Running head: ASSESSMENT REPORT
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Assessment Report
Mi-Seon (Christine) Kim
Library
December 23, 2014
Queensborough Community College
ASSESSMENT REPORT
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Embedded Librarian Program and its Impact on Student Learning Outcomes
The purpose of this project is to find out how effective an embedded librarian program is at
increasing community college students’ performance on a course assignment involving creation
of an annotated bibliography.
Participants were Queensborough Community College students enrolled in English 101/102
classes taught by English Professor Michael Dolan for fall 2014. There were three library
sessions throughout the fall semester as a part of an embedded librarian program. Students were
asked to submit an annotated bibliography after the third library session. The due date was on
Wednesday, November 26, 2014 at 3:00 PM via email. The annotated bibliography is 5 percent
of the final grade and a rubric is employed to grade students’ performance. There were a total
thirty-seven (37) students that submitted the annotated bibliography.
Why do students need information literacy?
Information literacy is an essential skill in the information age, especially when there is an
abundance of information in a digital era. According to Association of College and Research
Libraries (ACRL), information literacy is the ability to recognize when and what information is
needed, and the knowledge of how to define appropriate search strategies, determine relevant
sources, and critically evaluate and ethically access and use sources (“Information Literacy
Competency Standards for Higher Education”).
Studies show that “convenience and ease of use/access” are considered to be the most important
aspects in seeking information among young adults (Connaway, Dickey, and Radford, 2011). In
other words, students are more likely to use web search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing
than library databases for their research paper. Library instruction can help students improve
information seeking behavior and get them to think critically when they access and use
information.
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to:





distinguish between scholarly journals and popular periodicals
evaluate web resources and choose reliable sources in the research paper
learn to utilize library databases to get reliable sources
understand what plagiarism is and attribute sources to avoid plagiarism
create a works cited page in proper citation format (MLA)
Annotated bibliography as a measuring tool
By submitting an annotated bibliography, students are presented with an opportunity to find,
read, and analyze reliable sources before their final research paper is due. The assignment can be
considered a great assessment tool to measure students’ ability to evaluate sources: using library
databases, selecting credible and relevant sources, and incorporating them into a research paper.
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ASSESSMENT REPORT
All aspects of student learning outcomes from library instructions can be analyzed through their
work with the annotated bibliography. The table 1 below shows how student learning outcomes
from library instructions are aligned with the dimensions of the annotated bibliography scoring
rubric.
Learning Outcomes
Dimension
Authority
(1 point)
□ Learn to utilize
library databases to
get reliable sources
Credibility:
evaluating sources
(1 point)
□ Evaluate web
resources and choose
reliable sources in the
research paper
□ Authors’ credentials: affiliations or experts in the
field, or
□ If there is no author, clear explanation of the
authority of the content, or
□ Articles from academic journals are acceptable
□ Sources are from reliable or scholarly materials:
o
o
Wikipedia or other unknown blogs,
Tweets, etc. shouldn’t be used
If commercial or organization websites
(.com or .org) are used, evaluation is
required
□ Understanding different types of sources:
□ Distinguish
between scholarly
journals and popular
periodicals
□ Understand what
plagiarism is and
attribute sources to
avoid plagiarism
Descriptions of Annotated Bibliography Rubric
o
o
Popular magazines and newspapers from
trustworthy sites
Utilizing multiple sources of information
Summary (1 point) & □ Brief summary of articles
Critique of the
sources (1 point)
o
o
o
What is the article about?
Is it relevant to the topic?
Is it objective or biased?
