. Maybe an example from the past.”
• “Was it [the web site] there?”
Use of Peer MentorsUse of Peer Mentors
0
4
8
12
16
20N
umbe
r of
Stu
dent
s
Never 1x 2x 3x 4x >5x
Number of visits
How often did students meet with peer mentors?
Student CommentsStudent Comments
• “The peer mentors are not intimidating . . . you can still ask them extremely dumb questions.”
• “[The peer mentors were good for] helping us to understand the graphs on Minitab and how they apply to our project.”
Student SuggestionsStudent Suggestions
• “They [Peer Mentors] know statistics well, but they don’t know where we are in the class. If they know what is going on in class, it would be more helpful.”
• “Integrate [the peer mentors] into class more than just one day.”
Another PerspectiveAnother PerspectiveMythology Class: the perspective of a Mgmt/Econ 203 Peer Mentor as a student, being facilitated by other Peer Mentors.
Program AssessmentProgram Assessment• Better communication!
• Include examples from successful projects in Web site
• Build in individual assignments to measure mastery of information fluency skills
• Use course management software (Blackboard) rather than relying simply on a specialized Web site
QuestionsQuestions
“Using Peer Mentors to Promote Information Fluency”
More information:
Jeff [email protected]://info.wlu.edu/educause (this presentation) http://info.wlu.edu (additional background)