Instructional Services
In an effort to evaluate library instruction and to meet the academic needs of students, the library instruction staff is partnering with the Writing Program in an assessment project. The primary focus of the assessment is to evaluate the influence of library research instruction on the final papers completed by students in Writing 10.
Library instruction will focus on equipping students to meet these outcomes modified from the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education from the Association of College & Research Libraries.
- identify a manageable information need.
- develop an overall search strategy.
- identify valuable search tools.
- utilize effective search strategies to find relevant information.
- evaluate search results accurately.
- retrieve/access needed information.
- distinguish between scholarly and popular materials.
- incorporate relevant information into an assignment.
- ethically use information.
Overall Design:
Students independently take an online pre-questionnaire.
Students receive in-person or online tutorial instruction on research skills.
Students independently take an online post-questionnaire/exit survey.
Librarians review works cited from the final research assignment in Writing 10.
Timeline:
February 4th through February 12th
Librarians involved in the study meet briefly with Writing 10 students to give an overview of the study. (Approx. 10 min.)
Sunday, February 15th
The pre-questionnaire is launched online. Students will receive a link to the questionnaire.
Tuesday, February 24th.
The pre-questionnaire is closed. We had response rate of ~11%.
Between Wednesday, February 25th and the end of April
Classes receive library research instruction via an in-person class or through online tutorials.
Sunday, May 3rd
The post-questionnaire/satisfaction survey is launched to those students who completed the pre-questionnaire. Students will receive a link to the questionnaire.
Tuesday, May 12th
The post-questionnaire/satisfaction survey is closed.
May/June
Writing faculty submit final data to Institutional Planning & Analysis at UC Merced.
- works cited for the final paper (or 3rd paper)
- grade for the final paper (or 3rd paper)
The works cited will need to include the student's name and/or email. IPA will then code the paper to remove personal identification. Please send information via campus mail to Gary Lowe in the Institutional Planning & Analysis (IPA) office.
For more details, please contact Sara Davidson at sdavidson2@ucmerced.edu
To view these tutorials, you will require Flash. If needed, visit Adobe Flash Player for the download.
Tutorial Title |
Summary |
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Introduction: Recipe for Research Success
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Welcome to the tutorials series. |
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Module 1: Plan for Success |
Determining a Manageable Information Topic Examine your topic. Do you need to narrow or expand it? |
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Module 2: Choose Your Ingredients and Terms |
Identifying Key Concepts and Terms Identify the key concepts in your topic. Brainstorm related terms for those key concepts. |
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Module 3: Where to Shop? Where to Search? |
Select Valuable Search Tools Examine the “Databases & Articles” page to find appropriate search tools for your topic. |
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Module 4: Start to Shop and Search |
Utilize Effective Search Strategies Revisit your search terms and use them in an appropriate database. |
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Module 5: Investigate and Evaluate |
Review Search Results Examine search results and abstracts to find relevant materials. |
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Module 6: Premium/High Quality Ingredients & Sources |
Distinguish Between Scholarly and Popular Articles Determine if the materials you find are scholarly or popular. Find appropriate materials based on your assignment criteria. |
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Module 7: Buy It/Get It |
Retrieve Needed Resources Download and/or Request the materials you need. |
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Module 8: Serve it in Style |
Gather Information & Use it Ethically While finding materials, keep track of your citations so you can create an accurate bibliography. |
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The images used in these tutorials are found via Stock.xchng and Google Image Search . Local images are used with permission fromUC Merced’s collection.
Press F11 on the library’s laptop to remove the browser’s search box and toolbar from the top of the web browser. This will allow you to view the full screen of the tutorial. Once closing the tutorial, you can press F11 to make the search box and toolbar reappear.
