Building and Strengthening Upper Level Research Skills with Captivate Tutorials Mark Vargas, Library Director Anne Buchanan, Assistant Librarian Saint Xavier University Library

Purpose of the Session Provide overview of the research skills of SXU students Review common research problems Use of tutorials as assignments to raise information-literacy

Research Skill = Information Literacy The ability to find, evaluate, and use information It is NOT computer literacy It is NOT media dependent

If students were research (information) literate they could… Understand the scholarly, peer-reviewed process Find and use resources appropriate for their classroom assignments Conduct all their academic research without using Google or Wikipedia

What is the Current State of Information Literacy?

Librarians’ Perspective Librarians were aware of problems No chance for a library research course Limited role in general education classes

Observations from the Library Limited awareness of the scholarly, peer-review process Perceived research skills exceed actual capabilities Students, at all levels, have difficulties finding books journals, whether in print or online the appropriate database to use

ICT ETS offered Information and Communication Technology exam beginning in 2005 Library funded the exam the first two years Now called I-Skills, and supported by SXU

What the ICT does Compares results from SXU students with those of peer nationwide Is not a computer-skills test

Seven ICT Proficiencies Define: The ability to use ICT tools to identify and appropriately represent an information need. Access: The ability to collect and/or retrieve information. Manage: The ability to apply an existing organizational or classification scheme. Integrate: The ability to interpret and represent information. Evaluate: The ability to determine the degree to which information satisfies the needs of the task in ICT environments. Create: The ability to generate information by adapting, applying, designing or inventing information in ICT environments. Communicate: The ability to communicate information properly in its context of use for ICT environments.

ICT Results SXU students performed well below the national average in three categories; just met average in the other categories Gave the Library quantitative data to make this a major issue

Common Instructional Problems

Major Environmental Changes We learned in an age of limited information Students have access to levels of information beyond anything we could dream of in graduate school Library now has information resources impossible to obtain just a few years ago

Common Problems… Library assignments often don’t have a clear learning objective Students don’t know why the assignment is made Assignments don’t match the research skills of the students Assignments are often too esoteric or too complex, especially for freshmen and sophomores

Use of Captivate Tutorials to Improve Information Literacy

Tutorial Purposes Built-in assessment Standardize instruction on scholarly, peer-review process Instruction as homework rather than in-class Reduce duplicate instruction; reach more students

Tutorial Interactivity Must engage students Students choose info options Students must input data, make choices, take quizzes Must be completed by average student in about 15-20 minutes

Examples of Tutorials Scholarly, peer review sources Research v. review, abstracts, keywords Finding primary research materials Specialized nursing research Evaluating statistical data SWOT analyses

Testing Process Initial tutorials tested on fellow librarians and staff Drafts tested by complete classes Continual tweaking based on feedback

Feedback Students Faculty #1 question: why didn’t I get this sooner? Very helpful in understanding research concepts Faculty Very useful as homework assignments Less class time needed for library instruction

What’s Next? Library is implementing Worldcat Local service, integrating all research into one interface Tutorials to emphasize evaluating and understanding data, not finding it Expand faculty requiring the tutorials