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for Spring 2006 |
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A Study of the Impact of the Searchpath Tutorial on the Information Literacy Skills of First Year Community College Students Introduction This proposal researches the impact of the Searchpath Tutorial on information literacy skills in first year community college students. Because I work with freshman community college students and am concerned that they are successful their first year in college, I am interested in the effectiveness of the Searchpath Tutorial offered at Johnson County Community College designed to help students learn to find and critically evaluate information sources. The tutorial is located on the college’s Billington Library web pages under Databases at http://library.jccc.net/reference/cc_1/. As students come to the community college from a variety of backgrounds and preparation, I am interested in what kind of impact the tutorial has on student’s information literacy skills. This proposal is based on theories of information literacy, the information search process, and information literacy standards. This includes an overview of the research design and focus, timeline, methodology, and outcomes. Literature Review Information literacy is to know why, when, and how to use different types of sources and how to pick the best sources for your needs. It is increasingly important in our rapidly changing world where information and information sources are increasing rather than decreasing. Information is now available in a number of media including graphical, aural, and textual. Much of it comes to individuals unfiltered through the Internet raising questions about authenticity, reliability and validity. The information search process (ISP) has been well documented by Kuhlthau (1988) and many studies have been conducted over the last ten to fifteen years about the information search process and college students. Specific studies have been conducted to measure the impact of tutorial training on first-year students. Orme (2004) and Fitzgerald (2004) have written about their specific research in information literacy skills of first-year college students. The design of this research follows many studies delving into specific cases of information literacy in first-year college students. Information literacy competency standards for higher education were set by the Association of College and Research Libraries (2000), a division of the American Library Association as a continuum for the 1998 American Association of School Libraries (AASL) and the Association of Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning for students in K-12. Standards are found at http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/standardsguidelines.htm Research Focus Concern for student’s information literacy skills has always been a part of Johnson County Community College’s library instruction. Library instruction takes place through library orientation connected with freshman English classes; library tours are available to all students, and recently, an online tutorial was provided to increase student’s information literacy skills. The problem of retention is especially a concern at the community college level because if students do not stay in school their first two years, they typically do not continue on to a four-year university. With growing numbers of students, librarian led instruction may not be possible for all students in the future. The online Searchpath tutorial is one more effort to address the growing need for library instruction. This study will question students about their experience in using library instruction. Questions asked are:
There are many literacy programs in higher education across the country. The Searchpath tutorial at JCCC incorporates material from Western Michigan University’s Searchpath (copyright 2001-2002, Board of Trustees of Western Michigan University). http://www.wmich.edu/library/searchpath/ Other examples of literacy programs can be found through the Institute for Information Literacy found at http://archive.ala.org/acrl/nili/whatis.html A model program required for all undergraduates with under 90 credit hours completed, is conducted at the University of Wisconsin – Parkside. The Internet site is found at http://www.uwp.edu/departments/library/infolit/intro/ Methodology Students will be selected for this research project from freshman English Composition I classes that required the students to complete the Searchpath tutorial. Questionnaires and interviews will be used to gather data on student’s assessment of the tutorial, its helpfulness in their individual research projects and what kind of confidence they now have that they felt they did not have before completing Searchpath. Data will be gathered using a detailed questionnaire about the Searchpath information, whether it was perceived as helpful and whether it was used in research strategies. Questionnaires will be mailed to participants with return envelopes enclosed. Participants will be informed that their responses will be kept anonymous and may be used in future decisions concerning the use of the Searchpath tutorial. The questionnaire will be analyzed in terms of tabulating all responses to specific questions. The questions will be tailored so that narrative opinions are solicited from the participants rather than a simple yes or no answer. Responses will answer the questions about participant information needs and what they specifically learned from the Searchpath tutorial that was helpful. Interviews will be conducted with groups of students using the same questions posed on the mailed questionnaires. English Composition I instructors will be a valuable resource to identify students that may agree to participate in the study. Timeline The study will take place during a semester. The first two weeks will be spent collecting names and addresses of students that completed the Searchpath tutorial. They will be mailed a questionnaire about their experience using Searchpath. It may take a month to develop and test the questionnaires. Questionnaires will be mailed and return requested within three weeks. In addition, students will be asked if they wish to participate in an individual interview using the questions on the questionnaire. After the interviews are completed and questionnaires are returned, another one to two months will be needed to analyze the data and draw conclusions. Report/Conclusion The analysis of this research proposal is to ultimately assess the effectiveness of the Searchpath tutorial and answer the question, “Should this learning tool be required for all incoming freshman first-year students?” The final report after the collected data is analyzed may bring up as many questions as it may answer. For example, do non-traditional students have the same information needs as incoming freshman? Does the kind of instruction received in high school have a direct bearing on the satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the tutorial? Is there any distinction between the participants if they were home-schooled, completed a GED, or completed a traditional high school diploma? Conclusions drawn from this proposed study may lead to other possible topics for further research. References Kuhlthau, C.C. (2003). Rethinking libraries for the information age school: vital roles in inquiry learning. School Libraries in Canada (22, no. 4.), p. 3-5. Kuhlthau, C.C. (1993). Seeking meaning. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Fitzgerald, M.A. (March/April 2004). Making the leap from high school to college: three new studies about information literacy skills of first-year college students. Knowledge Quest (32 no. 4), p. 19-24. Jenson, J. D. (Summer 2004). It’s the information age, so where’s the information? Why our students can’t find it and what we can do to help. College Teaching (52, no. 3), p. 107-112. Orme, W. A. (May 2004). A study of the residual impact of the Texas information literacy tutorial on the information-seeking ability of first year college students. College & Research Libraries (65 no. 3), p. 205-215. Todd, R. J., et. al. (January 2005). Student learning through Ohio school libraries, part 1: how effective school libraries help students. School Libraries Worldwide (11, no. 1), p. 63-88. Whitmire, E. (November 2001). The relationship between undergraduates’ background characteristics and college experiences and their academic library use. College & Research Libraries (62, no. 6) p. 528-40. |