Inspired by the research and many studies that have been conducted by library professionals over the years, this may be an ideal way to fully discover how we can meet the needs of students who struggle most to succeed. However, the scope of this design is too big for any one institution to achieve or lead on their own. Our current plan is to find an external research partner who can help us revise the plans into something we can accomplish with their support.
Community College Focused Information Literacy Assessment Study
Overarching Goals:
Grant funded multi-year (longitudinal), multi-institution, qualitative study of student dispositions and preferred knowledge practices for learning and using Information Literacy skills during their community college journey.
- Study participants primarily focused on BIPOC male students, or the populations that each institution identifies they prefer to study.
- Partner institutions will be provided training and resources to use updated equity minded research practices and gain new insights into reaching and teaching student populations that struggle to succeed in college
Longitudinal Ethnographic Research Study - brief overview of what would be an ideal study and serves as a model for partner institutions:
Target Participants: Plan to recruit 15 students newly enrolled at the institution in fall. Focus on male students from diverse backgrounds to make sure they are the majority of the subjects, but we’ll include others to some extent too.
Information Literacy will be defined by each institution based on the focus of their curriculum. Each institution may have a somewhat different interpretation of Information Literacy based on their college context.
Plan to employ a mixed methods approach.
Ethnographic Research Questions & Methods:
Soon after students are recruited, conduct interviews that cover these 2 primary research questions:
- What does the student know about Information Literacy when they started college? (knowledge practices)
- What does the student think about learning Information Literacy (as defined by the college)? (dispositions)
Equity-minded practices: Start with building rapport and explaining the project, fully explaining data collected and expectations, and providing options for their consent preferences. Then cover the interview questions related to the 2 research questions.
During each of their semesters at the college:
- How does the student approach learning and using Information Literacy knowledge practices during each of their semesters?
- Examine how the student's skills develop over time.
- Method: research assignment logging – develop an app with gamification elements to keep students engaged
- What does the student think about their experiences learning and using Information Literacy knowledge practices at the end of each of their semesters?
- Method: interview - dispositions focused, include asking them about roadblocks or struggles they faced and what they did to try and work around or through them.
At the end of each year:
- What thoughts do the students have about how they prefer to learn Information Literacy?
- Method: focus group with the cohort
At the end of their first year at their transfer institution, or, at the end of their first year on the job after leaving the college:
- When it comes to the Information Literacy skills the student learned and used during their time at the college -
- In what ways were they prepared for the assignments/responsibilities they needed to complete?
- In what ways were they not prepared?
- What did they do when they were not prepared?
- Did what they learned at MC influence the approach they took to solving problems they encountered?
- Method: interview
Quantitative Methods:
- If the students give consent, also track specific learning analytics on the subjects through your Office of Institutional Research each semester and do comparisons.
- Also consider asking the students to complete sections (most relevant to your IL program) of the Threshold Achievement Test for Information Literacy when they first arrive at the college and when they are finishing their education at the college.
- Additionally, consider the NSSE Information Literacy module as a broader instrument to use during the study.