2018 ENGL 111 Library Instruction Student Learning Assessment: New Instruction Model

The Instruction Synergy Team, consisting of both the Research and Instruction Librarian and the Research and First-Year Experience Librarian, began meeting in May 2016 to develop learning outcomes, tie them to ACRL Threshold Concepts Framework, and to redesign a lesson for English 111 (Composition 1) library instruction sessions.  The goal was to have the lesson completed by August 2016 for implementation during fall semester 2016.  English 111 classes are scheduled for 80-minutes and the library instruction session, including the corresponding activities was allocated 73-minutes.

The first task the Instruction Synergy Team tackled was to create learning outcomes and then tie them to the ACRL Frameworks.  The following learning outcomes (LO) were created:

Learning Outcome #1: Identify library resources in order to find materials in multiple formats to meet student research needs.

FRAMEWORK (threshold concept): Searching as Strategic Exploration:

Searching for information is often nonlinear and iterative, requiring the evaluation of a range of information sources and the mental flexibility to pursue alternate avenues as new understanding develops.

Learning Outcome #2: To recognize how information is formally and informally produced, organized and disseminated in order to select appropriate resources.

FRAMEWORK (threshold concept): Information Creation as a Process:

Information in any format is produced to convey a message and is shared via a selected delivery method. The iterative processes of researching, creating, revising, and disseminating information vary, and the resulting product reflects these differences.

Learning Outcome #3: Students will be able to create a research question from a broad topic in order to search the ProQuest database.

FRAMEWORK (threshold concept): Research as Inquiry:

Research is iterative and depends upon asking increasingly complex or new questions whose answers in turn develop additional questions or lines of inquiry in any field.

Learning Outcome #4: Students will identify keywords in order to construct a search strategy.

FRAMEWORK (threshold concept): Searching as Strategic Exploration:

Searching for information is often nonlinear and iterative, requiring the evaluation of a range of information sources and the mental flexibility to pursue alternate avenues as new understanding develops.

Once the Instruction Synergy Team developed the learning outcomes, and assigned the appropriate ACRL Frameworks, the team began to build the lesson for ENGL 111. 

The progression of the lesson started with a PowerPoint presentation that directed the students to sit with a partner and to log onto a LibGuide (subject guide) that had the activities the students would work on during the lesson.  The subject guide designed by the Research and First-Year Experience and Research and Assessment Librarian used SurveyGizmo to record the students’ entries for each activity.  Other materials used for the ENGL 111 session included the following:

• 2-handouts:  one handout contained information on logging onto the subject guide (students were to do this prior to the beginning of the session) and on the back-side of this handout were Eight Things Students Need to Know about the Library; the other handout contained information on How to Formulate a Research Question and on the back-side of this handout there was information on How to Select Resources for a Research Paper (based on the Information Creation Timeline, which was part of the PowerPoint presentation). The handout also had information on the General Characteristics of Source Types (scholarly journal articles, magazine articles, and newspaper articles).  The students would keep these handouts following the session.
• Each pair of students received a folder containing three sample articles.  All folders contained the same articles.  One article was a scholarly journal, one was a magazine article, and the third was a newspaper article.  Students would use these articles to identify characteristics of each source type and record their findings on the subject guide.  The students would return the folder containing the three articles at the end of the session.
• Within each folder, a 3x5 topic card was included.  On one side of the card was a broad topic, for example:  Student Loans.  On the other side of the card was a search strategy that used the broad topic combined by the Boolean Operator, AND, and then a keyword.  For example, “student loans” AND debt.  Students would eventually enter these terms into the ProQuest database as one of their activities.  They would record their findings on the subject guide.  The students would return the topic cards within the folders at the end of the session.

Once the students logged onto the subject guide, they were asked to enter their instructor’s name and the section number for their class.  The teaching librarian would write the section number on the white board and announce it to the students.  The librarian would also ask the students to determine who in their pair would be the recorder (to enter answers into the subject guide) and who would be the researcher (the one who would search the ProQuest database).  At this point, the class would begin by having the librarian review the Agenda for the day’s lesson and point out several links found on the library’s homepage (www.svsu.edu/library).  The librarian would not only review the database and Chat link (instant messaging with a librarian), but also instruct the students in all the ways they could receive help for assignments, navigate the library, and to schedule a research consultation appointment. After this ten-minute lesson, the students were asked to go to the subject guide and list two ways they could get research help and record their answer on the subject guide.  This completed Activity One.

