In the fall of 2014, Teaching and Learning Services distributed a test to students at the beginning and, later, the end of their Signature Course about information literacy concepts. A part of the post-test was a fill in the blank answer to the question, “how are the kinds of research project you’ve been assigned so far at UT different from research projects you completed in high school?” Since this summer, I have been working with Krystal to organize the answers to this question in to more understandable categories. Through this experience, I gained some insight into how Signature Course students are understanding and viewing their research. Here are some of my findings:
Students Aren’t Exposed to Peer Review in High School
For many students, the idea of finding peer reviewed sources in an online database is a brand new concept. Before coming to UT, many students did their research exclusively through Google and utilized web pages and Wikipedia as their sources. These students have never been exposed to the ideas of scholarly, peer reviewed, or academic sources.
e.g.
“Here I have more access to good sources where in high school I relied on google to give me the information I needed.”
Emphasis on Sources
The predominant response I saw in the sea of answers was something along the lines of, “more sources.” Students view the number of required sources as the parameters of their research. When they are approaching their research projects, their research is driven by finding the needed number of sources, as opposed to understanding their topic and cultivating their argument. Students see their sources as their research.
e.g.
“More detailed [and] require more sources.”
“Projects in college need more formal, academic and reliable sources and need better formatted citation notes.”
Not Different, Rather More
Out of the 575 responses we received, the word more was stated 285 times. If we assume that the word was only used once per response, more is used in almost fifty percent of the answers! Students don’t see their college research projects as drastically different from their high school projects, but rather a continuation – a step-up. Students predominately listed more sources, more access, more research, more depth, and overall, more responsibility in their answers.
e.g.
“The research projects I have been assigned at UT require a more substantial, comprehensive amount of detailed research in comparison to the research assigned in high school. In many respects, I feel as though I have more available outlets for research and better access to information.”
What can we learn from this?
Although none of my analysis produced groundbreaking insights, I think these insights give us a better idea of where our students are coming from when they are entering our sessions. Most students have the foundational knowledge and skills in place to do their research project, but they need help to expand and strengthen their skillset.
We will share more complete findings later this month, so stayed tuned for the full analysis! Until then, you can check out an overview of the assessment in the graphic below:
And lastly, here are a few responses that made me laugh and I can’t help but share:
“They require different print sources from databases.”
“THEY AREN’T.”
“Projects on the pope.”
**This post is password protected because we use direct quotes from students in our assessment. At TLS, we believe it is important to protect our students’ privacy in their feedback and, therefore, this post will not be open on the web.
