Library:TLAC Forums Student Reflection as an Assessment Technique

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TLAC FORUM: Student Reflection as an Assessment Technique

Wednesday, October 27th, 1-2:30pm, Koerner 742

Speaker: Marjorie Mitchell, UBCO


Background

The design of the assignment evolved from WILU and CTLT sessions and readings. Its aim is to assess students’ grasp of tools and concepts. By having them verbalize the process in a written paper they would become more conscious about the process. A rubric was designed to assign marks for this assignment. The connection with the faculty member happened by chance - she’d learned about librarians’ skill sets at an UBCV CTLT session and wished to make use of it for her Anthropology 3rd year class.


The Assignment

Two in class sessions held in the Fall term. The first was a light one on subject pages and on some of the less intuitive databases for Anthropology. A 2 day turnaround was given between this class and the paper deadline and students were invited to contact the Information Desk, or Marjory, if stuck. 5% of the year mark was allocated to the assignment. Marjory had 1 week in which to mark and to provide feedback on the assignment. The rubric measured the 3 criteria listed in the assignment: where you looked and why, what you searched, and the results you got and the criteria you used to evaluate the results. The levels of competence were on a scale of 1-3 of success. The second in class session was based on the needs identified in the marking of the assignment. Common themes were about which keywords to use and how to broaden to additional sources. [Note: this assignment was subsequently re-run in the Winter term to 3rd year and 4th year students].


Results

Very successful and beneficial on both the student and the librarian sides:

  • There was an increase in requests for consultations by the students in other subjects
  • Marjorie was able to see the process used by students
  • Debriefing with faculty and feedback demonstrated the students had used better sources but that they were not using them critically. The latter point was acknowledged as being the instructor’s responsibility. Overall the faculty member was satisfied that the learning objectives had been met.
  • Review of student searching behaviours the second year demonstrated some retention those who repeated the assignment spent less time in exploratory work and in less fruitful sources.
  • Although one of the goals was to assist the students in making a decision on their research topics, only a few changed their topics. An unexpected result was that students began the exploratory search phase for their papers.


Discussion Themes


About this assignment

  • Rare to have this opportunity to work with faculty on developing, executing, marking and providing feedback.
  • Would need to be adapted for first year students who may not yet have a grasp of how the catalogue works nor their curriculum. But the idea of using questions could be used.
  • Marjory gave permission for the assignment to be uploaded to ALPSLink with a Creative Commons licence requiring attribution. See the assignment here: ALPS LINK


Use of reflection

  • Aids retention, lesson planning and feedback.
  • As on the fly, low key reflection provide 3 exit questions – evaluative and reflective. For example, ask for 2 things learned, 1 thing they would have liked to have learned. Can do this as a 1 minute paper.


Use of questions

  • Cephalonian method – provide students with questions to ask in class. This leads to more questions and discussion:
    • Provides framework for how to phrase questions
    • Copy cat effect
    • Ice breaker and shakes things up
  • BOPPS from the ISW teaching workshop provides the opportunity for reflection as part of S=summary at the end of the session.


Liaison with faculty

  • “Work with your allies.” Build relationships with those who are open to working with librarians.
  • Loss of contact with an instructor during sabbatical or changes in teaching assignments is common and unavoidable.


Marketing

The UBCO faculty member discovered at UBCV CTLT session about librarians’ skill set and then chose to connect with Marjory on this assignment.


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