Answering How and Why Questions of Library Impact on Undergraduate Student Learning

ANSWERING HOW AND WHY

QUESTIONS OF LIBRARY IMPACT ACRL 2013 -- INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA -- APRIL 13, 2013

CONTRIBUTED PAPER 29A

Derek Rodriguez, MSLS, Ph.D.

PI, The Understanding Library Impacts Project

DRC Research LLC

[email protected]

www.uliproject.com

© Derek Rodriguez, 2013, All Rights Reserved

Student use of

the library

Supports student learning

Problem definition

? Communicate library impact

to stakeholders

Student use of

the library Discovery Resources Services Facilities

Supports attaining

SLOs defined

and assessed by faculty

Communicated to stakeholders

using recognized

frameworks (Tuning and

VALUE)

Understanding Library Impacts protocol

Learning activities crosswalk

Critical incident

questionnaire

?

During high-

impact learning activities

in the academic

major

Library assessment tools should

Create credible connections

Answer how and why questions

of library impact

Work at scale

Create credible connections

Credible (adj.)

1. Able to be believed in, justifying

confidence; convincingly honest

…

(Oxford English Dictionary, 2013

“what faculty intend for students to think, know, or do

as a result of their education” (Nichols & Nichols, 2005)

Student learning outcomes (SLOs)

Image by Horia Varlan

expected abilities vary by discipline and level

Image by Duke Yearlook

Capstone Seminars Gateway

course

Library & information use

Choosing levels of analysis

Developing Practicing Demonstrating SLOs

Undergraduate major curriculum

Answer how and why questions

of library impact

?

Critical Incident Technique (CIT)

“Please think back to a time when …”

- Questions

- Probes CIT is widely used in LIS research

Tenopir, King, Marshall, Radford,

Durrance & Fisher, Urquhart,

Zach, Choo and many others

“I thought it was a great

experience to hold a book

from the 19th century.”

ULI

Database

History

Capstone

ULI questionnaire

Library use,

by learning

activity Helps

Problems

Challenges

Anxiety &

confidence

Developing Practicing Demonstrating SLOs

Undergraduate major curriculum

Critical Incident Technique (CIT)

Learning objectives

“… My professor wanted us to

work with many sources learning

how to decide which ones are the

best to put towards our paper.

She also wanted us to learn how

to become better writers.”

Student C-12 is a history major and a 5th

year senior completing her capstone project

She used 24 types of library resources,

services, and facilities/equipment

One student’s experience

SLOs - employs sources

appropriate to the

thesis

- presents a well-

organized argument in

written form

Image courtesy of finaid.org

Student C-12's most important library uses & challenge by learning activity

getting started

choosing a topic

developing thesis

gathering evidence

finding secondary

sources

citing writing preparing presentation

e-journals

books I checked out from the library

research consultation

computers in the library

challenge challenge

Her Challenge

“Narrowing down my topic as much as the teacher wanted. I

was concerned that I was not going to be able to find

enough information and write such a big paper on a narrow

topic.”

How she overcame her challenge

“[I] did a [research consultation] session and worked

with a librarian to find many more sources through

different databases and journals.”

Confidence

Image courtesy of

Fairfield University

Working at scale

Image by flickr user slaunger

Capstone

questionnaire

Seminar

questionnaire

Gateway

questionnaire

id id id

ULI Database

Working at scale

Developing Practicing Demonstrating SLOs

Undergraduate major curriculum

Encryption

institutional

datasets

departmental

rubric scores

pedagogical

influences

id

retention &

attainment

Working at scale

“These resources were

very easy to use, but

without meeting with

library staff, I would have

never known they were

there …” (E-14, fall 2011)

ULI Database

demographics

CLA or CAAP

scores

id

student learning

outcomes

frameworks

Create credible connections

Answer how and why questions

of library impact

Work at scale

Derek Rodriguez, MSLS, Ph.D.

DRC Research LLC

[email protected]

www.uliproject.com