The next part of the lesson was spent explaining the slides on the PowerPoint presentation and searching the ProQuest database.  This was a fifteen-minute lesson.  First, the librarian went to the slide entitled, Formulating a Research Question, and then would spend a few minutes discussing four components that create a research question.  The librarian would then go into the ProQuest database and explain the various parts of the database’s search screen.  It was at this point that the function of the Boolean Operator, AND, was explained.  The librarian would then enter a determined topic into the database:  social media (without quotation marks).  Next, the librarian would enter “social media” with the quotation marks.  At this point, and explanation of the use of keywords and quotation marks (phrase searching) was given.  After this, the librarian entered a keyword to the search: “social media AND cyberbullying.  Then the librarian showed the search history of the ProQuest searches and make the point that with each entry, the search was limited and the results were reduced.  First by adding quotation marks, next by using the Boolean Operator, AND and adding a keyword to the search strategy.  Finally, the librarian would return to the ProQuest search (“social media” AND cyberbullying) and would click on the Subjects link to show additional terms that can limit a search.  S/he selected the word, teenagers and entered that into the search: “social media” AND cyberbullying AND teenagers.  Once again, the librarian would point out the smaller number of results this search strategy provided in comparison to the previous searches.  To review this lesson, the librarian went back to the PowerPoint to illustrate the Broad Topic search, the Narrowed Topic search and finally, the Focused Topic search.  The librarian then went to the handout, Formulating a Research Question, and pointed out an example of the concepts that went into building a research question.  After reinforcing the point on how to build a search strategy using a broad subject, keywords, phrase searching, and the Boolean Operator, AND, the librarian went to the two PowerPoint slides that illustrated examples of research questions:  How does cyberbullying in social media affect teenagers? and In what ways do teenagers engage in cyberbullying on social media?  The point made was that research starts with a Research Question.  To create one, use keywords and the Boolean Operator, AND with quotation marks around phrases when searching a database, like ProQuest.  Activity Two entitled, Developing a Search Strategy, would begin now giving the students ten-minutes to replicate the librarian’s search using their topic card broad subject, keyword, and database subject to eventually create a research question from their focused topic.  The librarian would instruct the students to work together by having the searcher open the ProQuest database and do the searching while the recorder would read the subject guide questions and enter the data into the subject guide.

Following Activity Two, the librarian returned to the PowerPoint presentation to show the remaining five slides discussing the Information Creation Timeline.  This lesson would take ten-minutes.  The students were then referred to the handout, How to Select Resources for a Research Paper, which essentially was a chart of the Information Creation Timeline.  Also during this ten-minute lesson, the librarian would return to the ProQuest search: “social media” AND cyberbullying AND teenagers.  S/he would point out the limiters again, this time focusing also on limiting to Source Types.  The librarian’s example was to limit to scholarly journal articles.  The librarian would then select one citation, open the PDF to illustrate the components of a scholarly research article, and would also point out some features of the ProQuest database, like Cite and Print/Email.  Next would come Activity Three.

Activity Three lasted for ten-minutes and focused on Source Types.  The students were directed to go to the subject guide’s Source Type page and use the three articles contained within their folders for this assignment.  The subject guide listed the title for each article on the left column while across the top of the page were questions like:  Does it have an abstract?  How many authors are listed for this article?  Are there credentials for the authors?  How many pages is the article?  Are there references at the end of the article?  When was this article published?  Is this a scholarly journal article?  Is this a magazine article?  Is this a newspaper article?  Students would record their answers to these questions in the space provided on the subject guide by reviewing each article’s components, in order to determine the article’s source type.  During this lesson, students were also referred to the handout, General Characteristics of Source Types, which briefly defined the components associated with a scholarly journal article, a magazine, and a newspaper article.

The last ten-minute lesson had the students looking at one more source type, books-both print and electronic.  It also explained how to request a print book from the Michigan Electronic Library Catalog, MelCat.  To begin this lesson, the librarian went to the library’s catalog and typed in cyberbullying making note of the number of results from this search.  Both examples of print and electronic book records were shown to the students.  From this search, the librarian clicked on the link to MelCat and brought up a print title and proceeded to show students the steps necessary to request an item from the statewide catalog.  Following this lesson, all students were then asked to evaluate the session by going to the subject guide to answer the Reflection Question:  List one thing you learned from this session.

Folders and topic cards were then collected as the students were dismissed.  This completed the redesigned ENGL 111 library instruction session taught during the fall 2016 and winter 2017 semesters at Saginaw Valley State University’s, Melvin J. Zahnow Library.  Between September 2016 and April 2017, a total of 114 ENGL 111 sessions were taught by six librarians.