How and Why We Set 300 How and Why We Set 300 Freshman Engineering Students Freshman Engineering Students

Loose in the LibraryLoose in the Library

1.The need for new methods… to introduce information literacy

to freshman engineering students

2.Studio logistics and selected stations• Credibility• Non-traditional sources• Search strategies

3.(Our) results and insights

4.The Research Studio in 2011-09

Praxis I and Freshman Information Literacy 

Picking Low-hanging Fruit1.Lack of familiarity

with Academic sources

2.Lack of Non-traditional sources

3.Inability to Develop Usable Search Terms

4.Inability to Judge Credibility of Sources

Too Much or Not Enough•300 students with questions

•Impromptu sessions can’t do it all

•Generic sessions aren’t { attended, used }

… or not•Many questions to manage or not

enough students who know where to start

•Students often aren’t aware of what they need to know

•Students think that they already know how to search efficiently and effectively

Logistics•300 students over 3 days•33 teams of 3 students per day•6 stations to visit per team

•2 Instructors + 1 Librarian + 8 TAs

Mutual Mutual

interdependenceinterdependence

➀ ➁

➄➅

➃

➂

Nontraditional Information Sources

Evaluating Information & Nontraditional Sources

•Students still swayed by aesthetics

•Students developed long lists of potential information sources

•Planning to add additional reflection and discussion time in iteration #2

•Next step is teaching them how to find those different sources

•Greater emphasis on “people” as information sources – experts, including librarians

Evaluating Search Strategies

•Synonyms, colloquialisms, and the familiar

•Added thesauri & dictionaries

•Much discussion of places to search

•Disconnect between a “search strategy” and actually searching

Prince Edward Viaduct

vs. Bloor St. Viaduct

vs. Don Valley bridge

•Stakeholders were generally positive

•Logistics were… challenging… in ECSLS

•Seniors as TA-facilitators really helped

General Results and Insights

•Instructors, Librarians, facilitators, students

•Work and computer space, noise, etc.

•Flexibility was a mixed blessing

•Insightful student (blogged) comments

•Stakeholders were generally positive

•Logistics were… challenging… in ECSL

•Seniors as TA-facilitators really helped

•Instructors, Librarians, facilitators, students

•Work and computer space, noise, etc.

•Implications for outreach, marketing, IL instruction

General Results and Insights

Design Assignment

•Significantly longer reference lists

•More (qualitatively) credible sources

•A continued disbelief in strategizing

•Whether those reference lists were actually used appropriately has become an assessment issue

•The credible use of those sources improved concurrently, which was an added bonus

•This occurs in almost everything they do, and has become a program-wide concern

•Increased emphasis on codes & standards

•Mitigate their “get ’er done” mentality

•“Gamification”

•Makes the accreditors happy and links the Studio to more than one assignment

•Reduce the structuring and scaffolding to prevent “fill in the blanks” overload

•Change to “skills + achievements +

unlocking” to enable more (and offline) flexibility

The Research Studio in 2011-09