Purpose & Goals

What question or issue does the poster address? Building on a previous assessment of the asynchronous use of the library’s digital learning objects by faculty in course-related websites, librarians conducted undergraduate student interviews to learn more about their individual use of online instructional modules. These modules cover topics such as Searching Library Databases, Evaluating Sources, Reading Scholarly Articles, Finding Books, Academic Integrity, etc. Librarians wanted to understand:

• how effective the modules are for student learning
• what content is helpful
• how effective videos are for student learning
• how students applied the information in this and subsequent courses
• if they have suggestions for other topics for inclusion in an online module.

This assessment effort provided complimentary feedback on library-created Canvas modules, from the student perspective.

Design & Methodology

What materials, traditions, methods, data, and/or literature are employed to explore the question? Librarians obtained data detailing course websites that imported one or more of the library modules from Canvas Commons during the fall 2023 semester. In November 2023, an email was sent to 36 course instructors who taught 42 courses, asking them for permission to contact students in these courses, for the purpose of participant recruitment. Over 1,700 undergraduate students received an email invitation to participate in a short interview with librarians, to be scheduled in January 2024 (winter semester). Fourteen interested students indicated their willingness to interview; eight students actually scheduled 30-minute interviews with librarians.

Findings

Although interview participation limits the extent to which findings can be generalized, the following themes were observed:

• Topics of the library’s instructional modules are of interest. Most participants were required or directed to use more than one module (e.g. Searching Library Databases, Finding Books, Reading a Scholarly Article, Academic Integrity).
• Much of the content of these modules served as a “refresher” for about 75% of participants. 25% of students indicated that the content was entirely new to them. Every student reported learning something new, however, even if most of the content was a refresher.
• Most participants found it easy to navigate through the modules. Most believed the content was easy to understand.
• Half of the participants did not view the embedded videos. They provided suggestions for better integration into the module.
• All participants clearly understood the relevance of the module contents to their course content or course assignments.
• Almost all participants reported that the modules helped them understand where to go to locate library sources.
• 75% of participants indicated that they were able to apply what they learned in the module(s) either for other course assignments or for personal use of the library. The remaining 25% reported that they were not able to apply what they learned yet because they had not received other research assignments at the time of these interviews.

Action & Impact

• In our previous interview with faculty, they stressed that students want more videos in online learning modules. This was not the case for the students we interviewed. If videos are embedded, they encouraged us to indicate learning goals to contextualize why they should watch the video and indicate how the content in the video is different from the written content in the module. We are planning updates for this summer to incorporate this feedback.
• We will integrate more “sign posts” to help students understand navigation through sections of modules, and in addition to describing particular concepts we will include more language describing why a particular concept is important.
• Understanding the impact and learning that happens through these modules helps us to tell the story of the library's impact on student learning and success, and the ability of students to complete their assignments well.
• We may work with our IT services to create a more granular way to track module usage so we can identify how many times individual modules are integrated into which courses.

Practical Implications & Value

• Students find the content of these modules helpful for their immediate coursework and beyond, demonstrating that online modules can result in transferable skills. Therefore, it is very worthwhile to create asynchronous modules for independent use by faculty who do not wish to have a librarian visit their class. It extends the impact and influence of the library.
• It is important to talk to both faculty and students on perceptions related to library instruction; they can differ greatly on certain aspects, such as the role of videos in online asynchronous modules.
• Our modules are on Canvas Commons for use and editing by anyone.
• Interviews are indispensable in gathering detailed feedback from students on their own learning. We will gladly share our interview protocol.