Nitya Jacob, Associate Professor of Biology, and Andrea Heisel, Associate College Librarian, both at Oxford College, present their findings at the Georgia Conference of Information Literacy in October 2009.
1. A Faculty-Librarian Partnership: Introductory Biology Dr. Nitya Jacob, Associate Professor of Biology Andrea P. Heisel, Associate College Librarian
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3. Expected Learning Outcomes Biology 141 1. Learn the process of searching for literature 2. Learn to select references for quality and relevance Biology 142 1. Apply the process of searching literature for a longer term research project 2. Learn to be more proficient at selecting references
7. Assignments Assignment Biology 141 Biology 142 Prior to library workshop assignment Search for references (only lab manual reading given as a guide) n/a First Paper Introduction and references on short investigation Complete paper on short investigation Final Assignment Complete paper on research project Complete paper on research project
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Hinweis der Redaktion
Talk about short history of collaboration and what we will talk about in the session. -introductory biology curriculum and two-course biology sequence
APH (add notes about student body/faculty/library, LAI philosophy)
NJ Transition into talking about bio 141-142, one thing we hope to accomplish is that students become scientists. Information literacy is one of the key elements of students becoming scientists. To achieve this goal, here are the outcomes of each course (then talk about each class outcomes).
NJ To achieve these learning outcomes we have established this program which is a faculty-librarian collaboration. Explain each assignment and how we collaborated. How the library instruction was embedded throughout the semester.
APH (take pics on Sept 8- Bio 142 class) Transition to this slide: Emphasize that this is a discussion of the first faculty-librarian instruction during the semester. Sets the tone for the remaining interactions. Go through outline of session one. Talk about significance of co-teaching (having the faculty and librarian present and engaged in session). See handout of session outline (Figure 1 from article)
APH Transition to discussing Bio 142 interactions. Second course, so we expect they are more experienced and have retained some research skills from the first course into this one. First assignment, no library instruction. First paper is used to see how much of the skills they retained. Based on a lab. By end of semester, the expectations are higher because they are doing a semester long project – librarian comes back in to emphasize higher level research skills which remind and build upon previous experiences. For second assignment, each team comes up with a unique research question. Continue to help throughout the semester, remind students librarians are here to help and the faculty provides research feedback on their citations and assignments. Again, faculty are helping to emphasize the importance of good research, not just the librarians!
APH – for prior to library workshop – show google doc (explain rationale)
NJ Transition: We looked at the types of references the students included in Bio 141/142 and compared the results between the two courses. Remind first assignment Bio 141 (writing an introduction to scientific manuscript) versus Bio 142 (full paper on lab) Remind what had happened in library instruction Bio 141 (workshop) result after workshop versus Bio 142 (no instruction prior to first assignment completed) Here is what we found, - Discuss results
NJ Final assignments, Remind Bio 141 (complete paper on research project) versus Bio 142 (also complete paper on longer research project) Discuss results.
APH Transition: One important feature of scientific writing is the use of peer-reviewed articles, so we evaluated their use of these resources throughout each course. Explain prior to library workshop assignment in Bio 141 – had to find reference without any prior library research instruction. In Bio 142, first assignment, they had prior knowledge from previous course, but no library instruction before first assignment. Discuss results.
APH/NJ What we learned: Students transferred skills to advanced courses - NJ Essential for student success for both instructor and librarian to have hands on involvement - APH Active learning activities including critiques of resources - solidify resource identification concepts - NJ Learning process gradual – embedding throughout the semester facilitates student learning of concepts – just in time instruction (moving away from just in case – where you teach everything in one workshop – to just showing the things they need to get there work done) - APH Important to review/revise each semester based on evaluation of previous semester’s work/ new technology, etc. - NJ Developing this in other disciplines -Religion/Humanities – annotated bibs (staggered); multiple workshops with more time devoted to one or two concepts – APH Student responses: RPC : 87% of students responding to an open ended question (Have your skills in conducting academic research improved during the current academic year? If so, what can you now do better than you were able to do at the beginning of the fall 2008 semester?) in our Spring 2009 Research Practices Survey that their research skills improved with our instruction program. (82 out of 94 total). Many mentioned that they had attended multiple sessions with librarians. Many students also mentioned that the faculty and librarian instruction in how to perform research was what helped them most. This combination of multiple sessions, multiple times to practice what they are learning (re: research assignments) and the reinforcement of faculty and librarians in research skills is important.
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