□ Selecting quotes
o
o
o
□ Create a works
cited page in proper
citation format
(MLA)
Proper MLA format
(1 point)
With quotation marks and an appropriate
parenthetical citation
Paraphrase or explanation of quote
Explanation of why the quote was chosen
□ Citations are formatted correctly in MLA style:
o
Times New Roman or other acceptable
fonts, size 12, typed, double-space, and
indent the second and subsequent lines of
citations; citations are organized in
alphabetical order
Table 1: Student Learning Outcomes vs. Dimension of Annotated Bibliography Rubric
ASSESSMENT REPORT
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A major contribution of the library instruction is to provide life-long information literacy skills
and promote students’ critical thinking. These goals are aligned with objectives of the
Queensborough Community College mission and general education learning outcomes:
The [Queensborough Community] College is dedicated to academic excellence
and to the development of the whole individual in an environment that promotes
intellectual inquiry, global awareness, and lifelong active learning. Providing a
rich general education core aimed at enhancing students’ critical thinking
and decision making skills, and utilizing effective learning strategies,
the College offers many options to students for achieving their academic
and career goals (“Mission,” n.d.).
Both library instructions and the annotated bibliography assignment are designed to attain two
goals of general education learning outcomes at QCC:


Use information management and technology skills effectively
for academic research and lifelong learning.
Integrate knowledge and skills in their program of study
(“Learning Outcomes,” n.d.)
These general education learning outcomes are matched with the objectives of library instruction
to promote students’ ability to evaluate and incorporate sources into a research paper.
Surveys
Before gathering the annotated bibliographies and analyzing the data, surveys were conducted
after each library session to obtain background information on student information seeking
behavior. For the majority of students (60%) it is the first time they are taking a library
instruction class, while only 4.44% of the respondents have taken library classes more than three
times. It is not surprising to see that 73.33% students conduct searches for their inquiries on a
daily basis using web search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Data indicates that some
of the respondents have experience in either high school library databases (35.56%) or public
library databases (20%), while 44.44% of them have never used any library databases.
Design of Library Instruction
The embedded librarian program is designed to help students achieve success in writing a
research paper. There were three library sessions during the fall semester in 2014. These sessions
are broken down into several learning outcomes. Each library session provides guides to each
process for a research paper step by step as it is shown in table 2 below.
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ASSESSMENT REPORT
Session
Outcomes
st
1 Session:
Students will:
Definition of research paper;
Differentiate research papers from essays;
Different types of sources;
Tell the differences between scholarly sources and
popular magazines;
Formulating a research question
Have a topic for the paper
2nd Session:
Students will:
Conducting research in library databases;
Gather relevant journal articles for their paper;
and/or select reliable web resources
Evaluating web resources
3rd Session
Students will:
Citing sources in a proper citation format;
Learn how to cite in-text and paraphrase to avoid
plagiarism; incorporate sources into a writing
Plagiarism
Table 2: Each library session and learning goals to guide students’ progress
If students follow each library session carefully, they will be able to complete research papers on
time without major problems. The purpose of the annotated bibliography assignment is also to
ensure that students prepare their research paper before its due date.
Statistics for online course LibGuide
The online LibGuide was created for the students of English 101/102 courses to access anytime.
The survey on the usage of online course Libguide indicates that most students found the guide
helpful to the assignment: 44.2% responded that it is very helpful and 46.2% said it is useful
while 9.6 of them think it isn’t helpful in doing the assignment.
Statistics show that students are most likely to visit the online guide a few days before and right
up until the due date. As shown in graph 3, the daily number of students that visited the online
LibGuide increased as the November 26, 2014 due date of the annotated bibliography drew near.
200
150
100
50
0
11/22/2014
11/23/2014
11/24/2014
11/25/2014
11/26/2014
Graph 3: dates and number of students visiting online guide
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ASSESSMENT REPORT
The LibGuide was visited 194 times on the due date. Among 19 web pages, the annotated
bibliography libguide page was highly viewed from November 22 to November 26, second only
to the home page. The embedded librarian was called upon by a few students making inquiries
about the annotated bibliography on the due date. The statistics and the librarian’s experience
indicate that many students finish their assignment at the last minute.
Findings from Annotated Bibliography Assignment
Students’ annotated bibliographies were graded according to the scoring rubric. The highest
amount of points is five (5) while the lowest is zero (0). Graph 1 shows that 15 students
(40.54%) received 3 points, 12 respondents (32.43%) got 4 points, and 7 of them (18.91%) were
given 5 points. Only 3 (8.10%) students scored low points (zero to 2 points). Overall, 91.89%
received 3 points or more.
