In order to continue to get a full understanding of the impact of the English 111 Library Instruction sessions, faculty were also surveyed on their thoughts about the lesson. This data adds another layer onto the larger assessment, as faculty attitudes and observations should help shape the lesson. There were ten responses to the faculty survey, which is a low response rate, however there is still valuable information to be found in these responses.
Faculty mostly Strongly Agreed or Agreed that their students were able to complete these tasks at the end of the library instruction session. There were a couple of faculty members that Disagreed that their students could Narrow a Broad Topic or Show Evidence That They Can Search EDS. One stated that they did not think their students were able to Understand the Information Creation Timeline after the session. There was one faculty member that Strongly Disagreed that their students could Find a Book Using the Library Catalog or MelCat after the session. There is no explanation space for why the faculty members agreed or disagreed with this statement-which should be added in the future.
Most of the faculty members Strongly Agreed or Agreed that all of these subjects are important for their students to learn. Understanding the Information Creation Timeline was the only category where there were any faculty members that were unsure of whether their students needed to learn the concept.
Faculty members overall really liked the lesson and enjoyed that it was active and the activities helped their students retain the information. They also stated that the sessions were applicable to student projects and that it was focused around the needs of students. Some stated that it is great for the beginning of a research project, since that is what most of the content focuses on. One faculty member stated that the session does not apply to their demographic.
When asked if there was anything missing from the lesson, there were only a couple of suggestions. One faculty member stated that they would still like to see their students go through the library to familiarize themselves with the space. Another stated that there should be more time spent practicing finding and choosing sources. This professor had already explained to the students how to choose research questions and stated their students were very confused about how to use databases still after the session.
Overall, most faculty members found the sessions to be helpful to their students and saw an improvement in the quality of sources that their students used. The faculty members that answered No to any of these questions were asked to explain their answers. One faculty member suggested providing digital handouts in Canvas courses or via email instead of printed handouts. The only other suggestion stated:
I answered no to the question about my students' reaction. I have my students write weekly process journals and many of them commented on how "lost" they were feeling. I only see my students once a week, so it's imperative that class time is used productively. Many of them left class that day with little rentention [sic] of how to find books and journal articles. I got multiple frazzled emails as well. Which resulted in me spending more classtime [sic] the following week on using the library databases.
There were also suggestions about the overall session. A couple of faculty members mentioned that the laptops can be problematic during library instruction sessions-oftentimes failing log-ins. One faculty member did mention that the library staff did a good job working through the problem and suggested “Perhaps ITS needs to improve the ability to use the laptops in the library computer lab”. A few mentioned giving students time to search their own topics during the library instruction session. One mentioned that they would like to hold more research sessions in Z-111 with a librarian present to help students with research.