The Shocking Truth About Student Research Skills (…And How It’s Spreading Across the Country!) Sarah Burns Feyl, Assistant University Librarian Doug Heimbigner, Instructional Services Librarian Jennifer Rosenstein, First Year Outreach Services Librarian
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The Shocking Truth About Student Research Skills (…And How It’s Spreading Across the
Country!)
Sarah Burns Feyl, Assistant University LibrarianDoug Heimbigner, Instructional Services LibrarianJennifer Rosenstein, First Year Outreach Services
Librarian
What is Project Information Literacy?
O National study about college students and their research habitsO Started in 2008: six studies since thenO Methods: surveys, interviews, focus
groups, content analysisO Participants: over 11,000 students at
50+ U.S. institutionsO You can see the list of institutions at
the most difficult step of the course-related research process? O Getting started (84%)O Defining a topic (66%)O Narrowing it down (62%)O Filtering through irrelevant results (61%)
working on a research assignment?O2 to 3 days before it is
due
Findings: Getting Started
O Related: A large majority of students reported spending three hours on research and another two hours on writing—one or two days before a 5-7 page course-related research paper was due.
Findings: WikipediaO Wikipedia gave students a workaround
for obtaining the big picture and language contexts they frequently lacked for course-related research
O In nearly three-quarters of the student discussions—8 out of 11 sessions—there was a strong consensus among students that their research process began with Wikipedia
O How do Pace students evaluate web content?O Comparing to other information
sources (15%)O Does it have citations/sources
listed (13%)O Domain (.edu , .gov ) (13%)
Findings: FinishingO Students were perplexed with completing
the research process with almost half finding it difficult to decide whether they had done a “good job” (46%).
O “the first stages of research for course work initiate a process few students thoroughly understand and grasp with much confidence. Few students we interviewed considered themselves wholly competent at completing research for one course research assignment to the next.”
O Almost two-thirds of the sample (63%) found in-class discussions about how to conduct research useful
O The actual writing and editing of papers is another way that students see instructors helping them complete course-related research assignments. A majority of the respondents (71%) considered instructorsʼ review of paper drafts helpful
OOver three-fourths of the students (76%) surveyed considered written guidelines about course-related assignments, especially which sources to use, as one of the most helpful materials an instructor can provide