Evidence Based Librarianship
and Information Literacy
An experience
at the University of Parma
Monica Vezzosi, Maria Letizia Sora, Fabrizia Bevilacqua
A path to evidence-based practice
Bibliographic instruction activity
at the University of Parma 2001-2004
A path to evidence-based practice
Bibliographic instruction activity
at the University of Parma 2001-2004
Unsatisfactory learning outcomes
A path to evidence-based practice
Bibliographic instruction activity
at the University of Parma 2001-2004
Unsatisfactory learning outcomes
New approach to teaching bringing together
Enquiry
Practice
Reflection
Sharing
IL at the University of Parma
2001-2004
Seminar “From the Library to the Net”
Start 2001
15 hours class activity
Two credits
Teachers: librarians
IT Laboratory
Contents and methods
• Online catalogues
• E-journals
• Databases
• Searching the Web
• Citation rules
• Tool based approach
• Lecture with some
hands-on activities
• One teacher each
research tool
Learning outcomes
Students became able to
• access online research
tools
• use them during handson activity
Students did not become able to
• manage an actual research
process
• connect different sources of
information
• evaluate their search strategy
Research project
Phase
One
Spring
2004
Outcomes analysis of the Bibliographic
instruction activity being carried out at
the University of Parma
Research project
Phase
One
Phase
Two
July
2004
|
Dec.
2004
Design and delivery of a prototypical
Seminar.
Analysis and assessment of its impact
on participating students.
Research project
Phase
One
Phase
Two
Phase
three
Dec.
2004
|
April
2005
Design of a new version of the
Seminar, delivered in two different
“standard” situations:
o The Seminar for Pharmacy students
o The Seminar for Communication
Studies students
Research project
Phase
One
Phase
Two
Phase
three
Phase
four
Dec.
2004
|
June
2005
Analysis and assessment of new
Seminar’s outcomes and identification of
further possible improvements
Research project
Phase
One
Spring
2004
Outcomes analysis of the Bibliographic instruction
activity being carried out at the University of Parma
Phase
Two
July 2004
|
Dec.2004
Design and delivery of a prototypical Seminar.
Analysis and assessment of its impact on participating
students.
Phase
three
Dec.2004 Design of a new version of the Seminar,
|
delivered in two different “standard” situations:
April 2005
o The Seminar for Pharmacy students
o The Seminar for Communication Studies students
Phase
four
Dec.2004 Analysis and assessment of new Seminar’s
|
outcomes and identification of further possible
June2005 improvements
Prototype Seminar
Action research project
25 students Environmental sciences (2. year)
Analysis of students’ knowledge, skills and
attitudes during and after the learning activity
Qualitative approach
Prototype Seminar
Action research project
Seminar embedded into the Ecology course
Active learning, co-operative learning, and problem-based
learning.
Research group task focusing the whole activity on
the research process
Contents presented in relation to students’ group task
Outcomes
At the end of the prototype Seminar
students appeared able to
• access online search tools, and also to connect and
use them in a flexible way
• to manage an actual research process and to assess
their own work
• the team work stimulated students to engage themselves
in their task
• students appeared encouraged to apply critical thinking
skills to retrieved information.
The New Seminar
Decision to export approach and techniques in standard
situations and to analyse learning outcomes
Goals:
• To verify if teaching methods based on team work and
focusing on the research process could be successfully
adopted in standard situations.
• To found the assessment of the teaching activity on more
rigorous and measurable evaluation criteria
Two different standard situations
PHARMACY
COMMUNICATION STUDIES
• IL seminar inserted in
curriculum as an optional
activity attributing two
credits.
• The teaching librarian is
in charge of organising
and delivering the
Seminar
• She is entrusted of
assessing students’
learning.
• Digital Publishing teacher
interested in embedding IL
Seminar into her course
• Learning plan requires
students to work in groups and
to carry out a piece of research
on a pre-defined topic related
to Digital publishing
Two different standard situations
PHARMACY
• IL seminar inserted in
curriculum as an optional
activity attributing two credits.
• The teaching librarian is in
charge of organising and
delivering the Seminar
• She is entrusted of assessing
students’ learning.
COMMUNICATION
STUDIES
• Digital Publishing teacher
interested in embedding
IL Seminar into her
course
• Learning plan requires
students to work in
groups and to carry out a
piece of research on a
pre-defined topic related
to Digital publishing
Founding principles
1- Focus on the research process
2- Motivate students
3- Few contents and learning material
4- Involve students in revision and
contextualisation of their learning.