15
10
5
0
0 point
1 point
2 points
3 points
4 points
5 points
Graph 1: the number of students and points
A majority of the students (60%) indicated that this is their first time taking library class. It is
also probable that they have not written a research paper prior to this course. If that is the case, it
could be a difficult task to conduct research, find sources, evaluate, and cite them properly in the
writing because it takes a lot of time and effort to write a research paper.
A vast majority of students (91.89%) show that they conducted research in library databases,
chose reliable sources from scholarly journals, and performed proper evaluations when they
selected web resources. It is good to see that no one used Wikipedia. Considering it is their first
time doing research for most of the students, the results are satisfactory in terms of students’
choice of reliable sources. Without library instruction, students would have depended on web
search engines for their research paper.
However, the work of many of the students shows a lack of proper citation format and incorrect
quoting of sources. Graph 2 below suggests that there is a need for further library instruction in
this area.
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ASSESSMENT REPORT
20
15
10
5
0
Authority
Credibility
Summary
Quotes
MLA format
Graph 2: the number of students and in which part of skills they need improvement
48.64% of the students didn’t cite at all or cited incorrectly and 40.54% of the students didn’t
properly format their research paper in MLA style. MLA style requires very rigorous rules and it
is understandable that citations might have been a steep learning curve for community college
students even if they learned in the library classes.
The survey confirms the proposition that students found it difficult to cite properly. In the
survey, students wrote that they wished the librarian had spent more time explaining citations
and research topics. It should be pointed out that the instruction of the third library session is
wholly dedicated to citations and how to properly format a research paper as shown in table 2. It
could not have been possible to focus solely on citations if it had not been an embedded librarian
program with multiple sessions. With a one-shot library session, there is not very much time to
adequately explain citing sources.
Additional Findings
Most of the respondents made positive comments on the embedded librarian program. The
survey conducted after the third library session shows that 38.5% responded they are very
satisfied with library sessions and 55.8% answered they are satisfied with the classes. More than
half of the students (59.6%) think that the embedded librarian program is very helpful to their
class assignment and 38.5% replied that it is somewhat helpful. Only 1.9% of respondents think
the embedded librarian program wasn’t helpful at all.
Data shows students’ high level of comfort in using library databases: 94.2% replied that they
feel more comfortable searching in the library databases after the multiple library instructions.
Most students indicated that they prefer the embedded librarian program with multiple sessions:
67.3% of the students think that three library sessions are appropriate and 28.8% of them believe
more than three library sessions would be better.
One of the respondents wrote in the survey in favor of more library sessions as below:
what i do wish the librarian could have spend more time explaining
just in general, because these sessions were so helpful I wish we had
more than three sessions because it made me have such a better understanding
ASSESSMENT REPORT
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of this whole paper. What i didn’t like was how each of our sessions were
far from each other.
Each library session was one month apart from each other and several students mentioned
sessions are too far away. It is worthwhile to note that some students desire more library sessions
at short intervals.
Even if the majority of students held positive views on the embedded librarian program, there is
still a need for improvement. It is suggested that the pace of the instruction go slower with more
library sessions, and that the librarian elaborate more on the topics given. The findings from the
annotated bibliography assignment and suggestions from the surveys will be used for the
improvement of library instruction. In future embedded librarian programs, the librarian will
spend more time explaining how to formulate a research paper, cite in an appropriate style, and
quote in-text. As some students advised, the library instruction can be held more frequently
between each session.
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ASSESSMENT REPORT
References
Connaway, Lynn, Sillipigni, Timothy J. Dickey, and Marie L. Radford. "“If it is too inconvenient
I'm not going after it:” Convenience as a critical factor in information-seeking
behaviors." Library & Information Science Research 33.3 (2011): 179-190. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 21 Dec. 2014.
Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. (n.d.). In Association of
College & Research Libraries. Retrieved December 21, 2014, from
http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency
Learning Outcomes. (n.d.). In Queensborough Community College. Retrieved December 17,
2014, from http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/Assessment/geoa.html
Mission. (n.d.). In Queensborough Community College. Retrieved December 17, 2014, from
http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/about/mission.html