Kim Read

"Getting information off the internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant." -Mitchell Kapor

 

The Research dilemma:

 

While the internet has made research in the digital age appear easier, the vast amount of information available has made effective research a difficult and often overwhelming task. In a research study conducted by Project Information Literacy (PIL), students used the following words to express their experience with research: confusion, frustration, annoyance, stress, fear, and angst, among others. (Head & Eisenberg, 2009)

 

Everyone knows there is a lot of information available digitally, and that knowledge seems to increase the sense of failure. Students know the information is out there, but they can’t find it, a frustration expressed often in the PIL study (Head & Eisenberg, 2009). This lack of ability to find information when information is everywhere is not unique to students, although students have a demanding need for useful information when tasked with writing a research paper. Library anxiety can also play a part in the negative feelings some students associate with doing research (Cooke, 2010).

 

Finally, in my own research, I’ve identified that the majority of students in a required writing course consistently fail to create correct citations for electronic database articles even though proper citations are a required and graded component of the course. Formal assessment showed that only 43 percent of students correctly created citations for database articles in a culminating assignment

 

The Project: The goal of this project is to increase students’ skills and motivation for two research endeavors:

• Locating and accessing useful scholarly journal articles. The project aims to nurture students’ ability to conduct successful database searches to find scholarly articles that are appropriate in scope, quality and quantity.

• Creating proper citations for these articles.

 

The primary learners in this project are students at M University, a small, private, liberal arts college. MU educates primarily adult learners. Adult learning theories and motivation theories are applied to the design of the instruction to foster success with this population of learners, keep them motivated and increase their confidence in their research abilities.

 

Who are the learners?

• The mean age of undergraduates is 36.

• Many are balancing work, family and education.

• MU places an emphasis on service, social responsibility, and ethics.

• Undergraduate and graduate degrees are offered with both online and face to face classes available.

• 96% percent of students are degree seeking.

• 82% are enrolled part time. 

 

Project Delivery: Instruction, in the form of online modules, is integrated into a mandatory research and writing credit course. Online learning objects can also be accessed by secondary audiences such as other students, faculty and staff who desire self-paced learning on an as-needed basis.

 

References:

 

Cooke, N.A. (2010). Becoming an andragogical librarian: Using library instruction as a tool to combat library anxiety and empower adult learners. New Review of Academic Librarianship, 16(2), 208-227. doi: 10.1080/13614533.2010.507388

 

Head, A. J. & Eisenberg, M.B. (2009, February 4). Finding context: What today’s college students say about conducting research in the digital age. Retrieved from http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_ProgressReport_2_2009.pdf