Contents
Pharmacy
Know-item search
OPACs and e- journals
Subject search
Databases (PubMed, Current
Contents,ScienceDirect)
The Web
Search engines, subject
directories
Communication Studies
Know-item search
OPACs and e- journals
Subject search
Databases (LISA, Emerald,
ScienceDirect)
The Web
Search engines, subject
directories
Organisation
Pharmacy
• 2 groups of students:
21-33
• 16 hours class activity
• Final presentation
• Team tasks
– annotated list of
information resources
– 5-6 people each
– doping and sport; relation
between cancer and diet
therapy; nutrition disorders
and adolescents; children
and obesity
Communication Studies
•
•
•
•
One group: 69 students
8 hours class activity (three
parallel classes)
Two students’ presentations
Team tasks
– 1. Presentation: each group
presents the class the
contents learned during class
activity
– 2. Presentation: each group
presents
their piece of research on
Digital publishing issues
– 20-25 people each
– Metadata; Preservation of
digital content; Economical
issue about digital publishing
Organisation
Pharmacy
•
•
•
•
2 groups of students:
21-33
16 hours class activity
Final presentation
Team tasks
– annotated list of information
resources
– 5-6 people each
– doping and sport; relation
between cancer and diet
therapy; nutrition disorders
and adolescents; children and
obesity
Communication Studies
• One group: 69 students
• 8 hours class activity
(three parallel classes)
• Two students’
presentations
• Team tasks
– 1. Presentation: each group
presents the class the
contents learned during class
activity
– 2. Presentation: each group
presents their piece of
research on Digital publishing
issues
– 20-25 people each
– Metadata; Preservation of
digital content; Economics
issues about digital publishing
Assessment methods
• Pre/Post test
17 multiple answers questions on issues
treated during the seminar
• Students’ group tasks
• Open ended questionnaire
Findings
Summary
120%
100%
80%
Pharm. pre
Pharm. post
60%
Comm. pre
Comm. post
40%
20%
0%
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Questions 1-17
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Performance and improvement
Students' performance and improvement
16
14
12
10
Right answers/student in pre test
8
Right answers/students post-test
6
Improvement mean
4
2
0
1
Pharmacy
2
Communication Studies
Group tasks
Pharmacy:
• Most groups offered a good performance
– Choice of valuable and pertaining resources
– Adoption of advanced search techniques
– Critical account of their findings
• Two groups offered a lower level performance
– Focusing only on contents
– Showing a partial understanding of the research task
Group task
Communication study
– good presentation related to the contents of the
–
–
–
–
–
class activities
less valuable works on the subjects related to Digital
publishing
each group adopted mainly one research tool
some groups only adopted “quick and easy”
research tools
resources not completely pertaining
difficulty in identifying authoritative papers
Open ended questionnaire
Both groups are satisfied on
– The practical approach to learning:
hands-on activity
– The contents of the learning materials
Open ended questionnaire
Pharmacy students
• Were enthusiastic on the team work
• Highly appreciated the revising activity
• Were aware of the importance of being
information literate
• Linked information competence to their future
professional life
• Showed a positive and proactive attitude
towards learning
Open ended questionnaire
Communication students
• Showed appreciation for the seminar as a whole
• Were quite critical on some aspects
– Excessive workload
– Number of credits
– Team work was considered sometimes tiring and
frustrating
– The inadequate equiment at the Faculty of
Humanities, which hindered their team working
– The need to download the learning material
Discussion
• Both groups of students have improved their knowledge
and skills.
• The research process is still the most critical aspect in
students’ learning: there is a need to focus even more on
this aspect
• The annotated list of resource is more suitable as a
learning task than the actual piece of research
• The revising activity made by students is valuable but
cannot replace teacher’s lessons
Discussion
• The pre-post test is suitable both to measure students’
performance and to tailor learning contents before the
activity starts
• The comparative analysis of students’ team tasks
provides evidence of the level of competence in the
research process
• The open ended questionnaire provides information on
students’ experience of the whole activity in a limited
amount of time
Conclusions
EBL is the right approach to ground teaching
practice on research-derived evidence
Co-operation among teaching librarians is a
powerful tool for
improvement of teaching practice,
organisational development,
and professional growth
THANKS!!
Monica Vezzosi
Maria Letizia Sora
Fabrizia Bevilacqua