Abstract
The three-year inquiry focuses on assessing the size of a university library’s support for engaged-learning courses and for student populations. In doing this, it models an effective way to obtain data from campus information systems. The inquiry’s research questions are, how can libraries identify courses where the library supports engaged-learning courses, and how can libraries target their efforts for maximum impact on student learning in overlooked components of the campus’ learning culture. Focused questions serving as data-gathering goals to answer the research questions are, how many students enrolled in these courses, and how many students in each class year passed a course each semester with a library assignment. Analysis of data collected can result in additional studies providing comprehensive assessments of the library’s effect on student-learning outcomes. Among other things, the inquiry found 22% of students enrolled during the study took part in engaged learning involving a library assignment.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
In an article published in May 2013, the author proposed a plan for assessing a library’s contribution to these neglected elements of the campus learning culture. See “Can the Library Contribute Value to the Campus Culture for Learning?” Journal of Academic Librarianship 39(3) (May 2013): 288–296. The present article reports on implementation of a portion of the plan at Texas Tech University Library. Implementation of these and additional elements of the plan are reported in “The Academic Library and the Culture for Learning,” Portal: Libraries and the Academy 16(2) (April 2016): 349–372.
- 2.
Engaged learning occurs when students participate in determining the direction their learning takes. They “may be involved in the decision-making that determines the class’s activities and experiences. They perform research, discuss issues, create their own projects, and use technology to make discoveries based on their choices. The professor serves as a coach or facilitator who guides the students to the course’s goals. Service learning, community-based learning, learning communities, undergraduate research, internships, writing-intensive courses, and collaborative assignments and projects are different teaching and learning programs or methods that incorporate engaged learning experiences in one way or another” [1, p. 351].
- 3.
Data for the fall semester of 2013 was not available during the implementation of this study.
- 4.
The terms associated with “library assignment” include “research assignment,” “library project,” “research project,” “writing assignment,” “paper assignment,” and “term paper assignment.”
References
Hufford, J.R.: The academic library and the culture for learning. portal: Libr. Acad. 16(2), 349–372 (2016)
Bowlby, R.: Living the future: organizational performance assessment. J. Libr. Adm. 52(6/7), 626–652 (2012)
Franklin, B.: Surviving to thriving: advancing the institutional mission. J. Libr. Adm. 52(1), 94–107 (2012)
Zald, A.E., Millet, M.: Hitching your wagon to institutional goals. In: Wilkinson, C.W., Bruch, C. (eds.) Transforming Information Literacy Programs: Intersecting Frontiers of Self, Library Culture, and Campus Community, pp. 119–130. Association of College and Research Libraries, Chicago (2012)
Oakleaf, M.: The Value of Academic Libraries: A Comprehensive Research Review and Report. Association of College and Research Libraries, Chicago (2010)
Harward, D.W., Finley, A.P. (eds.): Transforming Undergraduate Education: Theory that Compels and Practices that Succeed. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham (2012)
Harward, D.W.: The theoretical arguments and themes. In: Harward, D.W., Finley, A.P. (eds.) Transforming Undergraduate Education: Theory that Compels and Practices that Succeed, pp. 3–33. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham (2012)
Swaner, L.E.: The Theories, Contexts, and Multiple Pedagogies of Engaged Learning: What Succeeds and Why? In: Harward, D.W., Finley, A.P. (eds.) Transforming Undergraduate Education: Theory that Compels and Practices that Succeed, pp. 73–89. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham (2012)
Bergen-Cico, D., Bylander, J.A.: Reuniting the often neglected aims of liberal education: student well-being and psychosocial development. In: Harward, D.W., Finley, A.P. (eds.) Transforming Undergraduate Education: Theory that Compels and Practices that Succeed, pp. 91–108. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham (2012)
Schneider, C.G., Humphreys, D.: Liberal education and the policy landscape. In: Harward, D.W., Finley, A.P. (eds.) Transforming Undergraduate Education: Theory that Compels and Practices that Succeed, pp. 281–299. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham (2012)
Debowski, S.: Leading higher education teaching, learning, and innovation. In: Roccio, J.E., Al-Dairy, M.A., Buskins, W. (eds.) Handbook of College and University Teaching: A Global Perspective, pp. 251–266. Sage, Thousand Oaks (2012)
Collins, J., Friday-Stroud, S., Ashley, C.: A systems approach to creating and sustaining an assessment culture. Int. J. Educ. Res. 5(2), 152–167 (2010)
Blumberg, P.: Beginning journey toward a culture of learning-centered teaching. J. Stud. Cent. Learn. 2(1), 69–83 (2004)
Hendricks, S.H., Kari, N.N., Richter-Norgel, E.: The Catherine connection: building a learning culture. About Campus, pp. 25–28, May/June 2000
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics: Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS: 2002): Base-Year to Second Follow-Up Data File Documentation. In: NCES 2008-347. Department of Education, Washington DC (2007)
Texas Legislature: Public Access to Course Information. Texas House Bill 2504, 81st Texas Legislature, 8 May 2009
DigitalMeasures. http://www.digitalmeasures.com
Texas Tech University: Making It Possible: Strategic Plan 2010–2020. Texas Tech University, Lubbock (2010)
Texas Tech University: Online Fact Book. http://www.irim.ttu.edu/Factbook/
The Resilience Center: The Resilience Scale. http://www.resiliencescale.com/index.html
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Hufford, J.R. (2018). Assessing a Library’s Support for Overlooked Components of a University’s Learning Culture. In: Kurbanoğlu, S., Boustany, J., Špiranec, S., Grassian, E., Mizrachi, D., Roy, L. (eds) Information Literacy in the Workplace. ECIL 2017. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 810. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74334-9_78
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74334-9_78
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74333-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74334-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)